Mission start at 2.30am after we have a quick breakfast. My body seems
has recovered from fatigue. We are trekking in dark with headlamps.
Everybody motion seems slow due to short sleep. I’m catching up in the
middle of the group. The trails are very sandy and no support
surround. Both my hiking poles shown advantage in this stage. We are
climbing up at 70 degrees. One pole serves as front support and
another as rear. About an hour later we have reach to flat trail.
Clock shown 4.30am and I am confidence can make it to summit to
witness sunrise at 6am. The peak is in dark but I notice it is not
far. Slowly I walk and manage to overtake the earlier group in front
of me. It is still dark and I notice some hikers already approach to
peak. My pace getting slower and hungry. It is very cold and windy
which make me sleepy. The clock keeps ticking and it is already 6am.
Sun has arisen. I miss the chances to score sunrise. The sun ray
illuminates and reveals the real path going to peak. Wow! There is
approx 1km sandy and rocky a climb 70 degree ahead. The harder you
move up, the faster you come down. “Two steps up, one step down”
that’s how guide explained this. Thus 1km climb turn into 3km now. I
am frustrated and convincing myself watching sunrise at this spot is
already good enough. There are only 4 team members on their way to
summit and I am happy to make it so far. Suddenly the member which
suffer from sickness come from behind. He told me not to give up since
we have made it so far. It is battle of mental and psychology after
this. I have to play Rocky theme song in my mind and keep motivating
every step I take. The story’s happy ending is where I reached summit
at 8am.
After spending some wonderful camera time at peak we decided to
descend. The sandy path make easy surfing down all the way. Extra
cautions taken to avoid any miss step which would lead to lethal fall.
I was totally exhausted because of those extra hours use to reach the
peak and not having good breakfast in early morning. It took us approx
3 hours to arrive at camp site. Just after a short break we are up for
Lake Segara Anak. The trails are full of big rocks and stepping down
all time for two hours is really not a easy job. We started
questioning why the journey is so difficult and my feet have swollen.
I wear double pair of socks to lessen the impact to my feet. Finally
we make it to lake side camp site at afternoon. The volcano is
situated 3km away. It was smoking since morning. Another two
attractions here are waterfall and hot spring. Before I manage to
relax myself in the warm pool, porters shout that we have to evacuate
because there is minor eruption at volcano. Ashes start falling from
sky and turn everything in grey. We pray in camp while preparing
dinner. Lucky for us it didn't get worst until next morning. Whole
night the mountain dogs are barking for inconvenience situation.
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