Friday and Saturday of this past week, Gito and Sisi, our friends from CCROM, led Dan and I on a two day hike to the top of Gunung Gede Pangrango. Gede is a National Park/active volcano outside of Bogor. In total we spent 14+ hours on the trail – 7.5 up and 7 down – it was painful and difficult more or less the entire time (probably not the best idea on my legs in week 1 of marathon training) but the journey was well worth the pain. A little bit more detail, a few pics, many many many more on my
photo page.
The way there: I packed up my enormous amount of food and water for the two days, laced up my Cascadias which were ready for a workout, and met the group at the office for a 6:30am departure.
The trip up to Cibodas (town where Park is located) took about an hour and a half, thankfully we just missed the morning rush hour traffic. We arrive and sort out our permit, thankfully Gito handled EVERYTHING – Dan and I could not have navigated this part. Apparently the main path’s camping permits were fully distributed for this evening, so they allowed us to hike on the side path. Gito explains this is the more difficult way, I don’t quite at the time realize what that means… The weather was crisp, not too hot, feeling perfect for a trek. The Park has a new regulation that foreigners must have a guide, we called him Survivorman. He helped carry the load. I certainly wasn’t going to complain.
Some strange dancing ritual with the Park staff, unclear exactly what was happening.
Where we started: 1,200m – and what we were about to embark on – up to 3,000m, the edge of the volcano’s crater. Roughly 9,700 feet at the top, close to 6,000 vertical feet to climb total.
The way up: Cibodas is a charming town known for its flowers and Botanical Garden. Quiet, a little remote, it felt very much like real people living their lives, hanging their laundry and walking their children to school. We take another angkot up to said more difficult side path and get on our way.
This would have been difficult for me without two days worth of camping equipment, water and food on my back. You can imagine how much food this requires for me to feel content that I won’t starve. A lot of food. After thirty minutes, I was hot, breathing heavy and my legs were beat. I’m already wondering what the hell I got myself into. But at this point I had no other choice, get to the top or bust. In total with A LOT of breaks it took us from starting at 11am until 6:30pm. I’d categorize the hike up in three phases:
A walk in the garden. Our first 30-45 minutes up were some of my favorites views on the trip. You’re literally plodding through people’s small farms to get to the next part of the trail. This was unbelievably gorgeous and peaceful and sadly my pictures don’t do it justice. It felt like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, with perfect green spaces, huge kale leaves, life size maize plants, perfect little irrigation streams, mini greenhouses and surreal characters just popping out of the bushes, farmers just minding their business.
Stairmaster. This part we were told would be about an hour and a half, and maybe if you’re fast that’s all it would take.. It was more like 3+ hours.. brutal. I am by far the slowest of the group but I don't care. The terrain is pretty well cleared for exploring but also includes stretches that you need to climb.. legit climbing. Especially if you’re 5’2” and can’t take large steps up. Another reason I’m the slowest of the group.
Stairs.. I didn’t get great shots of the “climbing” parts because my hands were occupied.
Final climb to the top. After three or so hours we reached the desert-ish clearing, which was a nice flat enjoyable walk. Still had another 45 minute climb to the top.. which was mostly rocky, involved climbing elements but my determination to get to the top made this part slightly less painful.
The top! A little bit surreal, a little bit of sensory overload. The first thing that you experience is the reeking of sulfur. The summit, overlooking the volcano's crater, is just bellowing steam. The clouds over neighboring mountains roll in like thick heavy sheets that I was a part of.. 9,000 feet up and you literally are a part of the clouds. The wind was strong and proved that there are parts of Indonesia that are cold, finding them requires a steep shift in altitude.
I just caught the end of the sunset, which at that point was marred a bit by the fog rolling in but still beautiful. Bummer, but even worse that we had to cook and set up camp in the dark. I won’t act like I was much of a help in this department. I like to camp (in small doses) but don’t do it enough to have many skills to offer.
Our camp site
The stars- Wow. They were brighter and clearer than perhaps anyplace else I’ve seen in the world, pictures just wouldn’t have done it justice. With an uninterrupted view of the horizon, it literally felt like I was in a Planetarium, except, well it wasn’t indoors at a Museum.. this was the real deal. Milky Way and all.
Sleep- I was freezing despite four layers on top, two on the bottom, two pairs of socks. I’m too bony and lack enough body fat for this kind of sleeping arrangement to be moderately comfortable. I’d be lucky if I slept two hours the whole night. Again, for those views and the experience, it was beyond worth a night of crappy sleep.
The way down: I was up bright and early to attempt to see the sunrise. Wasn’t this the point of the sleepover? Unfortunately I couldn’t see much through the fog. After it cleared I grabbed a few of my favorite shots from the trip..
Proving that even 9,000 feet up, there are still random people who want to take pictures with us.
The morning overall was peaceful but freezing. Get me back to the heat, please. As we were packing up, a dude pops into our tent who is selling rice. No joke. I’ve never seen anything like this. He came all the way up for the few campers!??! We set out around 8am, thank god for our guide who was a master at getting things together quickly. A note on our guide.. he brought with him a jacket, a few snacks, NO water, and a pack of cigarettes. That is it. He also didn’t break a sweat the entire time, earning the title of Survivorman.
The way down was less challenging physically but mentally taxing. It would be incredibly easy to roll an ankle, which Gito and Sisi both did.. The terrain was mostly forest-ish and rocky and again path was well paved. Highlights were crawling across rocks over a hot spring, clinging to a rope (that water WAS HOT!) while steam is rising every which way around you and the waterfall checkpoint.
The way home: I finished a little before 3pm, and holy hell my legs hurt. Every step down from 11am on felt worse and worse. I know I’m in for pain the next day (and pain I still have two days later)… We head out from the park around 4pm and thanks to traffic don’t make it home until 8:30. More about this in my
blog about traffic, but it was brutal. I don’t want to harp on it because the whole adventure was worth it: sleeping on the crater of an active volcano 9,000 feet up, GETTING myself there, with everything I needed on my back, paving my own way, being COLD in Indo.. not something I’ll forget anytime soon.
Jakarta Time
