The notched rock formations and the fierce seas meet eachother on the black beach of Parangtritis, 28 kilometers south of Yogyakarta. It's slamming waves, salty sea winds, humid nights and continuously changing black sand dunes make Parangtritis into a place of myths, mystics and meditation. Everywhere, beaches, lakes, paths, caves and burial sites tell their own stories. Watching over the fierce waves, the steep hills in the back, it looks like if the beach whispers stories to you about royal meetings, meditating hermits and lost lives.
On the beach, improvised sunshades give some protection against the burning hot sun. Strong sucking and pushing currents make swimming a life-treathening event on this beach. This is the domain of
Ratu Kidul, the Queen of the Southern Sea, which doesn't hesitate to make new victims for serving her underwater court.
Ratu Kidul is attracted by green-yellow colors (
gadung melati). On the beach Jawanese will never wear these clothes, it is strongly suggested that you don't do that either when you visit these beaches.
The beach itself isn't much to be proud of for the locals here. The beach has beautiful black sand, but it's not cleaned at all. Paper, plastic and other junk lies scattered over the lower sand dunes. The waves regularly bring in new wood and bamboo, washing ashore from another nearby beach probably. Some wood is picked and taken away by locals to be used for their own house, but the remaining debris is never cleaned. People here just wait for another layer of sand to close it off again, or until a next freak wind takes it to a next beach again. This doesn't make it a nice beach to walk around barefoot. However you will probably not find broken glass there, is you want to walk around barefoot, it is suggested to bring a first aid kit as well.
The story goes that Panembahan Senopati stayed with
Ratu Kidul in the underwater palace, and she tought him about politics and the art of love. The unresistable goddess became his wife, just as she became with descendants of Senopati. She is still seen as the thriving force behind the royal families of Yogyakarta and Solo.
In Parangkusomo, one kilometer southwest of Parangtritis, is the place where Senopati rose from the sea again, it's surrounded by a stone wall. The sultan of Yogyakarta brings his ritual sacrifices to
Ratu Kidul at this place. Many Jawanese visit this place for help, good advice and to pray for mercy. The best moment for a visit is a Thursday evening, especially the one before Friday Kliwon; but you can go there always.
Black sand dunes
In many travel guides you will find a short description of the 'Black Sand Dunes' of Parangtritis. If you buy a map of Java, you will probabl find a star marking the spot as being a nice tourist attraction or a viewpoint. Both is much to high of a proper rating for this containerload of sand. These naturally formed dunes are not too large and are directly along the main road from Yogyakarta to Parangtritis. You can visit them if you want, but several 'companies' (groups of people) have claimed these sands to be theirs to be excavated for some money. The dunes thus get smaller every day.
After the 27 May 2006 earthquake
The friendly beach of Parangtritis has changed a bit over the last months. Visitors are asked to pay high fees for parking alone, up to 10 times as much as the fees paid in Yogyakarta and more than three times the price that is normal for a tourist attraction. The place looks deserted during week days and in the weekends much less visitors (local and foreign) visit the place than before the earthquake struck. Parangtritis itself hasn't been too hard hit, but many of the people here have family and relatives in the destructed area's. With asking much more money, they are hoping to build a new life again. They forget that many people don't like to be cheated, do instead they earn less because tourists don't return here, but prefer to pick a more quiet beach along the southern edge of the island of Java.
