Reed Room
Single volume, woven walls, a bed and a desk. The cheapest way to be here. Shared bathroom block thirty steps away — this is the compromise that keeps the price honest.
Wanukaka estuary · West Sumba · 9°45′S
The water decides the day
Twelve rooms where a river meets a reef. When the tide is out you walk the flats. When it is in you swim. We do not pretend to control this and we do not apologise for it.
Opened2019
Rooms12
Staff from the village31 of 34
Grid powerNone
An estuary is not a beach and we will not sell it as one.
What this is
Brown water for half the year, carrying silt from the hills behind us. Mangrove on three sides. A reef flat that appears at low tide and disappears at high. Mosquitoes at dusk, which is when the birds come, which is the trade.
The swimming is good for about six hours a day. We publish the tide table for the coming week on this page and at breakfast, and we plan around it rather than against it.
What it is not
There is no white sand, no infinity pool, and no swim-up bar. Four guests have left early since we opened. All four had seen photographs of somewhere else and assumed we were it.
Power is solar with a battery bank. Between 1am and 5am the inverter sleeps, which means no air conditioning in the small hours. The rooms are built to move air without it. Most people sleep better; some do not.
Next seven days
Green = flats walkable · Measured at the river mouth
Twelve rooms, four types
Built from what the river brought down
Channel Room
Facing the main channel with its own bathroom and outdoor shower. You hear the water move twice a day. Light sleepers should take a Reed Room instead.
The Stilt House
Out over the water on ironwood posts, reached by a walkway. At spring tide the walkway floods for about forty minutes. We will tell you when.
Reef Cabin
The furthest structure, past the mangrove line, closest to the flat. Best for the tide and worst for the walk to dinner. Torches provided.
Mangrove replanted since 2019
14.2 ha
Planted with the Wanukaka village cooperative. About a fifth of it died in the first two years. That is a normal survival rate and we would rather publish it than round it away.
Published annually · 2025 figures
Where a $310 night actually goes
Most eco retreats publish a philosophy. We publish the split. These are real proportions from our own accounts, audited by a firm in Waingapu, and they are not flattering in every line.
Margin is 9%. In 2023 it was negative. We are not a charity and we are not a fortune.
Stay
Two nights minimum, and we mean it
The road in takes ninety minutes from Tambolaka and the last eleven kilometres are not sealed. A single night is not worth the drive for you or the fuel for us.
Rates include all meals, because there is nowhere else to eat. They do not include the transfer, which is $65 each way for the vehicle, not per person.
We hold a room for 48 hours without payment. Cancel up to 14 days out for nothing; inside that we keep one night.