Watching the news with its update from the local television on Merapi Mount Eruption brings back my memory to my first mount climbing long time ago. It was perhaps in 2002 or 2003, I joined the Merapi Mount Climbing with Sentraya Buana, a group of nature loving students in my collegue. There were about twenty or more set off for the adventure. We took off by small bus or van, strange i did not remember the details of our transportation. We made our camp post in one of the local villagers' house. It was used for climbers as their base camp before taking a hike on the mountain by midnight. I remembered we had some hot tea or coffee, and some snacks while arranging all preparations. I did not make any special arrangement for this, just taking a jacket, a pair of shoes (which were definitely inappropriate for mountain climbing, lol), mineral water, a silly hat, and my backpack (which was poorly fill in). I did not quite know well the other students from our goup. There's only three of my colleague friends i knew well, Yuni Wulandari, Ambhita and Eva). They made me go into this crazy climb. Well, I always love mountain, and had long a dream to make the climb, finding the Eldeweiss flowers perhaps, lol. My head was full of so much imagination I got from books I read about mount climbing, the beautiful sunrise, the lust green vegetation, wild flowers, perhaps a little bit adventure with the wild animals, lol.So, for the first time in my life I climbed the mountain in real. We waited until midnight. We set off for the hike at 11.30 pm or so. The wind was freezing and it was totally dark. We made use our flaslight, the stars, and the crescent moon as our source of light. We felt the moist coming from the fog and cold air brushed our face. We sometimes had difficulty in breathing the higher we got. The path was not as hard as I thought. As the path was often used by mount climbing lovers, it became solid and easy to get pass. When the wind got harsher, we had to stop for a break. The rule was clear "DO NOT GET SEPARATE FROM THE GROUP". So, within each round, someone would always shout our names, making sure, the group stayed intact. Some managed to bring music player, and some sang. I remembered we listened to Kitaro music. It was awesome. I mean listening to such natural music in nature, though we hardly saw our surroundings, lol. I did'nt drink a lot during the journey up because taking nature calls in the wild unknown zone with no water, no river was quite horrofying for me. So I drank as little as possible to avoid having an urge to go to bathroom...because i found no running water, no river, no water whatsoever in this wild...just the trees, grasses, and night insects.
By dawn we got at the base of the crater. I could see the surroundings by now. And definitely it was not as majestic as I had imagined. We made the climb after an inferno engulfed the mountain a few months before. The devastation was barely laid within our eyes.The burning leaves and grasses....the wrecked branches...it was like seeing a destructed forest after the fire. But the big rocks were awesome. I managed to jump over one by one. The sunrise was magnificent. Morning Pray in this wildlife was absolutely soothing. We made it safe and sound. No one was left behind. There was a kind of little lagoon below us. Some of my colleagues went there, but i was just sitting around, spreading my soaring legs in the shade of a tree untouched by the fire. This was Merapi from up close with its sand, rock and half burned vegetation. I saw no Eldeweiss nor any wild flowers around. Some climbed higher up to its top to see the crater. I did not get a long as my shoes betrayed me in the track up to the crater. It was slipery as sands jixed with small stones/pebbles from its previous eruption scaterred alongside the path. I just waited at the base of the crater...it was my worst regret of never seeing Merapi crater.
After staying awhile, we started to climb down the slope. It was around 8 or a.m. The sun was burning hot, not even my silly hat could save me from its heat. The way down the slope was much more difficult. It was a real ordeal with the sun glaring on to of us. It made me drank a lots which in turn It made getting the urge for bathroom. Off course I could not do my personal need in the wild, so I had to hang on till we reached our base camp. The journey back down was a torture, lol. At daylight, I could see the vicinity...mostly half burned trees and grasses. The air was damp. The sun was too hot. I enjoyed my night journey better than the day. Beads of sweats rolled over our faces, shirts, and bodies. We smelt terrible. By the time i reached the camp (perhaps it was around 2 or 3 p.m), I rushed to bathroom. Wow, that was definitely a heaven after seven hours walk of an ordeal, lol. The cold water soon coolled off my head and body. Unforunately, in dry season like this, water was scarce. So I managed to bath only with a few buckets of water, perhaps only a bucket. I had no idea that living close to nature like this could be tiresome, lol. We had to share water so the rest of us could get a little.
That's the first mount climbing i've never forgot. In my life, I climbed only two mountains, it was too little for mountain climbing lovers, lol. I guess I am not quite made of such tough life, lol. Anyway, my longing for the forest and mountain is satiated when I visit my grandmother each year during Eid ul Fitr. I always love taking a stroll at the little forest at the back of her small village. Yeah, I guess I love the wilderness, just having little chance to live by it, lol.
Now, Merapi Mount is erupting. It keeps producing vulcanic material and clouds running down its slope. It's hard to imagine if I climb the mountain in time like this. The vulcanic cloud is leathal, destroying anything on its path. Its heat can reach up to 600 degree celcius. It has claimed tens of life in its eruption last Tuesday. Last night, it erupted again, spewing fire and clouds of vulcanic ash to down its slope. The ash has reached as far as Yogyakarta city and Gunung Kidul Area. It means its effect can be felt up to 65 km away. The police and armed forces were forced to evacuate people by force because these people in dangerous zone did not want to leave their homes. They were worried if they went away, their property, their catlle, and their belonging would be looted by irresponsible people.
I pray no more victims if Mount Merapi erupting again. Hopefully, people will obey the order if they are told to leave their homes when imminent dangers threathening their lifes.
No comments:
Post a Comment