On the 27th of August 1883, an Indonesian island was vaporised in an explosion that reverberated around the world. Krakatoa, located in the Sundra Straits between Java and Sumatra, decided to sign off with a blast that flattened the 23 square km island and then some; in fact it took off another 250 metres of land below sea level. The bang, equivalent to 21,000 decent atom bombs, could be heard 4500 km away, and sent so much ejecta into the atmosphere that the entire planet enjoyed spectacular sunrises and sunsets for several years afterwards – the trade off for copping a global drop in temperatures of a couple of degrees.

Not unexpectedly, the explosion also generated ferocious tsunami waves, some of which measured over 100 feet high. They slammed into west Java and Sumatra, including one straight shot, thousands of kms up through the Indian Ocean into south facing Lagundri Bay, on the island of Nias. In those days Lagundri Bay was the main port of south Nias, and the massive tsunami killed thousands of people in the bustling harbour and surrounding villages. The port was never rebuilt at Lagundri, eventually being re-established a few kilometres to the north-east in Teluk Dalam, leaving Lagundri a quiet backwater.

That wasn’t the first tsunami to hit Nias, and wouldn’t be the last. The island sits in prime tsunami territory, 125 km off the West Sumatran coast in the vicinity of the Sumatran Subduction Zone, the 5500 km long boundary between the Indian-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This boundary runs along virtually the whole of the west coast of Sumatra, the plates meeting at a fault about 5 kms under the ocean in the Sumatra Trench, a couple of hundred kms off the coast. Here the Indian-Australian plate is forcing its way under the Eurasian plate. It is one of the most seismically active places on earth, and it has plenty up its sleeve.

THE NIAS EYE IS A MIND-BLOWING VIEW, LET ALONE AFTER A SPECIAL MUSHROOM TEA. BELOW LEFT: A MYSTERY RIGHT LOOKING THE GOODS. BELOW RIGHT: THE BEMO RIDE TO FREEDOM AFTER THE TORTUROUS JOURNEY TO LAGUNDRI.