Sweeping vistas from twin peaks over saltwater channels, reef walls, and the most photogenic anchorages in the northern Komodo park area.
Gili Lawa — sometimes written Gili Lawa Darat — is a small, uninhabited island near the northern tip of Komodo National Park, and one of the great open secrets of the region. Twin grassy peaks rise straight from the shoreline, and the ridgeline that links them delivers a clean 360-degree panorama: braided saltwater channels, sheer reef walls dropping into deep blue, a scatter of neighbouring islands, and the liveaboard fleet sitting like scale models in the turquoise bay below. A good number of seasoned travelers quietly rate the Gili Lawa climb above Padar — the view is arguably wider, and the crowds a fraction of the size.
The hike takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes from the beach to the first peak, with another 15 to 20 minutes of ridge-walking to reach the higher summit. The terrain is open, golden grassland threaded with a well-trodden track — moderately steep in places but never technical, and manageable for anyone with reasonable fitness and a head-torch for the pre-dawn start. Sunrise, around 5:45 AM, is the magic window: the savanna glows amber, mist sits in the channels, and the light is impossibly soft. Sunset climbs, timed correctly with the captain, are every bit as dramatic.
The reward is not only the climb. The sheltered, deep bay beneath Gili Lawa is one of the finest overnight anchorages anywhere in the park — calm enough for a flat night’s sleep, remote enough that the sky overhead fills edge to edge with stars. Wake on deck here and the first thing you see is the ridge you are about to climb, catching the first light.
Most boats race each other to Padar at dawn. Gili Lawa is where the travelers in the know go instead. The ridgeline is wider, the panorama arguably grander, and on a good morning you may have the whole golden summit to yourselves — just the wind, the savanna turning amber, and the channels far below catching the first light.
The magic is in the start: a head-torch climb in the cool dark, the grassland slowly emerging around you, and then the moment at the top when the sun breaks and the entire northern park is laid out in soft gold. Climb back down to a sheltered bay that ranks among the best overnight anchorages in Komodo, and the day is only just beginning. It is the kind of morning that stays with travelers long after the trip ends.
The twin-peak panorama, the sunrise climb and the sheltered bay below — a glimpse of Gili Lawa.
Usually included on 4D3N+ itineraries. Easy to add to private trips as an alternative to a second Padar climb.
