Hiking to Papandayan Volcano with Klub Horor Bukune (Part 2 from 2)

Read the previous story here : http://wp.me/p3rRlp-1qp

Way to Pondok Salada…

After the Sulfur Lake, we need to go to Pondok Salada in Papandayan Volcano by passing the smelly sulfur ground and try our best to not inhale the smoke. This is another challenge for us. We should pass it as fast as we could, while manage our walk because our feet now started to feel tired again. I feel pity for some of my friends who need to bring tent and heavy bags. But wait, that’s the purpose of male in the group, hahaha.

The smell of the sulfur was so strong, so sometimes we can’t breathe properly and need to avoid the smoke.

 

Mt Papandayan is true having quite easy track for newbie people in trekking. But it’s huge mountain! The long hours walk of course sooner or later will kill our legs! It seems that we never arrived to Pondok Salada. From Sulfur Lake, we need to go up until we found a river. From there, we can take a breathe for a while because the path is going flat. Also the view surrounding is really incredible. I love to see that so many beautiful different scenery in Papandayan Volcano. It’s like a complete package. With your eyes, you can see the green forest, the sulfur area which is yellow and dry, then the dead forest, which is grey and misty.

Can you see that small people standing and walking in this huge giant mountain?

 

The last challenge before we arrived to Guberhood is to climb one narrow path that totally make us losing our breathe. In this point, since I know, it will be the hardest part of the trekking, so I made a trick to my friends who always asking when we will arrive, I said to them : “Soooonnn… very soon we will arrive… we just going up a bit and then voila, we arrived!”

This incredible narrow path really challenge us and made us screaming so many times!

 

Sorry folks, but sometimes, we don’t need to know how long the road is, otherwise our guts become shriveled. Another trick while hiking also for not seeing up, better we see our step one by one, because when we see up, we will see how steep it is, or how high it is, until we are speechless and don’t want to walk again. But that’s not the option. The only option is to keep walking. Continue until we arrive in our target.

Priceless moment, when we can’t breathe anymore and don’t care about our face anymore in front of camera, haha!

 

And voila! We arrived in Pondok Salada… Yayyyyy!

But wait, why there are so many people in Pondok Salada….? Zzzzttt… Hiking is such a new trend now in Indonesia. Ok, no problem. We tried to find place which is quite hidden from the cold evening breeze. Once we got, my friends, Arie and Irsyad try to build the tent. Another news is… we have 2 tent only for 10 people. Voila! Imagine what will happen when we sleep… And then, I chose Irsyad’s tent, which is new one (greedy woman, hehe). But it turned to be a wrong choice (hiks, Dea!). Because just after we finished build the tent, suddenly rain is coming! And the new tent was having leaks. Almost from every side, so the 5 people in woman’s tent sit together, trying to warm ourselves, take care our stuff from water and try to avoid the wet. Such a terrible experience!

Our tent in Pondok Salada.

 

Later on, when the rain stopped. Our male friends put the flysheet to cover the woman’s tent. Voila! We are now safe and sound. Thanks God! Later on, time to practice our feminine side.. Cooking! Our menu that night were Spaghetti Bolognaise (cause it’s simple), chicken nuggets (which almost a war when we try to find the butter to cook the nuggets, cause no one admit that they handle the butter! Until we found it in Bedu’s bag – errr…). It was fun, even we were so tired and hungry. Just after we finished cooking, rain coming again, don’t know what to do and feel so tired, we prefer to sleep early. Yes, very early, 6 pm, we already sleep accompanied with the sound of the rain drops….

 

Hello Morning!

But it’s not a kind of morning when the sun is shinning so bright… The morning came in form of darkness. Only our clock showed the time that morning is coming.

Actually, we were sleeping like fishes in one tiny can. I even can’t straighten my legs… One time, our editor, Elly, need to sleep in sitting position, because place is too limited. And many times, she asked what time is it? It’s morning already, but at 3 am. One thing that I don’t like to sleep in the mountain is how so cold the weather is.. Even already in the sleeping bag, using socks, gloves, but still, you can feel the chilly breeze. So there was a positive effect that we were 5 of us in small tent, cause we can warming each other. But from 3 am to 5 am when the sun rises, the clock felt sooooo long.

Finally Indra screamed to us, “Girls, who want to see the sunrise?” I don’t want because I wanted to sleep so bad. Sleep in proper position. So Hanum and Tania went on with some guys to Guberhood for seeing the sunrise. Me, Elly and V chose to continue to sleeping. Yayyy, finally I can have a good quality sleep even only for few hours.

Those who see the sunrise…

 

Cooking inside the Tent

Our small tent now became the logistic place and kitchen. We started the cooking by dividing some stuff, so we can easily cook it. With such small space and equipment, we need to arrange what to cook neatly. But anyhow, all was well. Stomach from my friends all full and we even made grilled bread. Now time to going down to Camp David again. But first, let us tore down the tent.

 

PS : Don’t worry to camp in Pondok Salada, since they already built a new toilet there. Toilet! Yes, toilet! There are 3 toilet for people and one place for filling your bottle with drinkable water (since it’s water from the mountain) and wash your dishes. Only bad things I see that they don’t throw away the rubbish properly. Guess it will be so dirty in the future 😦 But at least, you don’t need to worry to digging the land for pooping in the middle of the night 😉

We need to pay IDR 2,000/one time going to toilet. Use it wisely…

 

Dead Forest

Ahh, now we can breathe freely. Way to go down do Dead Forest from Pondok Salada is kind of easy and flat. Only the problem, it was muddy and dump because of the rain and morning’s dew. In summer, you will see dozen of Edelweiss trees. But now, it still not yet blooming.

Surrounding by Edelweiss flowers.

 

I passed Dead Forest already few times, but I still feel awe with the misty atmosphere in the area. Behind the amazing landscape, there is the cause why the area became like that. Fire in 2012 caused the trees become black now. It is sad condition, but amazingly it gives us a new breathtaking view. I think I can learn something from it, no matter how bad the condition we have, in one point, there is a good side to see.

There is a different feeling when passing Dead Forest, when you can see the sadness and beauty mix as one in Mount Papandayan…

 

More Steep Road…

This is the last challenge we should pass to going down. The road is so steep and so many small stones. We need to be extra careful when choosing the ground we step, some stones are not strong enough and probably we will fall if we step the wrong ones. Glad, no one falling down in this area. We also need to hold our feet for not slippery. For me personally, I like this part so much cause it’s going down. Even my knees felt a bit uneasy, but it’s better than going up. Only one thing happened again, rain came so bad so it forces me to be hurry down. Until I didn’t hear that my friends screaming for food – the food was in my bag *ups* because I think that I am so tired and wet, I need to going down soon, change my wet clothes so I won’t catch sick. Sorry mates! *feeling guilty*

 

Back to Jakarta

This time we did the same way as we come to Garut, by pick up until Cisurupan and take another rented public car from Cisurupan to Garut Bus Terminal. We ate first in a warung in front of the terminal which is really delicious! And take bus back to Kampung Rambutan. I should warn you about traffic jam in Indonesia. Even from Garut to Jakarta that supposed to be 4-5 hours, that night become almost 7 hours because of the traffic. Welcome to Indonesia!

“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom.” – Marilyn Ferguson

But for able to seeing this kind of nature, landscape and adventure – I don’t mind to have painful *ss because of the traffic and have another adventures again. Nature is my energy. I had an enjoyed weekend and gathering with Klub Horor Bukune, no matter the situation we faced that weekend, from the leaking tent, difficult road, breathless hiking, we still had laugh and smile together, perhaps we will make another event in the future. Stay tune if you wanna know what and when.

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Cheers,
Dea Sihotang