Mt. Merapi

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This last week has been the best yet. We moved up the hill to where our friend has a small dairy farm. From my bedroom window there I watch the tips of bamboo, coconut palms, and other green trees sway in the wind, and I feel like all my dreams have already come true. We went on three hikes, the first up the side of Mt. Merapi and down one of it's hardened lava flows. The second was in a forest park, a two-hour plus assent up one of the steep hills where at the top we picnicked on watermelon and admired the two faces of Merapi, one green and the other grey. And the third hike, and so far the best, was totally unplanned in a forest starting at what we can only guess was once a popular camping and hiking site. We just started walking along a path through more green than I have ever seen in my life. It was raining and warm, and everything was dripping. I felt like I was in a National Geographic article. After about an hour we came to a dried up river bed with steep skyscraper like dirt walls on either side. We walked up the bed over a landslide until we came to a concrete dam holding back rocks the size of John. We climbed over the dam and came to a 150-foot wall of huge slicked out boulders. Just then it started to pour, raindrops the size of my thumb, puddles gathered quickly and we decided it was time to get out. We climbed straight up one of the grass and tree banks about 200 feet on our hands and feet to the ridge on top where there was a path, we followed the path, looking down periodically to what was now becoming a fast moving muddy river. We choose another path moving off to the left, hoping for a loop and after about an hour, totally soaked even through our ponchos, and pretty sure that we were lost, we ended up back at the camp site in time to get our wet and hungry selves off to our favorite restaurant for a five star meal.

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Photos

Bolted Climbing Route Found!
Next to the lava flow, bolts were cover in mud, but we were still pretty excited to find them

Comments

[Racquel]

Wow!
Silvia the pictures and stories are so awesome! Thanks for sharing...