Journey to Merbabu: Best Cloud Ever

Located in Central Java, Mount Merbabu can be reached through Semarang, Magelang and Boyolali. There are four popular routes to Merapi (Thekelan, Cunto, Selo, and Wekas). The fastest route is through Wekas. Mount Merbabu has 7 peaks, and the highest is Kente Songo (3.142 meters above sea level), continued by Syarief Peak (3.119 meters above sea level).

I was really not interested and even hate hiking. But after I went to Mount Gede and found the real experience. Wow! I started to love mountains. I was addicted to hike and hike again. 2 weeks after hiking Mount Gede, I went to mount merbabu. After finding from internet about the latest mass ascent then I found event on 8-10 July. Why did I search for mass ascent? Just wanna prevent if I didnt have friend come along with me, I still can join them because there are a lot of people hehe. But then, I had 3 of my friends joining me to have this wonderful trip.

After preparing our stuffs, we went to Jakarta from Cikarang and the meeting point was Senen Station. Well, I had ever said that I didn't want to take economic train again but what to do, it's the cheapest way to reach our destination. And I will tell you the great experience. We took busway to reach Senen Station! Can you imagine how we brought our carrier and stood in the middle of crowd. We met Bang cimot, he was funny with his unique voice hehe..He was our contact person and he arranged all the things from Jakarta. There were about 40 people departing from Jakarta. Ya as usual., conomy train is alwaysss full of people. What to do..At least we got sit.

Just make it short. We arrived at Poncol Station in 08.50, and we used truck to go to basecamp, what a long journey. Sometimes we should went off the truck because it's overloaded and the road is too ascend..Then Saturday, 3.30 p.m we reached Wekas Basecamp. We met a group of people and they are from Ciakarang as well, and one of them is Sigit's friend (Sigit is my senior in hiking community). We started hiking at 5 p.m.

Basecamp-Pos 1: 5-6 p.m.
The path was sloping, not really a problem. Sunset time, it was beautiful with Mount Sumbing and Mount Sindoro as the background.

Pos 1-Pos 2: 6-8 p.m
Without wasting anytime, we continued to walk. I forgot about the track but it was harder than before I think. The track was sandy. I was thinking nervously how could I go down because I prefer going up. I always nervous stepping my feet when I go down because the fear of falling down and hurt myself. After reaching the second post, we opened the tent, cooked some noodles and energen, and took a rest. Damn, it was very cold! Well next to our tent there was crazy people who suddenly came to our tent and asked for coffee, then he spoke in Javanese language, still young, same age as us but he was funn.

Pos 2-Triangulation: 3-5 a.m
Heard from the committee the we would go up hiking again at 2 a.m, but even the committees were still at their tent, so I woke the others and preparing for summit attack. And wow..The track was even harder than before. And there was a traffic jam up there haha..too many peope, the road is only one small path and we should wait. We arrived at the corner to Syarief and Kenteng Songo, we have a little discussion because actually me and Bang Coco wanna go to Kenteng Songo, but remembering there were still chei behind and the other 3 people, and they have known the destination was syarief, so we proceeded to Syarief. 5.30, we arrived at the summit of Syarief..Yuhuu !! We took 1 hour to take picture up there..It was cold! But the happiness reaching the summits made us dont care about the cold. It was time to narsist ! But stupid chei, she felt sleepy and didnt take any pictures.

At the summit, we could see mount Lawu, Merapi, Sindoro, Sumbing, Slamet, and Ciremai. We got the sunrise. I loved the cloud! It was like huge white bed and I really wanted to jump onto it! Really thanks to GOD. His grace, his creation! Really2 grateful....Thanks GOD!

Going back to tent: 7-9 a.m
Time to go back to tent..WE took pics for a hour haha..still taking pics on the way down hoho..then we cooked food to eat...and our big mistake was bringing to much food. Hais such a waste..

Mount Merapi from Merbabu

Go back to basecamp: 12-1 p.m
Yep time to go down...It was tiring, but fun..and full of sand and dust haha...but..it was a great experience..Then we went back by truck again to Semarang, and used bus to go back to Cikarang..

It was really great adventure...I'm addicted more to mountains..Hope to see u again Merbabu! Next time Kenteng Songo! Wait fo mee =D