I'd read about Gunung Merapi, a live volcano in Central Java, and was super pumped about the prospect of climbing it. Indonesia is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and volcanic activity on Java is especially high. Merapi has erupted upwards of 80 times, and is one of the most active volcanos in the world- of course I wanted to climb it!!! Fortunately for me, it's only a 2.5 hour drive away from Jogja, my new home.
After dodging a hustle or 2, we found a good guide to take us. Andrew, Jenny, Katie, and I were especially excited about the hike because we would along with the thousands of other people who also wanted to reach the summit on the morning of Hari Raya Kemerdekaan (independence day).
We left our quiet sleman in Sidoarum around 9:30 headed towards Jalan Sosrowijayan (bouleh kampung) where our tour departed from. Our friendly driver bumped Beyonce as we made our way through Java Tengah to meet the volcano. Sitting in front, I learned that our driver wouldn't join us on the climb since he'd already climbed Merapi 8x this month- and also that we were listening to an Mp3 disc with enough Beyonce to get us there and back as many times as we could climb. Phew!
We got to a house in Selo and went inside to check equipment, eat keju-choklat roti, drink tea, and smoke cigarettes. We finally started our climb around 1AM. Giggling, climbing, and sporadically bursting into "Tak Gendong" by the recently departed Mbah Surip. Emanating Mbah Surip's cackle proved a morale booster when we started getting exhausted, and one cackle would be followed by the cackles of fellow climbers who too were somewhere out on the dark mountain. For the first time, I was really cold in Indonesia, so was happy to have the full face hat/mask Ibu Sri and Pak had lent to me. Ibu laughed and called me a terrorist when she handed it to me, but it turned out to be both warm and stylish!
After about 3 hours of hiking, we rested at a base camp plateau for a few minutes. There were loads of people camping out, cooking, singing. From here on the hike would be mostly vertical and would require a lot of concentration (and faith). The "trail" before us was made up of boulders and sand, and by now it was dark dark night, save for the headlamps of the hundreds of other folks climbing. The sea of lamps looked like tiny jellyfish swimming in the deep sea as they hovered, their owners finding footing. Soon enough that was us. There was gridlock on the mountain- yes, climber traffic. Wild. We reached the top shortly before sunrise and marveled at its beauty amidst the mass of people. There was an insane cloud cover, a glowing orange sun, and tons of stoked people flying flags and taking photos.
Only once the sun had risen did we realize that the "trail" we had climbed up was actually a huge pile of rocks. After eating my hard boiled duck egg and chocolate covered peanuts, we started down, which I admittedly was far less excited about. I felt like I was skiing down piles of rocks and dirt, because I was... and one could tell from looking at me. Needless to say, after making our way down in the heat, I was happy to be on the way back to Jogja, listening to Beyonce.
Best hike of my life.
