Showing posts with label volcano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volcano. Show all posts
Monday, April 4, 2016
Yet another volcano in the bag
If you've been following my blog for some time you may be aware that I have a ridiculous desire to climb mountains. But not just any old mountain, I love volcanoes. Active volcanoes are fascinating, with their sulphur spewing vents and that sense of being close to something that feels alive and unpredictable. Call me an adventure junkie if you will, but once you've seen one volcano they almost become an addiction. No two are the same, and you can't help but be mesmerised by the immensity and power of them.
Now desire is one thing, the required physical fitness to achieve it is quite another. See the thing about volcanoes is they really are the stereotypical cone mountain. They require considerable effort to climb up, often over fairly steep slippery scree, and there's no respite from the continuous rise in altitude. You climb up, and up, and up and up, then when you get to the top, you get to turn around go down and down and down and down again. You need strong legs, or in my case, bloody mindedness makes up for the shortcoming in the legs department.
Sure I'd been skiing for a month just prior to leaving for Indonesia, but it's over a month since I'd done any more strenuous activity than a 7km shuffle around Laruntuka one evening. You can't train for a climb except by climbing, and well, I'd not been doing that had I? Plus the swelling in my injured knee hasn't completely resolved such that I still can't fully extend it, so it was going to be one big test of both fitness and determination.
Of course I did it, but I was a complete blithering mess by the time I hobbled back to my homestay 12 hours later!
It started with an SMS to my ojek driver to pick me up from the hotel in Lewoleba at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. That morning I had a sleep in and a late breakfast, then packed my bags. I bought a couple of bottles of water to pour into the hydration bag I'd brought especially and some biscuits and lollies for energy. Aside from the clothes I'm wearing, I throw in my puffer jacket and my long sleeved shirt, my trekking poles, the tripod head and puffer jacket, and it all fits in the small daybag I've got. I'm only taking the one lens, the wide angle. I decide to pack the poncho and the dry bag in case of rain. I also bring some extra cash, just in case some ikat takes my fancy. I leave the big bag at the hotel, no problem.
After a couple of missed calls, my ojek driver arrives a little earlier, and we are away. He goes clockwise around Ili Api, obviously the shorter and better maintained route. It takes less than an hour and costs me 50,000Rp. He can't take me back tomorrow as he has a meeting in Lewoleba all day, starting at 8am, so he arranges for his younger brother to take me back. I get taken to meet the Kepala Desa (village headman), and we sit around by the beach for a while. They offer me some local arak, which is rather soapy and not quite to my taste so I just have a small amount. Unfortunately they don't offer me some beer. They are all lovely and friendly, and after a while Mr Lintus shows up, who is to be my guide tomorrow. He then takes me off to Mama Essie's house, where I will stay. I meet her husband, Pak Tinus (short for Justinus), and a gaggle of kids which I gather are extended family.
I'm given a room at the front of the house that catches a little of the sea breeze but it's still very hot. I try for a sleep but it's hard when the humidity is so high. Just before sunset I head down to the beach and catch an amazing red ball setting over the sea. I've only got the wide angle unfortunately, but I still manage to get some nice shots. The locals are gathering fish that they've been drying on the hot rocks on the beach, not the nicest smell in the world!
Back at the homestay I have a mandi. Mama Essie gives me a towel and sarong to use, then I have a meal and head early to bed to try and get some sleep. We plan to leave at 1am as it's a long way from here though apparently less steep than going the Jontona route.
Mama Essie wakes me before 1 and insists that I have something to eat. I eat a little rice and vegetables, but can't stomach much else at that time of the morning. Then we wait for Mr Lintus to turn up. He's a little late, arriving about 1:20, but we are soon on our way. I have my little head torch, it's not as bright as Mr Lintus' light but it's good enough for me to see where I'm going. The path begins from behind the village. We go up some steps, stop at his house for him to grab his backpack and parang, then we walk up more steps to where the old village, or rumah adat is. I can't see much in the dark, but am looking forward to seeing it on the way down.
Then we begin along a path through fields of corn and other crops, and past a pig. We are joined by three teenage boys, one of whom is Lintus' son, who accompany us on the climb.
It's a slow steady climb, following a ridge the entire way up. Early on Lintus needs to hack a way through the undergrowth, as it's likely we are the first ones on this route this year. He obviously knows the route really well, and I'm glad I have a guide as there's absolutely no way I could have done this without one. Especially not at night.
Later, as we ascend further we are in a eucalypt forest with low grass and rocky ground. The route is a slow steady climb, always upwards, continuously following the same ridge, till at last, a little after 7am, we arrive at the crater rim.
When we get to the top we can't see down into the crater due to cloud, but after waiting a while the entire crater clears and I can see the fumaroles spewing sulphurous steam from the Jontona side of the rim. It's pretty impressive, and I'm glad I'm on this side. It's possible to walk right around the crater rim, and to walk down into the crater. Many have, as can be seen by the names written in stone on the white sand, but I know I have to get back down the mountain again, and that that's going to tax me even more than the climb up, so I decline the offer to join the boys who head off for an explore, and just sit down and rest my legs for a while.
We all snack up the top, and I sit in the sun while my clothes dry out. I have been dripping with sweat something dreadful, and am thankful that the weather on top is just the right temperature, not cold at all, but also not nastily hot. I'm sure once the sun has been up a few hours it would be pretty hot, but at 7:30 am it's very pleasant indeed.
We didn't manage to get to the top in time for the actual sunrise, as I was just too slow. I saw it from lower down and it was still spectacular. That light first thing in the morning really is magic.
Having brought the tripod attachment all the way up the mountain, there was nothing for it but to pull it out and set up the tripod using my poles and take some selfies with the timer. Once I'd worked out where the hell the timer was!! I'm really happy with the set up, but wouldn't want my camera to be any heavier than it is as I don't think the third pole offers a very steady option. Should I take a third trekking pole with me on the Bibbulman track later this year, rather than the thin one?? Food for thought….
The views from the top are magnificent. You could see Adonara's Ili Boleng, and Larantuka's Ili Mandiri in one direction, and Pantar and even Alor in the other.
Then we had to head down again. Having climbed quite a few mountains by now I know exactly how hard the descent can be. It's usually a lot tougher on the legs, especially the knees, than the ascent, and it's where the poles really come into play. I extended mine out to their longest setting, tightened my shoelaces, and began the terrible way down.
I'm really happy with my shoes though. The Salomon's have been really comfortable to wear and have reasonable grip and I haven't felt that I needed bigger heavier boots. Lintus is wearing crocs, the boys just have thongs!
The first bit is over vegetated scree and rock which is very slippery, and despite my poles I have a few falls onto my backside. I try to not rely on the poles too much, but I'm keen to save my quads a bit of pain.
As expected, the way down is torture. I go slowly and carefully, but the going is tough and I reckon it takes me almost as long to get down as it took climbing. I take few rests on the early part of the descent, but towards the end I am absolutely beat. Luckily Lintus opens up a young coconut for me and I greedily guzzle the lot, a welcome refreshment which I relish. My 2.5L of water has been drunk by the time we get down to the old village.
The old village is a collection of 34 grass huts, which is only occupied in July when they celebrate the peanut festival, or Pesta Cabang. There's a large stone quadrangle, where we stop for another rest, and Lintus talks to a couple of ladies who live up there, one of whom offers me a bag of jagung titi, which is the local popcorn. I don't take her up on her offer, by now I am so exhausted I can hardly talk. I also don't take any photos, as the village just looks like a bunch of huts, nothing that really stands out as photogenic. Plus, I'm fucked!
We head down the steps, much easier to negotiate than uneven stones, and get to Lintus's place. There we stop for some water, and I am offered tea, but all I can think about is getting a wash. Even if it means falling into the sea I am so hot, so sweaty, absolutely filthy and just so freaking exhausted. Lintus writes down on a piece of paper my bill: 350,000Rp, more than double what the chaps had told me the other day. I don't argue, I just pay him, thankful I brought the extra cash with me. Then we head back down to Mama Essie's, via a shortcut which is more uneven stones, and really, I would have happily taken the longer way round and done that last bit down the concrete steps. We stop at one lady's place to look at some ikat scarves. They are cheap, but I prefer the wider sarong size, and anyway, I'm just too exhausted to care right now.
At Essie's I am instructed I can't shower straight away as I need the sweat to dry off a little. Given that I never stop sweating in this weather, it's unlikely that will ever happen. They put the fan on for me which is a bit of a help, but I am truly a mess.
I have a mandi and change into the long sleeved shirt. I'd not needed it for the walk as it hadn't ever been cold, so it's clean, and not sweaty, whereas my black polo is soaked with sweat. I have to put my bra and knickers back on, but that's OK, and I have the option to mandi again back at the hotel and change into clean clothes. My trousers are filthy, and I discover that my shoes let dirt in, so my toes are also filthy. Ah well, being goretex free and easy drying, I guess the air and dirt goes in as well as out!
By now my feet, especially the balls of my feet, are quite sore. I was concerned that my toes might get bruised, as the shoes weren't quite tight enough to stop my feet slipping forward against the front of the shoes, but aside from being a little red and sore, my toes are fine. The mandi is wonderful. Throwing cold water over my body never felt so good, and soaping all that filth and sweat off me makes me feel so much better.
Essie gives me a meal, and suggests I have a sleep, but I'm keen to get back to town to change clothes and pack and get some food for the overnight boat trip. I explain that if my legs get cold they'll seize up and I won't be able to walk, so I'm best to leave now. They send one of the girls off to find my ojek driver, then make me a cup of coffee. Once I've drunk that I say my goodbyes. I asked Essie how much she wanted for the homestay and she says it's up to me. I give her 100,000Rp and she is delighted, really delighted. So much happiness for a mere 10ドル!
The ride back in to town is uneventful. I walk in to Hotel Rejeki, repack my main bag, go off and get some food for the night ferry and take an ojek to Waijarang where I need to take the ferry to Alor from.
I am exhausted, a little sore, and ready to sleep on an overnight ferry. That's next...
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Time to go see a volcano, or, a little camping in the woods
I hated Cipanas.
It started with the hotel tout the moment I got off the angkot, whom I ignored. I wandered around looking at unimpressive room after unimpressive room, with asking prices over 20ドル a night. I really just wanted a cheap room, not a TV and a pool to swim in. Seriously, swimming pools, even warm ones, are just not my thing.
I found a cheap room, but the price would be going up on the weekend, so I just paid for one night. The room itself was pretty dirty and the only reason I didn't leave was because I met a North American couple staying there who said they'd looked elsewhere and hadn't been able to find anything cheaper. And I was tired. So I had a warm wash and headed out for dinner. Sate Goat that was undercooked, tasteless, and expensive. Strike two...
It was Friday night and the place was heaving. People were letting off firecrackers in the street and it was plain noisy. No quiet little spa resort, but noisy tourist trap. Really not my sort of place.
Next morning I got up early and wandered around looking for other housing options. The Americans were right, even places without pools were asking 300,000Rp and more. I wandered around, finding some back streets through the kampungs, and started to think the place wasn't so bad after all. And anyway, I had my period, so always a good idea to not do anything adventurous on my heavy days. Hahahahahaha!!!
I ask at the hotel if I can stay another night, to discover that the hotel is now fully booked for the weekend and I have to leave. They tell me that I can get a room for 200,000Rp (same as what I would have paid at the hotel I'm being kicked out of) at a hotel next door, but the person I need to speak to is still sleeping and I need to come back later. That seals the deal, I don't like the place, time to leave.
I take an angkot into Garut and sit at the terminal drinking an avocado juice - seriously folks why isn't this a drink in Australia it's freaking delicious - and decide my next move. I have camping gear, stove, fuel, even food though I could do with a little more, why don't I go camping?? I jump on a bus to Cisurupan (15,000Rp) and am immediately attacked by the ojek mafia when I arrive. I take refuge in a nearby Alphamart and stock up on noodles, biscuits and water. When I walk outside to repack my supplies into my backpack I meet a couple of young fellows also going camping, who ask if I want to join them. Some sort of negotiation with the ojek mafia goes on, I think along the line of "if the bule pays this much we'll give you boys a cheaper price" (it's pretty easy to read shady body language), but I wasn't going to make a big deal. I ended up paying 40,000Rp, the boys say they did too but a bit of my money seemed to get passed on to the other two drivers, and a couple of Jakarta lads we met say they paid 30,000Rp, which is probably the correct price. But one has to keep these things in perspective. 10,000Rp is one dollar peeps!!
So, the mountain I am off to camp on is Gunung Papandayan. This is a very active volcano, with steaming geysers, bubbling streams of hot water, hot vents spewing sulphur, quite spectacular actually. I check in at the post, fill in the book and the paperwork and pay the foreigners entry fee of 15,000Rp per day, then go find the boys. We got left behind on the way up the hill when my ojek's bike overheated and the engine cut out. A bit of water thrown on the carby cools it down and we are away.
Soon we are heading up into the volcano crater and I remember something rather important. It's the first day of my period, something I often euphemistically call "stuck pig day", and I haven't been to a toilet for a few hours. And there are no more toilets to be found till my return down the mountain tomorrow. Let's just say I'm feeling a little uncomfortable...
Then I recall a comment made by Robyn Davidson in her book "Tracks", about her trip across Australia with camels, where she describes just letting that sort of stuff go. OK she was in the middle of nowhere and I'm on a track with a whole bunch of other trekkers, but it's really the attitude that counts. I have no idea how much of a mess I am in, but I decide to cease caring. Eventually we find a stream and I leave the boys to rest whilst I undress, wash my heavily soiled clothes and readjust, so to speak. Nobody comments on my strategically soaking wet pants when I rejoin my companions, we simply keep trekking. And I am saved for now.
We pass through a gap in the mountain and arrive at the first camping site. No-one actually camps here, but you pull out your paperwork to fill your details into another book and pay some money, I think they are camping fees. I pay 5000Rp, the same as the boys. We then track around the mountain even higher up, overlooking the volcano below. The clouds are settling in by now, so we move smartly through to the camping site, which is already heavily occupied with large groups of people. There are tents everywhere, and many people have quite a lot of gear with them. There's musical instruments too, so all evening and into the night we can hear various groups singing. At one point I think I even heard Hotel California! Adele's also very popular.....
The boys, Robby and Becek, and I quickly find a campsite and set up camp before the rain sets in. We are only just in time, and I join them in their tent whilst I boil my billy for a nice warm cup of coffee. Mmmm...
I've brought along a stove that uses white spirit, what we call meths at home. Here it required quite a bit of effort to find because you can't find it in any old hardware store like you would at home. I'd been told by Thammy (the Carita guy) that I could get alcohol at a dispensary, or apotek, but when I went to one in Bogor I discovered they just sell up to 70% for cleaning purposes, and the guy there didn't have any idea where I could get some. I asked in a few more shops, tried to find some info on the internet, but wasn't getting anywhere. Then one lady in a shop suggested somewhere near the markets, but that they would be closed on the weekend. Since I still had my cold and was staying a bit longer in town I made one final effort to find some. Short answer: go to a paint shop. That's Toko Cat (pronounced "chut") and ask for Spritus. It's 7000Rp for a bottle. Easy once you know how...
The rain settled in for the night. I cooked up some noodles and showed the boys my windsurfing video and a few photos from home, then I headed back to my hammock and to bed. It was cold so, after a little experimentation, I ended up placing my space blanket between my sleeping bag and the hammock to insulate me from the cold below. My clothes were damp from the rain, but the vest, the cycling arms, and my wool t-shirt over the top off all that, gave me enough warmth inside the sleeping bag to sleep fairly well. Dry socks helped too. The hammock kept me much dryer than the poor boys in their tent, who woke up to find themselves sleeping in a puddle.
The rain cleared by morning and an early rise saw some blue skies before the clouds gathered again. There's a climb up to the summit and a field of edelweiss, but I wasn't keen, what with the clouds having rolled in again and the fact that I had a little unfinished womens business. The campsite, by the way, had a good water supply, so I was easily able to attend to my needs. This is definitely a situation where a Divacup is a much better option than tampons or pads. The boys were initially keen to do the climb, but a look at the clouds rolling in changed their minds and we all packed and headed back down the mountain, where we had to show our paperwork again and get crossed off as having returned. I even met another westerner, a French guy who'd also camped the night, but I'd not met him up there, what with the rain and the crowds.
Back down at the bottom I took the opportunity to use the ladies before we jumped on ojeks again. The boys are from Tasikmalaya, and since that's my next stop, I jumped on the same buses as them. They gave me a hotel recommendation, and a bunch of places to see, told me prices of transport around town, then we parted ways. More wonderful friendly people in this great country.
I'm staying at a hotel 13km north of the city centre. Even though it's on the main highway and also near the train line it's not that noisy and it's not right next to a mosque!! It's cheap (100,000Rp/night), it's clean, and the service is good. It's only 3000Rp into town on an angkot, so I'm staying a few days to wash the clothes, dry the camping gear, and see a few things round about.
The rest of the volcano photos are here.
It started with the hotel tout the moment I got off the angkot, whom I ignored. I wandered around looking at unimpressive room after unimpressive room, with asking prices over 20ドル a night. I really just wanted a cheap room, not a TV and a pool to swim in. Seriously, swimming pools, even warm ones, are just not my thing.
I found a cheap room, but the price would be going up on the weekend, so I just paid for one night. The room itself was pretty dirty and the only reason I didn't leave was because I met a North American couple staying there who said they'd looked elsewhere and hadn't been able to find anything cheaper. And I was tired. So I had a warm wash and headed out for dinner. Sate Goat that was undercooked, tasteless, and expensive. Strike two...
It was Friday night and the place was heaving. People were letting off firecrackers in the street and it was plain noisy. No quiet little spa resort, but noisy tourist trap. Really not my sort of place.
Next morning I got up early and wandered around looking for other housing options. The Americans were right, even places without pools were asking 300,000Rp and more. I wandered around, finding some back streets through the kampungs, and started to think the place wasn't so bad after all. And anyway, I had my period, so always a good idea to not do anything adventurous on my heavy days. Hahahahahaha!!!
I ask at the hotel if I can stay another night, to discover that the hotel is now fully booked for the weekend and I have to leave. They tell me that I can get a room for 200,000Rp (same as what I would have paid at the hotel I'm being kicked out of) at a hotel next door, but the person I need to speak to is still sleeping and I need to come back later. That seals the deal, I don't like the place, time to leave.
I take an angkot into Garut and sit at the terminal drinking an avocado juice - seriously folks why isn't this a drink in Australia it's freaking delicious - and decide my next move. I have camping gear, stove, fuel, even food though I could do with a little more, why don't I go camping?? I jump on a bus to Cisurupan (15,000Rp) and am immediately attacked by the ojek mafia when I arrive. I take refuge in a nearby Alphamart and stock up on noodles, biscuits and water. When I walk outside to repack my supplies into my backpack I meet a couple of young fellows also going camping, who ask if I want to join them. Some sort of negotiation with the ojek mafia goes on, I think along the line of "if the bule pays this much we'll give you boys a cheaper price" (it's pretty easy to read shady body language), but I wasn't going to make a big deal. I ended up paying 40,000Rp, the boys say they did too but a bit of my money seemed to get passed on to the other two drivers, and a couple of Jakarta lads we met say they paid 30,000Rp, which is probably the correct price. But one has to keep these things in perspective. 10,000Rp is one dollar peeps!!
So, the mountain I am off to camp on is Gunung Papandayan. This is a very active volcano, with steaming geysers, bubbling streams of hot water, hot vents spewing sulphur, quite spectacular actually. I check in at the post, fill in the book and the paperwork and pay the foreigners entry fee of 15,000Rp per day, then go find the boys. We got left behind on the way up the hill when my ojek's bike overheated and the engine cut out. A bit of water thrown on the carby cools it down and we are away.
Soon we are heading up into the volcano crater and I remember something rather important. It's the first day of my period, something I often euphemistically call "stuck pig day", and I haven't been to a toilet for a few hours. And there are no more toilets to be found till my return down the mountain tomorrow. Let's just say I'm feeling a little uncomfortable...
Then I recall a comment made by Robyn Davidson in her book "Tracks", about her trip across Australia with camels, where she describes just letting that sort of stuff go. OK she was in the middle of nowhere and I'm on a track with a whole bunch of other trekkers, but it's really the attitude that counts. I have no idea how much of a mess I am in, but I decide to cease caring. Eventually we find a stream and I leave the boys to rest whilst I undress, wash my heavily soiled clothes and readjust, so to speak. Nobody comments on my strategically soaking wet pants when I rejoin my companions, we simply keep trekking. And I am saved for now.
We pass through a gap in the mountain and arrive at the first camping site. No-one actually camps here, but you pull out your paperwork to fill your details into another book and pay some money, I think they are camping fees. I pay 5000Rp, the same as the boys. We then track around the mountain even higher up, overlooking the volcano below. The clouds are settling in by now, so we move smartly through to the camping site, which is already heavily occupied with large groups of people. There are tents everywhere, and many people have quite a lot of gear with them. There's musical instruments too, so all evening and into the night we can hear various groups singing. At one point I think I even heard Hotel California! Adele's also very popular.....
The boys, Robby and Becek, and I quickly find a campsite and set up camp before the rain sets in. We are only just in time, and I join them in their tent whilst I boil my billy for a nice warm cup of coffee. Mmmm...
I've brought along a stove that uses white spirit, what we call meths at home. Here it required quite a bit of effort to find because you can't find it in any old hardware store like you would at home. I'd been told by Thammy (the Carita guy) that I could get alcohol at a dispensary, or apotek, but when I went to one in Bogor I discovered they just sell up to 70% for cleaning purposes, and the guy there didn't have any idea where I could get some. I asked in a few more shops, tried to find some info on the internet, but wasn't getting anywhere. Then one lady in a shop suggested somewhere near the markets, but that they would be closed on the weekend. Since I still had my cold and was staying a bit longer in town I made one final effort to find some. Short answer: go to a paint shop. That's Toko Cat (pronounced "chut") and ask for Spritus. It's 7000Rp for a bottle. Easy once you know how...
The rain settled in for the night. I cooked up some noodles and showed the boys my windsurfing video and a few photos from home, then I headed back to my hammock and to bed. It was cold so, after a little experimentation, I ended up placing my space blanket between my sleeping bag and the hammock to insulate me from the cold below. My clothes were damp from the rain, but the vest, the cycling arms, and my wool t-shirt over the top off all that, gave me enough warmth inside the sleeping bag to sleep fairly well. Dry socks helped too. The hammock kept me much dryer than the poor boys in their tent, who woke up to find themselves sleeping in a puddle.
The rain cleared by morning and an early rise saw some blue skies before the clouds gathered again. There's a climb up to the summit and a field of edelweiss, but I wasn't keen, what with the clouds having rolled in again and the fact that I had a little unfinished womens business. The campsite, by the way, had a good water supply, so I was easily able to attend to my needs. This is definitely a situation where a Divacup is a much better option than tampons or pads. The boys were initially keen to do the climb, but a look at the clouds rolling in changed their minds and we all packed and headed back down the mountain, where we had to show our paperwork again and get crossed off as having returned. I even met another westerner, a French guy who'd also camped the night, but I'd not met him up there, what with the rain and the crowds.
Back down at the bottom I took the opportunity to use the ladies before we jumped on ojeks again. The boys are from Tasikmalaya, and since that's my next stop, I jumped on the same buses as them. They gave me a hotel recommendation, and a bunch of places to see, told me prices of transport around town, then we parted ways. More wonderful friendly people in this great country.
I'm staying at a hotel 13km north of the city centre. Even though it's on the main highway and also near the train line it's not that noisy and it's not right next to a mosque!! It's cheap (100,000Rp/night), it's clean, and the service is good. It's only 3000Rp into town on an angkot, so I'm staying a few days to wash the clothes, dry the camping gear, and see a few things round about.
The rest of the volcano photos are here.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Where shall I go Indonesia?
My next holiday will be in April and May next year. I'm treating myself to a backpacking trip to one of my favourite countries: Indonesia. I'm also planning to avoid any hoohah surrounding a certain pivotal anniversary....
Next year's trip will be my sixth time visiting my neighbours to the north. Part of the attraction is it's just so damn close to home, but more than that, it's such a fascinating place. The spectacular scenery, the friendly people and so much cultural diversity it's staggering. Plus it's cheap.
I have a return flight Perth to Bali (purchased on the fly whilst in Tekapo Backpackers back in September) and am now in the process of deciding where I will spend my time and what I will take with me.
At present I am trying to choose between either heading east to Nusa Tenggara, in particular Sumba, Flores and Alor islands, then making my way west back to Bali, or heading west over to Java and exploring further than I had time back in 2010. I am yet to see a Bromo sunrise, there's a lot more of Central and West Java for me to see and there's some volcanos I want to climb.
My main concern is the weather, as it is only the start of the dry season, and my experience in Java in April 2010 was there was still a lot of rain, which closed access to climbing some of the mountains. Dying in a landslide isn't my idea of a birthday treat!
East Nusa Tenggara, OTH, has a dryer climate and should have finished raining earlier than further west. But in the tropics, surrounded by sea and volcanic mounts, local ecosystems cause their own weather, so who really knows? I could just leave it to the last minute, hoping I can swing a flight east on the day I arrive in Bali, and if not head west instead.
I'm swinging towards Java for a bunch of reasons:
Hmm, it looks like I've decided to go to Java.
Next year's trip will be my sixth time visiting my neighbours to the north. Part of the attraction is it's just so damn close to home, but more than that, it's such a fascinating place. The spectacular scenery, the friendly people and so much cultural diversity it's staggering. Plus it's cheap.
I have a return flight Perth to Bali (purchased on the fly whilst in Tekapo Backpackers back in September) and am now in the process of deciding where I will spend my time and what I will take with me.
At present I am trying to choose between either heading east to Nusa Tenggara, in particular Sumba, Flores and Alor islands, then making my way west back to Bali, or heading west over to Java and exploring further than I had time back in 2010. I am yet to see a Bromo sunrise, there's a lot more of Central and West Java for me to see and there's some volcanos I want to climb.
my Bromo sunrise April 2010
this sucker has my name on it.
My main concern is the weather, as it is only the start of the dry season, and my experience in Java in April 2010 was there was still a lot of rain, which closed access to climbing some of the mountains. Dying in a landslide isn't my idea of a birthday treat!
East Nusa Tenggara, OTH, has a dryer climate and should have finished raining earlier than further west. But in the tropics, surrounded by sea and volcanic mounts, local ecosystems cause their own weather, so who really knows? I could just leave it to the last minute, hoping I can swing a flight east on the day I arrive in Bali, and if not head west instead.
I'm swinging towards Java for a bunch of reasons:
- I know I can't do East Nusa Tenggara justice in 2 months. Transport is slow and laborious and the way I travel I'm concerned that I'll be frustrated at having to miss out on some places just to make it back to Bali in time. I suspect I can do Sumba, Alor and Flores quite thoroughly in my 58 days, but that still leaves West Timor, Sumbawa and Lombok. Places I could do on another trip, but more practical to do with a visa extension and/or a visa run to East Timor. There is an impending retirement coming up after all...
- Although I made some sacrifices on my Java trip in 2010 to get to Bali in time for my birthday and return flight, I mostly took my time to explore places and was able to experience some fantastic hospitality from strangers I met along the way. Some of those people are now friends I'd like to see again.
- Java has a lot more infrastructure, like access to internet, and I want to trial my gear and system for blogging on the road whilst still travelling light. It will be the first time I backpack with a laptop, and I want to see whether my set up works. Sort of a trial run for the big trip. East NT, however, is still an internet backwater (not such a bad thing really).
- There's a lot of Java still for me to explore, in fact more than 2 months' worth. And when my 2 months is up it'll be no trouble to jump on a cheap flight back to Bali to connect with my homeward flight. Flights back from Nusa Tenggara, sadly, are renowned for their unreliability and frequent cancellations. The upshot of that would be a very long and arduous bus and ferry trip to get back in time for my flight, cutting into my actual "tourist time" by probably a couple of days.
Nothing like writing things down to get some perspective...
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