Bulupoloe Island

Bulupoloe Island is located in Luwu Timur, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is 500km away from Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi.

Not many people know that Luwu Timur, South Sulawesi has magnificent natural beauty. People may be only familiar with Makasar and Tana Toraja as tourist attraction in Sulawesi rather that Luwu Timur since it’s located 500km away from Makasar. Luwu Timur is known as mining area but it doesn’t make the local government to neglect its potential tourism.

Luwu Timur is blessed by the magnificent natural beauty such as the mountain, river, lake, beach and islands. Luwu Timur is a result of expansion of Luwu Utara and it becomes tourist attraction especially for foreigner. The geographical condition of Luwu Timur is consist of mountain and protected forest which has been a blessed for the local government to develope its tourism. One of the iconic places of Luwu Timur is Bulupoloe Island.

There is several myth among the local people regarding the history of Bulupoloe Island. Reputedly the name of Bulupoloe means “Sawerigading Broken Ship’s Mast”. Sawerigading was a prince or a son of King Luwu named Batara Lattu from the Luwu Purba kingdom (Samsuni, www.ceritarakyatnusantara.com). Once of a time the ship that carried Sariwegading prince was stranded in Teluk Bone and broken into two pieces. Due to the accident, the ship’s mast was broken and became an island which known as Bulupole Island.

There’s also another myth related to the history of Bulupoloe Island which told that the island was a fracture of mountain which was struck down by trees of Welenreng. The woods from Welenreng was eventually used to build the ships that used by Sawerigading. So that there are some people defined Bulupoloe as “Broken Mountain”. The name of Sawerigading was famous globally since he was the main character in La Galigo which was the longest tale in the world. La Galigo was translated to English version and performed in many countries.

The main attractions of Bulupoloe island are the mountain and nautical beauty. The white sand surround the island is an additional value which will make you feel so lucky to be able to enjoy the natural beauty of beaches in Bulupoloe Island. In addition there are also sources of freshwater which add exoticism of this island.

The natural and uncontaminated beaches add beauty and exoticism of Bulupoloe island. Furthermore for you the underwater freak, you can enjoy the coral reef and colorful fish and many species under the Sea of Bulupoloe Island. This island has become the favorite place for the divers and for fisherman. As a tourist attaraction, Bulupoloe island offers complete package for tourism.

If you want to visit Bulupoloe Island, you have to go first to Luwu Timur, South Sulawesi. The trip to Malili (the capital of Luwu Timur) will takes around 8-10 hours from Makasar. Furthermore you can also go by plane for 1-1.5 hours from Sultan Hasanudin Airport in Makasar to Malili. Then you can take a bot from Balantang harbor in Malili for about 2 hours.

The other option is that you can take a boat from Batu Menggoro (Sorowako) in Luwu Timur for about 30min to 1 hour hour.