A Quiet Beach Called Batu Dagong (Baiq Mega Yustika)

A QUIET BEACH CALLED BATU DAGONG

            Lombok is an Island right between Bali Island and Sumbawa Island. It is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It has many charms such as beautiful white sand beaches, mountains, waterfalls and others. Lombok has four regencies: West Lombok, Central Lombok, North Lombok and East Lombok, and one administrative city: Mataram.

Nowadays  Lombok Island is developing its tourism sector, but still, the southest area of Lombok is not developed well yet. The access and facilities are main issue. These problems make tourists are hesitate to explore the south part of Lombok, including Jerowaru subdistrict.

            Jerowaru itself is a district in the southest area of East Lombok. Jerowaru is known for its beautiful white sand beaches and cliffs. It has similar vibe with Uluwatu in Bali, but with least tourists. With tons of beautiful white sand beaches, Jerowaru truly has potential to be known and visited by tourists, and one of the best beach and has potential to be visited by tourists  in Jerowaru subdistrict is Batu Dagong Beach.

1.                  Accessibility

Batu Dagong beach is located in Kuang Rundun village, Jerowaru district, East Lombok regency. Tourist can go there by car or motorcycle. It’s about 40 minutes from the central of Jerowaru district to the south. It’s way different if people compare it to Pink Beach or Tangsi beach that has good facilities and access to there, because the access to go to Batu Dagong beach is slightly hard.Unfortunately, even in the main road, tourist can find the broken road with holes there and there. On the way to there, tourist pass by panoramas, like beaches, hills, forests, agricultural field which is filled by corn, chili and tobacco, and a little savana full of coarse grass. After on the main road, visitor has to enter a little road to find this beach. This little road is soaked with mud in rainy season, it causes  the transportation is hard to pass through that road. But after the slightly hard access, tourist will find the satisfying panorama, with its tranquility.

2.                  Beach that has many charms

Batu Dagong beach is surrounded by hills and cliffs. Tourist can hike to those hills and enjoying the vibes there. Even, car and motorcycle can reach the top of hills, so tourists are not tired to hike. At the top of hills, tourist can enjoy the panorama, tourist will see beautiful sea and tranquility there. They also can see the sunset here while taking photo.  For the beach, there are two part of Batu Dagong beach. One is located behind the cliff, so tourist have to go down to find this little part of Batu Dagong beach, and another part of Batu Dagong beach is located between two hills beside the cliff that a little part of Batu Dagong beach is located. The beach is white sand beach and the color of the sea is turquoise to blue. Meanwhile, the sea is calm and barely has strong waves so that it is very suitable for swimming and relax.

3.                  What to do?

Once more, this beach has so many potential to be developed. Its beautiful long-white sand beach, hills, vacant field full of coconut trees, calm and beautiful blue sea. Of course, because of this beach has calm sea, tourist can swim and do kayaking there, admiring the vibe that this beach offers to them. Beside of that, tourist can do another watersports here such as banana boat, snorkeling or diving. But for doing watersports, tourist is still not facilitated, so they can do it independently and bringing their equipments.

           

 Now, tourists that go to Batu Dagong beach is still dominated by domestic tourists than foreigners. It’s maybe because of lack of promotion for this beach specifically, and Jerowaru district generally. Domestic tourists that go to there usually come with their friends and family. They go to there for doing barbecue with their family till sunset and sometimes, they pick seasnails, sea urchins, and cockle shells. This activity is the best to get closer to your friend or your family while watching beautiful sunset in this beautiful beach.

4.                  What To Be Developed In The Future?

Lombok Island is developing their tourism sector for greeting worldwide tourists. In 2019, the government is targetting four millions visitor to Lombok Island. Of course, for greeting this amount of visitors, there are bunch of sectors that have to be developed and maintained by all stakeholders. Batu Dagong Beach,  specifically, as a new destinations that has many potential to be known, should have a good accessibility to go to there. From what i said before, the road should be repaired so that tourists will not hesitate to drive their vehicle there. Another things are facilities around the beach. Because of there are people who come there for snorkeling, diving, kayaking and another watersports, there should be facilities or rental store for the tools of those activity, so that tourists can go there with lighter bag. The last, in southest part of Lombok, they barely have accomodation for tourists. So, it will be good if Jerowaru district have an enough accomodation for tourists to stay, so that they can travel in a near way. And the last, local people have to develope their knowledge and skill so that they can greet and serve the guest nicely.