Mt. Gede and its story!

HOLA!!

(sorry, Pablo Escobar really influenced my Spanish)

  

I am ready to spill the truth of my first ever Mt. Gede experience!

The story began when my closest colleagues were planning to take their day off in August. I was like "dang, am I the only who will get stuck with the work?"

So, I texted my family via WhatsApp group and I said "hey, don't you guys want to hike Mt. Gede, I think it's a best time to do it, I'm gonna take my days off so please let's hike a mountain". Standing ovation as the output was really unimaginable, both my parents just replied "Okay, Gede Pangrango, you arranged it". I was like "really", they replied "yeah". BOOM baby!

Okay let me get the history straight for you.

I am not allowed to hike a mountain whereas my mom, my dad, my sisters are all mountain hikers (my older sister, not anymore but she ever was a mountain hiker).

Dad said "Okay you're allowed to hike a mountain if you are accepted as a WANADRI member". Are you joking Dad? That's what I thought.

For your information, WANADRI is an organization who gives youth nationalism and skill education with wild nature as the media. In short term, THEY ARE SO COOL. I mean to be one of them is TOUGH! No kidding at all. I couldn't join it because I was still preparing for my thesis when the registration opened.

Long story short, one day daddy said "okay you may hike any mountains, if you can beat this mountain, Mt. Manglayang". That mountain is hella crazy! It's just 1818 masl, but my legs were about to give up and shake unstoppable. However, I beat it! Dad, I beat it!

Back to the original purpose of this story, so yeah now I am allowed to hike a mountain if my parents trust the people who I will be with when I do that.

Mt. Gede is a stratovolcano mountain located in Cianjur and Sukabumi. The adjacent mountain is Mt. Pangrango, higher than Gede. They are now managed by Taman Nasional Gede Pangrango (Mount Gede Pangrango National Park). Our focus was Mt. Gede because it isn't as high as Pangrango.

The mountain itself became the witness of young couple love story back then around in 1980. Well.. well... I'll give you a bit of romantic side of this post. So, my dad and my mom met for the first time at this exact mountain. They met when my mom was still a senior high student, and later on they met again as they went to the same college and joined the wild nature organization. Then many years after they brought us, their children to "their mountain". I'm sobbing :')

First step that I did was complete the registration. You should fill out the SIMAKSI Gede Pangrango to get the permission. You can check it here, all you have to prepare is your personal information, emergency contact and your ID Card picture / scan. Afterwards, you will choose the dates you want  and which starting and finish route you want to choose.

A bit information that if you choose Gunung Putri as the starting point, the route is harder and a bit more extreme than Cibodas. Yet you can stop by or camp in Surya Kencana, the Edelweiss paradise. However, this also means you have to summit Gede first then continue your journey to Pangrango (if you wish).

Note that you cannot go there alone, thus at very least you should apply the registration for 2 - 3 persons.

23 August 2019

Since my sister (only my second sister--Uni, my older one canceled to join because she hadn't done any physical training) and I were very occupied with our work, we need to pack our carrier on this day. Since morning, everyone was minding their own business. I organized my health certificate as one of the requirements after we got accepted through online registration. This paper should be shown when we are about to start the hiking.

I packed my stuff such as clothes, sweater, raincoat, headlamp/light, sleeping bag, and any other stuff to my carrier. Basically, it's easy for me since I don't bring a lot of group stuff.

 

Carriers

 

We (mom, dad, uni, om Bewok and I) headed to Bogor from Bekasi around 5 PM using the local train. We arrived around 8 PM at Bogor station because we rode the turn looping train.

There, we met om Agus and his son-Idan. We chartered angkot-public transportation to go to Cibodas. We chose Cibodas as our starting and finish point because it is more ramps and the road is already built with stepping stones.

We arrived at Cibodas at 1 AM after our first Angkot striked and we changed to another Angkot which has no lights :) Thanks God, we were still alive.

We took a rest in a homestay. There are many homestays around the mountain foot area. If you wish to hike Gede Pangrango via Cibodas, you don't have to worry where to stay overnight.

24 August 2019

Kang Roges and Habib joined us when it was still dawn. In the morning, we prepared everything and re-packed our stuff. Mostly we shared and interchanged our group items. We estimated how heavy we could carry our carrier, because it would interfere our pace when hiking.

I didn't get too many addition items since I am a weakling haha. Kang Roges is our helper actually, tent and stuff, he carried those for our team need.

We walked to TNGGP office to re-registration and check our health.

 

The whole team

At 7.30 AM, we started off. Step by step..

 

 

 

We got pre checked again before we truly off to the mountain. Generally, they asked us to fill the form of our waste responsibility. So, whatever waste you produce during your journey, you must carry it back down.

Group pray before off to mountain

 

 

We walked. Om Bewok has started by himself and out of our sight. Others were walking based on their own pace. The most important thing, when you are a newbie, don't get lost by yourself. You may walk preceding the others, but if you think you are too far headed, stop by and wait for your friends until they come up to your sight.

Anyway, don't be surprise whenever I mention the time, because yeah we were walking with snail pace.

Around one hour later, we arrived at Telaga Biru.

The color at that time is Blue, yes exciting Blue.

We took a moment to rest, drink and smoke (to those who smoke 😩💨)

 

Telaga Biru

Mommy arrived with her guardian

 

We moved on, kept walking the rocky road until we stopped by at tri section of Rawa Panyancangan. If you wish to go to Air Terjun Cibeureum (Cibeureum waterfall), you finally arrive. But if you plan to go Mt. Gede, baby, long walk still awaits lol.

Uni, Idan and I (I mainly walk with them), we just sat for a moment then continued, hiked hiked hiked up.
 

Long log bridge with mountain view

 

 Rawa Denok 1, we just passed it by. Then Rawa Denok 2, we stopped at the shelter as we thought we were too far from my mom. My mom was the tail with anyone who guarded her. That was why we always walked first but then waited for her if we thought it was too far.

It was about 20-30 minutes later until mom, dad and om Bewok appeared. I already froze. I kept putting my hands above the stove as kang Roges and om Agus cooked the water.

 

I drank Energen and ate some chocolates to refill my energy. We also drank a lot in order to lessen our carrier weight, lol.
 

Rawa Denok 2 shelter

We continued the journey. Here, the breathing started to uncontrollable again. As I already took rest for too long, so the lungs must adapt again.

My sister and I started to hike the shortcut. The shortcut is narrow and steep, but it was challenging.

 

The relieving part was when we finally reached Air Panas (hot water). Here we had to hold on the webbing, and stepped on the mildew slippery stone. The steams was very comfortable since the weather was really cold at that time. You can definitely cook an egg from its water. Super lovely!

 

Air Panas

Yeah then we reached Air Panas 2 shelter.

Air Panas 2 shelter

We decided to keep move on to Kandang Batu. There while we were waiting for mom dad and om Bewok, we cooked the rice, heated Rendang (mom cooked and prepared this), and cooked hot water for coffee and tea.

Mom and her guardians came (lol) then we also cooked indomie and having lunch together.

We stayed there until around 2 PM, and lifted our body up to continue the journey.
 

Lunch time

Waiting for Rendang

Always remember your God everywhere

 

Starting from Kandang Batu to up there, the road is not rocky anymore. It's just the soil with uphill topography.

 

 

When controlling the breath was vital action

 

At 3 PM, we catched a breath at Panca Weuleuh, the small waterfall, it is mesmerizing for real!
 

Panca Weuleuh and mommy

 

Finally, we arrived at Kandang Badak around 3 PM! Our camp destination. Apparently because it was weekend, there were so many campers already.
 

 

The sloping camp area

 

 

We all worked together to build the tent and set the flysheet.

5 PM, we were all set up and rest in our tents.

FREEZING, that's how I describe the weather.

If in the foot area 15 Celsius degree, I let you wonder what is the temperature in this area.

 

If you camp here, you don't need to worry about the water. You can take the natural water resources right in this area. There are also two public toilets but you have to queue. Never imagine these are fancy toilets, but somehow here you can pee comfortably without worrying someone will pass by as if when you pee around the bushes.

It was too cold for me to go outside, and I was tired so I decided to sleep after dinner.

At 11 PM, I couldn't hold the urge to pee anymore. Daddy accompanied me to the toilets. Yeah, you always need friend every time and everywhere in a mountain.

25 August 2019

Morning sleepyhead! Breeze of super chill morning welcomed us right when we zip down our tent.

We woke a bit late, then we just had our breakfast around 6 AM, while everybody had left to catch the sunrise in summit HAHA. Nothing to lose kind of team. 

Head Chef

  

7.30--time showed. Climbed up the hilly road to the summit, Puncak Gede. Since the first 150 meter, I already stopped. I couldn't breath, my nostrils flared so big. I even wore 3 layers of cloth, t-shirt-warm sweater-and jacket, but my nose were still acting up. I slowed down, I stopped. I was hardly breathing, it wasn't because I was tired, but the chill was no joke. It also didn't because I have asthma, but I figured out my body couldn't adapt easily with the chill. Luckily, I brought the bottle contained warm water. I put the bottle right to my nostrils, it helped a lot. I walked with that way, lol.

 

The road is narrow, all you can do is walk and climb the uphill road.

 

So did we, walking and trying to catch our breath (thanks we also didn't bring our carriers). After a long walk, we reached the T-section again, the one is called tanjakan setan (many gives other name for it) and the other one is jalur alternative (alternative way). Tanjakan setan is extremely narrow but shorter. Jalur Alternative is safer yet the road is so it will take longer. We chose the safest one though.

 

Then, we were at the top of the mountain.

 

SUMMIT, BABY! Puncak Gede!!

Mt. Pangrango view from Puncak Gede

My enemy isn't the hiking part but going down the mountain. However, I made it safe and sound this time (read : without falling off even once, big deal for me!).

Went home process....... 

After wrap the tent

 

Right before going down

 

Panca Weuleuh

 

Panyancangan collapse.

 

That was all the story. I love it. X.