Wet Wild Track
We came late! And its rain. That’s when the mess or what we later called an amazing adventure is up..
It beginned around 1pm when we started our wild tracking to reach “Kawah Ratu” (Queen Crater). It surely late enough since to get there we will need to walk for three hours or more. We already prepared for a slippery track, but never could imagine more for what we’ve got later.
Foto by Dyan
After 100 metres walk, the weather started to change. We cant predict accurately what we might face nowadays. Rain can falls into a sunny day and vice versa. And thats what happened on Saturday June 12, 2010 when we walked through this trip. Fortunately i brought my rain coat, so that i can keep my camera and clothes dry. My other friends bring umbrella, which was not effective enough considering the path we passing through. The other could only rely more on their jacket which still surely soaked into their whole body.
Its a torrential rains and last quite long. We walk next to some stream by our right or left. It depends on which path we choose, since we also need to crossed the stream more than one time. Totally wet but seems like no sides to escape. Walk in a quite medium flow of water, hold hands one and another just in case u got slipped, while our feet already tremble. There are several prick post which showed us how far we had gone. Those were counting down from our starting point until we reach the crater. Sometimes, it gave us hope, the other times, it just made us back to the fact that we still had long way to passed before arriving.
Finally Kawah Ratu
Well, by the time we get to the crater, it really is not much worthed of the journey. Its just looked like another crater u might all ever seen. Some indentation which covered up by lot of haze and fog. The water inside the crater seems hot since it produce foam which actively blowed plus the additional scent from sulphur which evaporate to the air. Our guide really unsuggested us to stay longer than half hour. This queen crater located on Mount Salak on West Java. Around the mountain are preservation area covered by alot of pine trees. Good weather for sure, and also chilly air, with a refreshing view from all side. But, for my own opinion, “Kawah Putih” in the north of Bandung (another area in West Java) still more beautiful than this one. Minus the tracking for sure since its so easy to get there.
And then, this is when the journey became more and more attractive than before. We tough thats all, but in fact, its far from all! We still have to walk down the hill to get back to our base camp. We started the tracking at 5pm from up there, which is soo much late, remembering that we need no less than 3 hours walking to reach the nearest camp. We all were not well prepared for the upcoming night, since from the 18 of us, there were only 3 lighters (phone and flashlight), which made us still lack of beam for the entire night walks.
Foto by Andry
We saw some firefly through our way home. Those animal are so tiny and what beaming actually was it’s butt. My friend said that only the male firefly have beam which used to attrack the female one.
When the sun settling down, we could only relied to the light from stars, which luminescent from the sky. There are alot of them and each have different sparkling quality. However, that light still far from enough to enlighten our way, moreover when some of our lighter diing down. It bring us holding more tight to each other so we can rest on our friend for the rest of our way. Walking down seems a little difficult then climbing up several hours ago. The only good thing happen that time was, no rain anymore, and the stream dry already. So at least we were not trembling and wet.
Along the way, it just spookier than we tough. Some of my friends felt like there were something else around us. It made us come closer to each other. Some strange sounds coming up while we just try to convince our selves that all of those are nothing. We were in a dark forest, in the middle of nowhere, so there was no need to add another additional fear.
Soon we see the light which might comes from the nearest resident. But still, the more we walked, it looked like we never get closer. We forgot our starting track post number so we just guessed. And our guessing is not good enough since we still need a few more walk after we tough that we were finally arrived. Well, seems like God has another plan for us, we got loss! We finally made it to the nearest camp but thats not where we started our journey for the first time. We left far behind our guide with who some of us gathered. So our team like being separated into two. Fortunately most of the boys stay in the last team so we did not worry that much. We just walked down and ask for our camp direction to the local community. Its another fortune since its not so far from where we standed. Then we just did a little more walk and voila! We were all there again 😀
In this too simple camp, we gotta cleaned up in a limited water and no electricity around. There is only one kerosene lantern in the middle of us. We ordered some hot tea from nearest coffee shop. They also provided noodles and fried rices, so we just ordered some since our stomatch almost empty and our stamina almost reach its lowest level. Not comfortable enough with the water and lighting condition, we decided to find a villa or local home to be rented and we got it for 250,000 IDR per night. Thats enough for all of us to stay. 9 girls sleep in the two room provided while the boys stayed outside. Its cold, too cold actually and we should fight the night with the only thing available in that place, two blanket for all and several pillows, no bed for the boys, and luckyly some of us bring the sleeping bag. Before going to sleep, we did some games to keep our body moved and warm, and then fell asleep aroung 2am.Sleep under the stars, thats the theme of the night. 😀
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