104 Travel | Sumba
Horsemen comb the beautiful beach near the paradisiacal luxury resort of Nihi Sumba .
© Mark Eveleigh
Forest blankets the hills , steaming gently in the deepest folds and threadbare at the edges where the palms form a fringe along a curve of white sand . It would be hard to imagine a more peaceful scene .
It ’ s just after dawn on the south coast of Sumba , and a few horsemen emerge from the forest onto a beach that , not so long ago , was a battlefield . Here , in Indonesia ’ s deep south , these Sumba cowboys are a reminder of a time when this was a land of horseback warriors and fearsome hunters .
I ’ m watching the horsemen from the veranda of my suite at the legendary Nihi Sumba Island ( Previously Nihiwatu Resort ). There are just a handful of tourist-level hotels on all of Sumba , but Nihi Sumba ranks as one of the world ’ s most exclusive resorts . In the midst of my barefoot luxury , I find it easy to imagine that the warlike days of the Sumba cowboys are distant history .
But the land around Nihi Sumba was once the no-man ’ s-land frontier between the tribal territories of the warlike Rua people and their equally fearless Lamboya neighbours .
“ Peace is a relatively new concept in Sumba ,” Dato Daku had told me the previous morning as we chatted under the towering thatch roof of Nihi Sumba ’ s main building .
Dato Daku has been working at this resort for decades , almost since surfer-explorers Claude and Petra Graves fell in love with the beautiful bay . When they created Nihi Sumba , it was initially a relatively humble surfers ’ hangout , the main drawcard of which became the legendary wave known as Occy ’ s Left ( named after Australian surf legend Mark Occhilupo ).
Now , almost 30 years later , Nihi Sumba ranks among the world ’ s five best eco-lodges and , providing an income for almost 500 people , is largely responsible for bringing peace to the region . Nihi Sumba ’ s mixed staff of Rua and Lamboya people provided the first opportunity for amity ( and , in some cases , even lasting romances ) between communities .
I was awake early for an appointment with a trekking guide . The young man , with the unlikely name of Tiger , was taking me to visit nearby Waihola village . As we set out across the great expanse of paddy fields – which are still ploughed by simply stampeding a herd of buffalo in circles – Tiger told me about his island .