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Published: January 11th 2011
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November 2010 Having finished my work contract in Jakarta, end of October, I just couldn't wait to get out and explore Indonesia some more!
My love for mountains (and bagging them) drew me to Central Java, with its abundant choice of volcanoes!
Initially I hoped to climb (and bag) 4 gunungs (ie. mountains) in approx 1 week, but after the first one I already saw that this would be a bit too much on the legs.. So we dropped Gunung no. 2 -
Gunung Sindoro.
Leaving us with
Gunung Sumbing (3370m), Gunung Merbabu (3145m) and Gunung Lawu (3265m) to be completed.
We flew from Jakarta to Semarang (team: Dan, Zubayr and Liz) late Friday afternoon and discussed our first trip, and many other exciting trips, over dinner. Saturday was set aside for organising our first ascent on
Gn Sumbing as well as a quick drive up
Gn Telo Moyo, which was unfortunately a bit less exciting than expected due to high cloud cover and well... an ugly house and telephone mast on top of it... But we can say that we bagged it anyway 😊
Gunung Sumbing (3370m) So 11pm on Saturday night we hit the road.
We started from our Hotel in Kledung and decided to walk up to the basecamp, about 200m higher up, at Garung Village. Having already worked up a sweat, we found our guides half asleep, not too much in a rush to get going... So when we put a bit of pressure to get them moving they decided to give us the other side of the spectrum as they literally raced up the hill for the first 1.5h!! Now the sweat is dripping from our faces as we are climbing a steep and slippery hill.. Yet, we make it to our target, tired nonetheless, to the first summit, perfectly at sunrise! To be able to 'bag' this mountain we look over to the sheer rock face on our right, about 200m higher up. So off we go, rock scrambling our way to the true summit. We get there about 30min later, being rewarded with even more impressive views over the surrounding mountains. Closest being Gn Sindoro, in the distance, the smoking cone of Gn Merapi and its neighbour Gn Merbabu (and many others which I can't remember the name off..).
Full of adrenaline and replenished energy we start our descent.
Gn Sumbing
From first summit Dan was in a rush to get back on a plane to Jakarta, so we speed our way down the hill. A LOOOOONG downhill! So about 4 hours later, a blister and 1 toenail less, I make it back to the hotel after an epic 12h hike!
1 gunung down, 3 to go... Oh, well, maybe just 2 to go OK??
The rest of Sunday is spent in bed, with tea and cookies!
On Monday we get our stiff legs on the local bus (standing most of the way, ouch ouch) to Salatiga. Well, maybe more like 3 buses and 2 ankots. But we were received warmly by American friends of Zubs, living at the Mountain View International Christian School in Salatiga. They were so kind to drive us that same night at about 10pm, on their motorbikes, to Kopeng, a 30min drive, which is the basecamp for
Gunung Merbabu (3145m).
We start our 2nd night climb 30min ahead of schedule as our guide, Pak Thipuk, was very well prepared and ready to go. Unfortunately this wasn't the best idea in hindsight as we reached Summit 4 (Summit 7 is the true summit) about 2h ahead of
Gn Sumbing
Towards smoking Gn Merapi in the distance, together with Gn Merbabu schedule... So we had to sit and wait and FREEZE till the sun came up, so we could continue our scramble to Summit 7. The waiting wasn't fun, but we were rewarded with clear views and a beautiful sunrise over the valley as we defrosted. The views from the true summit weren't too different from the rest, so we didn't spend too much time on the top and started our descent almost straight away, as we did have a 2h rest already...
Gn Merapi was spewing so much dust (this mountain is about 25km away and had been exploding for about 2 weeks already) so no view in that specific direction.. (This would have made for a great shot though!!)
The descent was an absolute pleasure and we got back to basecamp around 10am. Yet due to a lack of public transport leaving from the Tekelan mountain village, we only got back to Salatiga around 1pm, thoroughly soaked due to a local downpour while on the back of a motorbike, getting lost in Salatiga... FUN!
No need to say that we rested our legs on the couch, with home made chocolate chip cookies, for the rest of the
Gn Sumbing
Towards Gn Sindoro,
from true summit day, with our clothes drying out in the sun.
On Wednesday morning we left the comfort of Mountain View School and got on another string of buses towards Tawangmanggu.
Gunung Lawu (3265m) is knows for its 'paved' path to the summit, so it crossed our minds to do this hike by ourselves. But since it's also a mystical and spiritual mountain, we thought it might be good to get some background information while climbing up. This was definitely a good decision as it was nice to discuss something during this rather 'easy' night climb.
(This trip was an excellent practice for my Bahasa Indonesia skills, as none of our guides spoke English!!)
A point of discussion
before the climb was 'Estimated Time of Departure'. We said 1am, they said 10pm... So at 12pm we left at the hotel.. Yet to find ourselves freezing our asses off AGAIN in a small cave just below the summit, waiting for the sun to rise... Right...
But all is instantly forgotten when you see the view revealed to you together with Gunung Merapi, this time more clearly visible, erupting at full force!! I wish I had a better camera, or well, better
photography skills, to represent what we saw up there.
We got back to our hotel at 9am, getting better and better at this mountain climbing thing by the day!
So after a nice breakfast and a quick sleep we decided to explore the 80m high waterfall just outside the village. Yes, we WALKED there, got lost inside the park and added an extra 2km just for fun.. But is was all good fun and we were ready to return to Jakarta the next day (Friday). Extremely lucky not having been affected by the chaos caused by Gn Merapi and the dust cloud which was covering the south of Java.
Extremely proud to have 'conquered' three 3000m+ mountains in 1 week, we slightly under-estimated the effect it had on our legs, when Zubs and I tried to run a 21km race in Jakarta that same week, on Sunday.. Oh boy, I had a minor disagreement with my legs at about 10km and at 11km I decided to become part of the cheering-team instead! 😊
Zubs finished the whole race! Crazy!
Currently I am exploring a different mountain range, this time in Switzerland, but with a snowboard under my
Gn Sumbing
Part of the sheer rock face to the true summit (Picture, Dan Quinn) feet instead!
Till the next one! CIAO
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Rita KAGARISE
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Mountains
Hi Liz! Altijd plezant om een reisverslag van jou te ontvangen zo kunnen we volgen waar jij verblijft! Weer een mooie onvergetelijke ervaring rijker! Nu terug in Europa voor een paar maanden! Veel succes in Gstaad en ook via deze: Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! Dikke kus van Roger, Rita en Caroline Bleys