We joined another great Java Lava trip to East Java’s Gunung Raung, probably Java’s most seldom climbed mountain over 3,000 m. Raung is the larger neighbor to the more famous Gunung Ijen, which is where you see the iconic photos of sulphur miners emerging from the crater.
Semeru is a fantastic hike – up there with Tambora and Rinjani as a truly world class hike. A great thing about Semeru is that there are two really easy hiking days (and great campsites) before you climb the challenging ash slope to the summit.
The “alpine” landscape of the Semeru-Tenggara is wonderfully varied, with pine forests, hills, grassy meadows, and the beautiful lake at Ranukumbolo. The drive from Malang to Ranupane village is a stunning introduction to what is coming for the hike. The road climbs up a long, narrow ridge giving striking views of “extreme farming” on steep slopes, Gunung Semeru, and the “Sea of Sand”, which contains the famous Gunung Bromo.
The season got off to an in auspicious start with a rather wet and misty trip to Butak, where we failed to reach the summit and did not get a view.
The hike was a little more challenging than expected, partly because of the wet weather, but also because the trail was very overgrown in places. We were lucky to secure the services of 4 excellent porters in the local village, who hiked at a good pace with our bags while also wielding their machetes to clear the overgrown trail. Their money was well earned!
We decided to escape from our German and Dutch friends who were smugly still enjoying the World Cup, with both their teams playing quarter final games. Actaully, we managed to watch Brazil lose to the Netherlands before leaving on our trip, leaving the Dutch celebrating in the pub. We decided to return to PP Linkungan … [Read more…]
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