Seven staff members from our partner organisation HAkA were taking part in a cultural festival in the small village of Linge, in the heart of Aceh province. The Lenggeri-Linge Festival honours the indigenous population and their cultural heritage, but it also addresses nature conservation and environmental responsibility. The HAkA staff wanted to use the opportunity to talk to festival guests about environmental issues. It started raining as soon as they arrived. And the rain didn’t stop for days. During that time, the streets flooded, and power cuts followed. This meant that the festival programme had to be cut short. Then the news came thick and fast: the bridge at Linge had been destroyed by the strong current and fallen tree trunks. Our friends, four journalists and 30 other festivalgoers, were cut off from the rest of the world. A long, dangerous journey back to the village of Takengon began.

The connection between Linge and Takengon was cut off when the bridge over the river was washed away. It was only after two days that the situation had calmed down enough for the river to be crossed using rafts.

Their supplies were running out, but the group only dared to cross the raging river in rafts two days later. These were steered by experienced rafting guides who happened to be present. They had to leave their car behind. The trek continued on foot, wading through thick mud in landslide areas, and climbing over fallen trees. If you took the wrong step, you could get stuck in the mud up to your armpits. By the end of the seemingly endless first day, everyone was physically and mentally exhausted. They also had to think of their families: were they safe?

On the second day they managed to reach a village. Although the local population had been badly affected by the rains, families took in the hungry group and provided them with fresh water and noodle soup. On the third day of the difficult journey, they came to an area where the roads were still intact, and they were able to travel part of the way by truck. Towards evening, they finally reached the village of Takengon, where they were overjoyed to meet their teammates. The latter had been very worried because they had heard nothing from them during this time. It was only then that they realised the full extent of the disaster, and they were infinitely grateful to be safe.

The original report was written by Hutari Nadhira and Rizkia Fardilla, team members of our partner organisation HAkA in Indonesia.