Hunting the Golden Sunrise

One of amazing moments is when the sun rises from east. Have an opportunity to witness it in the right place, right time, and with the right person, it’ll be excellent. I heard the sunrise is more than just beautiful if it witnessed from a high place like mountain. In my previous experiences with mountain, I had never seen the sunrise. That’s why the mission of my newest adventure was sunrise.

Sikunir, was the destination of my adventure to hunt the sunrise. This hill is in Dieng Central Java, not far from Wonosobo or Banjarnegara. I made a plan to visit this place long time ago, but several damned reasons caused me to cancel it. But this time, I’ve made it! Yippie!!! As always, I told my partners in crime about the plan and they just accepted it without any comments (man, I know there’s no reason to refuse this good idea). However, it would be so boring if we come to Sikunir just for sunrise since there are some good places to be visited in Dieng Plateau, and then we listed how we would fool around there. The plan was like this: Friday 23^rd in the morning we would have the trip from Semarang to Dieng. Friday at noon we would arrive and find a cozy place to spend the night before the sunrise mission. In the afternoon we would explore Dieng Plateau, and hunt the sunrise at the top of Sikunir on the next day. To spend the time, we could continue the exploration or maybe sleep before we back to Semarang. Everything was settled. Buuuuuut, on the D day one of my partners in crime was sick (the ‘nyemingo’ one). Nothing we could do but postpone the plan… *sigh

On Saturday, we finally started the journey (Yay! Sikunir here we come!!!). It was 9.30am when we left Semarang, and we took the alternative route (Bandungan-Sumowono-Temanggung). FYI, the route to reach Wonosobo is more than one, from Semarang we can choose Ungaran-Bawen-Ambarawa-Temanggung or Ungaran-Bandungan-Sumowono-Temanggung. From Temanggung there’s an alternative route: Temanggung-Parakan-Ngadirejo-Jumprit-Tambi-Dieng but the road is narrow and not too good. Another route is Temanggung-Parakan-Ngadirejo-Wonosobo-Dieng, the road is wide and good but farther. We arrived in Wonosobo at almost 12pm (actually, if we had no troubles we could arrive earlier in this town). We had a yummy lunch called Mie Ongklok, it is a special cuisine from Wonosobo. Mie Ongklok featuring satay (roasted chicken or mutton) with sauce is the best combination. After we were full, we needed to full-tanked our motorcycle. FYI again, from Wonosobo to Dieng there’s only one gas station in Krasak, a smart driver will full-tanked the vehicle before leave for Dieng. But don’t worry, for those who are not smart they can find gas retailers around Dieng with higher price and not guaranteed quality (well…not smart, huh?).

After more or less an hour journey, we reached Dieng (this place is so damn cold but the sun is so bright… not good for our skin, trust me). We had to find home stay to spend the night right away. Since it was weekend, home stay in this place would be full in the afternoon. Well actually we could build a tent in a camp ground, but the temperature was too low for us. Several days before we arrived, the temperature in Dieng was around -1^o (me and partners had already known it would be a bad idea, in addition the ‘nyingo’ was still in his recovery). The home stay we can choose is so various. Cheap, expensive, clean, dirty, narrow, or wide just up to you. For those who don’t want to spend too much money, please DON’T ask the villagers to find the home stay, the price will be higher (they will keep some of the money for themselves and give the rest to the owner). It’d better we find it by ourselves and meet the owner to choose the room (or to bargain maybe). As we did, we got a great home stay: new building, wide, clean, comfortable bedroom, bathroom with hot water, acceptable price, living room with television, usable kitchen, and kind-hearted owner (Pakuwojo home stay). It is located near the Sikunir hill, in Sembungan village. Sembungan village is the highest village in Java (2200 masl), and 800m from the top of Sikunir.

In the afternoon we visited Kawah Sikidang, a cauldron full with sulfur water. The smell of sulfur is not too good (smells like fart everywhere haha…). The water is hot so visitors can boil eggs there. Other tourisms in Dieng are Telaga Warna (a lake with unique color), Telaga Blambangan, Telaga Menjer, Telaga Cebong, Pakuwojo Mountain, Sikunir Hill, Curug Sikarim (waterfall), Arjuna Temple, Bima Temple, and the rest I don’t remember eheheee… unfortunately, we just visited Kawah Sikidang that afternoon. One day is not enough to explore Dieng I guess.

Sembungan, the highest village in Java

Kawah Sikidang

 

Kawah Sikidang II

The next day we woke up at 3.30am and got ready to hunt the sunrise at Sikunir’s top. We started to walk from home stay at 4am, I still remember it was so cold and windy. We just needed 30 minutes to reach the top. Additional info, visiting Sikunir on weekend isn’t good idea. The top is too crowded, hard to find a nice spot to see the sunrise, and almost impossible to get a real magic moment with someone special. We were already there, no choice but enjoy everything as much as we could. Good things about that place in that time were the clear sky full with stars, crescent moon, awesome horizon, mountains (from the top we could see top of Merbabu, Merapi, Sindoro, and Ungaran), and the golden sunrise itself (the cold and strong wind were not included). Agree, sunrise is more than just awesome. The view from above is also amazing. Before went back to home stay, we visited Telaga Cebong. A lake surrounded by hills, field, and trees. I think I love Sikunir, yay!!!

sunrise

Waiting for the golden sunrise

more than 2200 m above the sea level

Cebongan Lake

View from the top

In the home stay we cooked our breakfast and took a rest. At 11am we left Sembungan and took the shorter route (Jumprit-Temanggung). We passed Tambi, a beautiful large tea plantation. It would be nice if we could take some picture there, but we didn’t. We bought bakso bakar (roasted meatball with spicy taste) and bakso uleg (special cuisine from Temanggung) for our lunch in Temanggung before we left for Semarang.

I love adventure and travelling more and more. Looking forward for the next agenda, unyanya :3

Another double date

24-25 August 2013

Dieng Plateau- Central Java

(with my Bebiihui, Pasku-Nopai)