“I saw the leopard this morning!” 

We were sitting at the collective breakfast table, enjoying the camaraderie, when the breathless exclamation from Lena took us by surprise.   

This was the second leopard sighting in Alas Purwo National Park in as many days - welcome relief from the tedium of waiting for the swell to arrive.  

Alas Purwo, translated as “First Forest”, is steeped in legend; the jungle’s history weighs heavily here. Legend has it that this is where the earth originally rose from the ocean. Hundred-year-old banyan trees believed to be inhabited by spirits are wrapped in ceremonial cloth for protection, and deep in the forest lies an ancient Hindu-Buddhist temple - a spiritual sanctuary under the trees.  

G- Land's reef sits off Plengkung Beach on the south-east tip of Alas Purwo. In winter, storms from the “Roaring Forties” send long-period swells across the Indian Ocean directly towards Indonesia.    

Groomed to fast-moving, powerful perfection by offshore trade winds, they’re primed to roar down the dangerously shallow, 800-meter coral reef. 

It remains one of the world’s best surfing zones since its discovery in the 1970s.  

Today, surfers still make the pilgrimage for perfect waves, wild nature, and camaraderie amongst kindred spirits. 

Gazing up from breakfast, all thoughts of the jungle cat are forgotten; however, for the first lines of the new swell bend across the expansive reef, fanned by the offshore trade winds. 17 June 2025, 2.3m at 18 seconds.