Ring of Fire

The tapestry of the Indonesian archipelago, overlying the pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, is interlaced with the voices of ancient cultures and early exploration. Echoes of those early expeditions are woven into the heartsong of this timeless wilderness, with the Wallace Line, named after the 19th century ‘father of biogeography’, naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, coursing through the Lombok strait, bisecting Bali and Lombok.

Still the most famous and well-known biogeographical boundary in the world, this natural phenomenon, separating two distinct faunal universes, directs discovery for those seeking adventure today. From lush rainforests alive with exotic birdcall, monkeys and marsupials, to the formidable Komodo dragons, and their primeval habitat, towering volcanoes and deepsea trenches, the landscape speaks to the violent, tectonic forces that shaped and forged one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world.

Spanning from Bali and Lombok in the west, to Roti in the east, the string of volcanic islands is known locally as West Nusa Tenggara. Linking the chain of islands are the Ring of Fire giants – volcanoes like Tambora, whose looming peaks dominate, and signpost the subterranean fault-line that threw these monsters high into the sky. The islands are home to ancient culture and custom, and some of the oldest hominids to have ever been discovered, the ‘hobbits of Flores’.