A long time ago, a man named La Gundi visited a spring that nowadays is called Topa Mata. Local legend has it that when he arrived, he threw a rock at the fruit lov-ing inhabitants of the area: the flying foxes. Instead of hitting the animals the rock bounced straight back into the attacker’s eye. Ever since the incident, the spring has been called Topa Mata (Eye Spring).
Flying Fox – Photo by Putri Kirana
With a wing-span of 1.5m - they are one of the world’s largest bat species.
While bathing in Topa Mata you can see hundreds of flying foxes hanging in the surrounding trees during the day. According to the villagers these animals have been in Topa Mata for many decades. Only when there was an outbreak of disease among the people of Wali these flying foxes miraculously disappeared, but returned soon after the last person was healthy again. Topa Mata is located around 100 meters from Wali´s cemetery, close to Jalan Poros Wali Jaya Makmur.
