Congot Beach, the Nuance of Fishermen Beach
Congot Beach is the right tourism beach to visit after going to Glagah Beach. Besides, the beach is so close to Glagah Beach and the road is just smooth even for biking. Located in Jangkaran village, Temon Sub-Regency, Kulon Progo Regency, Congot Beach becomes the center of the activities of local people who depend their life on fishing.
The beauty of the scenery can even be enjoyed while you are on the way to the beach. Along the way connecting Wates town and Congot Beach, you can see the green rice field and the activities of local people in Kulon Progo many of them are peasants. Just like the other plain coastal land in other areas, the road is decorated with coconut trees on both sides.
Congot Beach has its own enchantment compared to other beaches because of the strong fishermen and fishery nuances. Along the coastal line, you can see the activities of local people and domestic tourists who are going fishing. On other side, there are also fishermen who are fishing at the seaside, crushing the small crab shells attaching on the net, or cleaning the boat.
You will see the busy activities of the fishermen when you come at the right time. In the morning, fishermen usually go to the sea with their motorboats. In the afternoon, when YogYES came to visit, the fishermen usually bring the fish to be sold at the local fish-trading center.
Walking to the fish-trading center, you can see the wives of the fishermen cleaning the fish and sell to buyers. While fish trading takes place in the trading center, the fishermen are busy cleaning their boats and crush the small crab attaching to the net that will cause the net to tear. The activities are done from the afternoon until about the evening.
If you like fishing, you can express your hobby in this beach. Bringing your fishing equipments you can try your luck to get fish. If you do not have fishing equipments, you can use your small net and walk along the beach to get fish. Visiting with friends or fishing together will surely become an enjoyable activity.
There are some local people run small restaurant business offering seafood as the main menu. Enjoying the dishes while looking at the activities of the fishermen will surely give different nuance compared to enjoying the same menu at a restaurant in town. The delicious smell of fried, grilled fish will get trough your nose, and it evokes good appetite to quickly try it.
After you see the fishermen activities and enjoy the seafood, you can walk westwards to see the scenery of the estuary of Bogowonto River. You can stand on jetty (like dike) on the side of the river or on the stones at the bank of the estuary. The meeting point between the tasteless river water and the salty ocean water makes the area at the side of Congot Beach rich of various fish. At the river estuary, there are various kinds of fish at much quantity.
In order to visit Congot Beach, you do not have to pay extra cost. The entrance fee is included in the entrance ticket to Glagah Beach. The location of Congot Beach that is so close to Glagah Beach serves the reason to visit it. The strong fishermen and fishery nuances make this beach maintain its uniqueness and it cannot be just compared to Glagah Beach.
Congot Beach
Sundak Beach
Sundak Beach, Dog and Sea Urchin Fight which Result a Blessing
Sundak Beach does not only have enchanting natural view but it also keeps story. The name Sundak turns to experience evolution of which evidences can be traced geologically.
In order to know its evolution, visitors must know first the condition the sea sides of Sundak Beach in the past and at present time. At the west side of the beach there is a mosque and a vacant space that is now utilized as a parking area. On the east side, there is a cave made of coral reef as high as around 12 meters. Entering the cave, there is a spring from which local people get fresh water.
Before 1930 the above area was still under sea water. The story tells that sea water reached the area where the mosque stands now and the cave was submerged in sea water. In line with geological process in the south sea, the sea water level decreased and sea water stood out more to the sea. The coral reef and the area around the mosque became new land that later coastal people used it for economy activities until today.
There was unique, natural phenomenon of the activity that finally served as starting point of naming this beach. When rainy season came, there was much water from the land flowing to the sea. Consequently, the land on east side of the beach split to make a river-look form. The flowing water looked like splitting the sand. When dry season came, the crevice disappeared since the sea water came ashore and drag away the sand. The name Wedibelah (the split sand) originated from this natural phenomenon. When YogYES visited the place, the crevice did not exist.
Tens of years later the name changed. In 1976, there was an interesting occurrence. In an afternoon, there was a dog running about the seaside and entered the cave where it met a sea urchin. Being starving, the dog tried to prey on the sea urchin but the sea urchin avoided. Then, the fight happened and finally the dog succeeded in eating half of the sea urchin body and the dog got out of the cave proudly. The owner of the dog, Arjasangku, saw half of the sea urchin body was still in the dog's mouth. Since then, the name Wedibedah was changed into Sundak as an abbreviation of asu (Javanese language for dog) and landak (Javanese language for sea urchin).
The quarrel turned to bring fortune for local people. After being short of water for years, local people finally found a spring. Initially, the owner of the dog was astonished that his dog was soaking wet after getting out of the cave. The hypothesis was that there was a spring inside the cave and the dog might fall in it while hunting the sea urchin. After some investigations, the prediction turned out to be true. Now, the spring functions as source of fresh water for local inhabitants. Pipes are now installed from the cave to distribute water to the community. The finding of the spring consoled the community who were disappointed because the wells that they dug were inundated by sea water.
Just imagine the condition of the area hundreds of years ago when we know its condition in 1930s. There had to be many organisms that utilized the lower part of the coral reef that now functions as a cave. For the reason, many archeologists believe that as the consequence of the occurring geological process, there were many sea organisms were left and piled up as fossils. Not many researches reveal what fossils exist in the area.
In addition to offering its silent historical witnesses, Sundak also offers enjoyable night atmosphere. You can enjoy the breeze of the night wind while ordering fresh fish to be grilled together with your friends. You only have to pay some thousands Rupiah for the firewood. If you are reluctant to do so, just order ready-to-eat grilled fish. To spend the night, you can just sleep anywhere; you can put up your tent or just lying on the bench of food sellers that are not used at night. Darkness can sometimes be more enjoyable than brightness. Don't worry about it.
If you want it, interact with local people can be valuable enlightenment. You can understand how people live their lives, their culture, and they might change your life point of view. To see Grandpa Tugiman who usually keeps the parking area or Grandpa Arjasangku can be another option. They are examples of the leaders of Sundak Beach. To have a talk with them does not only make you merely see the history witnesses but it enables you get direct story from the witnesses of how the story was carved. Please come, they all are waiting for you! (YogYES.COM)
Depok Beach
Depok Beach, Enjoy Seafood Cuisine from Fresh Fish
Among other beaches in Yogyakarta, Depok Beach is apparently the only beach that is designed to become the center of culinary tourism to enjoy various seafood menus. Some of the warongs were intentionally designed to face the ocean so that visitors can enjoy the waves rushing to the shore while having delicious meals.
The warongs and the activities of the fishermen have been improving since 10 years ago. The story tells that around 1997 some fishermen from Cilacap area found Depok Beach to be a good place to put their catches ashore. The fishermen with good catches of fish inspired the local people who made their living as farmers to catch fish.
Some people of the coastal community began to become tekong, local term for fishermen. The tekongs go to sea with their motorboats. Catching fish is done almost throughout the year, except certain days that are considered sacred, namely Tuesday and Friday of Kliwon (one of the five Javanese days of the week). The tekongs make good catches except June to September when fish are rare.
With such big quantity of catches, local people opened a center for fish landing that later was completed with a center for fish trading called Mina Bahari 45. Fishermen from other areas can even sell their catches there. When YogYES paid a visit, this fish trading center was occupied by many visitors.
With the increasing number of visitors to the beach that is located 1.5 kilometers from Parangtritis Beach, seafood warongs were opened accordingly. Generally, the warongs offer traditional nuance. The buildings are simple with traditional shape of roofs called limasan, while the seating is arranged for cross-legged on mats with small tables for eating. Simple, they are clean and comfortable.
Various seafood cuisines are worth trying. The most popular fish dish at reasonable price is tuna, at IDR 8,000 per/kg, consisting of 5-6 fish. Other kinds of fish are white kakap and red kakap that sell around IDR 17,000 - IDR 25,000 per kilogram. Quite expensive fish is bawal that sells at IDR 27,000 - IDR 60,000 per kilogram. In addition to fish, there are also crabs, lobsters and squids.
Seafood is usually served grilled or fried. You can choose fresh fish, other catches yourself, and then you go to one of the warongs to have them cooked. YogYES tried to have half a kilogram of tuna fish cooked and had them with a glass of tea that totally cost IDR 22,000 only.
After having good meals, you may leave Depok Beach for Parangkusumo and Parangtritis Beaches by turning right when you get to the asphalted road. On the way, you will see the amazing sand dunes as the only such a view in South-East Asia and it is rarely found in tropical areas. The wide sandy area looks like desert.
It takes thousands of years for the formation of the sand dunes through unique process. Some forms of them are barchan dune, comb dune, parabolic dune and longitudinal dune. Now, only barchan and longitudinal ones are present. The wind of the sea and the steep mountain slope in the east caused the sands, resulted from the activity of Merapi Mountain, at the bank of the river to blow away to the shore to form the sand dunes.
In order to get the place where you can enjoy having seafood while admiring the sand dunes, you can take the same road leading you from Yogyakarta to Parangtritis. Just before arriving the ticket box to Parangtritis Beach, you turn right through small-asphalted road. The entrance ticket to Depok Beach is IDR 4,000 for two people and one motorcycle. If you go by a car, you pay IDR 5,000 for the car plus additional fare per person.
see on map.
