West Timor, which is part of Indonesia’s sprawling eastern archipelago, sees very little tourism and has only limited infrastructure. Indeed our walking programme is a world first, following on from our acclaimed textile focussed trips.

Christianity fused with animism is the main religion of this region whose people, the Atoin Meto – people of the dry land – still hold firmly to their traditional culture and customs despite the various influences from the Dutch and Portuguese of the colonial period and, more recently, from other parts of Indonesia.

Interestingly, today the various clan communities retain their distinctive cultural attributes which makes travelling through this region so rewarding. These attributes range from language through to animistic practices, textiles and crafts, agriculture and meals. Over short distances we have diverse ethnographic encounters as well as landscapes from coastal scenery to higher altitude plains.

From Bali we fly to the capital of the region, Kupang, and head straight out of town to the old Dutch hill station of So’e. For the next three days we explore, largely on foot, stunning landscapes and villages in the mountains where lifestyles and traditions are wonderfully intact. Then we move further north and east to explore over the next three days markets, farmlands as well as see various cultural interests such as the famous textiles produced in this area.

Travelling north to Kafemenanu our two days of walking take us to the ritual centre of the Biboki kingdom before returning to Kafe’, returning to Kupang for the night (and a great BBQ fish meal) before flying back to Denpasar where our programme concludes.