Our visit to a beautiful forest garden in Tarutung, a possible eco tourism resort in the area

By Nelly Andon Br Torus
For Project “HEART”

I met Sofian Simanjuntak on Facebook a few years back, an ex-government worker and an environmental activist who runs a small garden nursery in Tarutung. Sofian has inspired us to share some of our passions in gardening with the local farmers in Tarutung Region.  Through several email exchange on Facebook, we managed to come up with a few plan to work together, synchronising part of project objectives with his charity work in Tarutung.

Sofian is managing an organic fertilizer system in his nursery and is working together with several farmers to test out the potent result of this fertiliser.  One of his partners is Mr Purba, who manages a large farm in Adian Koting village, located along the side of Trans Sumatra highway, not too far away from Tarutung.  We were invited here one afternoon, to see the effect of the organic fertiliser on some of the fruit and vegetable trees which have been fertilized over the past few months.

I was amazed to see such beautiful gem is hidden away from public few, and not many people know about this place. The garden is so green and beautiful, is really a perfect ground for eco-tourism, for camping activities, etc.  People living in this part of the world are longing to see more visitors to the area, but facilities for varieties of tourism is very limited and part of it also due to lack of exposure and marketing.

Tidahan farm is located not far from the main road, so it is a great place for campers. Mr Purba only needs to create a few little bamboo huts here, and off we go. I fell in love with the place so much, but I don’t think Mr Purba is open to tourist visit in a hurry.  We do hope to hear some positive news about Tidahan soon.

Our sincere gratitude to Mr Purba who has allowed us to have a day visit here. We are also very grateful to Mr & Mrs Sofian Simanjuntak for their time and guidance on the day.  I am also very grateful to Rosmelina Sinaga and Uliel Siregar for their time on this journey. Thank you all.

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