The Greatness of Merbabu Mountain

I did this "get lost" activity almost one year ago (I just realize that I have spent most of my time with idleness... too lazy to write in my blog... what a shame, phew!) but I'll make it up 'cause it will never be too late to share a good thing here, hopefully :) After the first and second stories about my hiking experience with the great mountains in my beloved Indonesia, I had another experience with the high place.

I climbed Merbabu Mountain by joining a group of hiking lovers, including my partners in crime (as always, the lovely couple Nopai aka Novi and Pasku aka Faskhau).

The squad of "XPDC Merbabu"

Indeed, at the beginning there were many people in the squad, unfortunately as a beginner my bf, Nopai, Pasku and I were left behind (actually Pasku is one of the seniors, but he chose to accompany the "slow motion" guys). It was OK, we still could enjoy the hiking since we were together :) FYI, I had the same experience in my first climbing... haha they always left us behind!

Did we look sad since we were left behind? :p

Keep calm and say "cheese" to the camera

The height of Merbabu is about 3.145 m above the sea level, we started via Cunthel base camp and it was too late (we had to wait for other squad to come, and at the end we were left behind... what a nice experience, LOL!) we started in the afternoon even though our plan said that we would start at noon. I thought it was the hardest hiking I ever had... the preparation, timing and plan were ruined. I remember I almost fell asleep on the way when we took a break due to the extreme fatigue. And the worst part: we arrived in Puncak Menara at 3 AM! My mind was about to blow that time when I could see the tower there.

No one can deny this awesome view

In the morning I could hear some people shouted about the sunrise, but I chose to continue my dream and skipped the-off course-beautiful sunrise. However, it was replaced by the beauty and graciousness of the view I got when I woke up and out of the tent. 

The first landscape I got that morning...

The ocean of clouds (it was around 11 AM)

I couldn't continue the journey to reach the peak of this mountain, I had to save my energy to go down... that was bad, I know. When the clouds came and it started to rain, we decided to go down the mountain. I hope someday I could return to this place and that time I would continue until I could reach the top!

The clouds, fog and rain accompanied our day

The best partners in crime \^o^/

Well, all of my hiking experiences is related to the wet. Yap, we experienced the downpour during the journey. Everything felt so hard that time, and I thought the base camp was getting further.

We wanted to lie down on this place for a while, but we didn't have much time :(

Muddy, wet and extremely exhausted. But that's OK!

Finally we arrived at the base camp when it was getting dark. We were soooooooooo exhausted. And we back to Semarang around 8 PM. After that I was sick for almost a week, LOL. But I still have a dream that someday I could hike there again :)

It's not about reaching the top. It's about the journey, togetherness and precious moment we can get.

rega_deta