Climate
Aside from Madura, this is the driest corner of Java and from April to October it is very dry. The best time to visit is the latter half of the dry season June to October when the grazing animals are at their most visible as they congegate the well known waterholes. Outside of the dry season, the weather is very much like the rest of Java. It rains especially heavily in January and Febuary and during those months many areas of the park will be impassable due to flooding.
National park office
Baluran National Park Office, Jl Jenderal A Yani No108, Banyuwangi. Tel: +62 333 24119.
Understand
This park is a forest preservation area that covers about 25,000 hectares of the north coast of East Java. The park offers some great scenery and has organised safari activities. Safari is a much misused term in Asian travel circles but in this case it is appropriate - there is something very African about the savannah grasslands of Baluran. Of the three large national parks in East Java, this is the easiest reached and by far the easiest to travel around.
Flora and fauna
Mammals present include leopard cat, wild pig, Java rusa deer, three species of monkeys and the endangered java banteng buffalo.
Birdlife is diverse despite enormous trapping pressures for the cagebird trade before the national park was formed. Some poaching still occurs.
Landscape
The dominant feature of the park is 1,247 m high Mount Baluran, a dormant volcano. The park is mostly savannah grass and acacia scrub inland and monsoon forest with mangroves on the coast. 15 km from the main entrance there is beautiful white sand beach called Bama Beach with fringing mangroves and a healthy offshore coral reef. Some 40 km of the north coast of Java are within the boundaries of the park and include some areas with excellent, healthy coral reefs close to shore.
History
The value and unique nature of Baluran was first recorded in 1928 by Dutch botanist AH Loedeboer. Official national park status was granted in 1984 since which time the tourism potential of the park has slowly been realised.