Believe it or not, ever since I read the
story of “Hansel and Gretel” many years ago, I have been obsessed with deep
forest. I was fascinated when I was able to hear the sounds of wild birds and
smell the wet ground for the first time sixteen years ago. Back then, I was with
my high school friends, wandering in the national park of Pulau Rambut.
On the last day of trekking in Rinjani, we
would encounter a tropical rain forest which was the main part of Rinjani’s
national park that would lead us to the final point at Desa Senaru.
After taking
a long hour sleep, due to my getting a fever, I woke up at six in the morning
to start the last trek. We had pancake and toast, served with a cup of hot tea
for breakfast. If I hadn’t taken the pictures of the lake on the other day,
that morning I was eager to press the shutter button of my camera, capturing
the lake and its surroundings, even though it wasn’t as magnificent as it looked
in the afternoon.
Since my toe
nails were about to pop out and injured from the previous-day trek, I put on my
mountain sandals and let the porter bring my trekking shoes on his basket.
To reach the
final point at Desa Senaru, we first had to reach the camping ground at
Plawangan Senaru. That would mean climbing up rocky path. Too rocky that at
some points we had to climb with our hands. It was almost like rock climbing,
only lower. The path was so narrow that we had to step aside whenever we passed
by other people coming from opposite direction. The path we had to walk through
might be tough, but we were rewarded with beautiful scenery of the lake and the
new volcanic mountain below.
Three hours
of climbing up from the lake, we reached the camping ground at Plawangan
Senaru. There, for the last time, we took pictures of the lake, because after
that, we were going to climb down another rocky path before entering the rain
forest.
At this
point, the group was again split into two, considering my feet and also because
Karen and Patrick had to catch a ferry to Gili Trawangan, a tiny island where
they were going to stay overnight before departing to Jakarta and fly back to
Canada. They were guided by one porter. The other porter and Syaiful, remained with me and Gilang.
My feet were
still hurt. Along the path down to the forest, my nails kept bleeding every
time I pressed my toes against the sandals. Many times Gilang advised me to
walk with the heels instead of the toes. It sounded easy of course, but believe
me, it was something challenging to do, especially for me who was not
accustomed to walking with heels.
At one
point, I took a picture from below, trying to show you the rocky path that we
had walked through from Plawangan Senaru.
It was a
relief for me when we finally walked on flat ground. Like the other days in
Rinjani, the fog would come down around the midday and afternoon. We stopped
for a while at Cemara Lima, 2508 meter above the sea level, before entering the
tropical forest. Then, there came my favorite part, walking along the path
inside the woods. Syaiful picked up a strawberry that grew in the
forest. Its size was smaller than the regular one I found in mountainous towns
of Ciwideuy and Pangalengan.
The forest was
home for hundreds of monkey, which according to Syaiful, were divided into two
different species: the grey ones and the black ones. While we stopped by at
post three for a break in the midday, I found a gray monkey who was enjoying
his lunch. I tried to capture the moment with video from my Canon G-12. The
gray monkey was so much friendlier with human than the black one.
From post three;
2000 meter above the sea level, we walked to post two which was 500 meter lower,
walking along the descending path which was dominated by naturally made stairs
of roots. Gilang walked hundred meters ahead with the porter.
At post two,
we took a lunch break where I threw up nearly all the spaghetti I had eaten.
Apparently, I was not recovered yet from the mountain sickness. The only thing I had in mind was how to
return to the ‘normal’ civilization as soon as possible, so I could have a
descent way to poop and pee.
It had been
eleven hours since we left the camping ground at the lake of Segara Anakan. We
finally reached the gate of the national park which was called Jebak Gawah by
the locals. By most trekkers, this gate was considered as the starting point of
the trek from Desa Senaru.
There,
Gilang and I had to say good bye to “Mister” Adi who had been our porter since
the first day of the trek. After tipping him and shaking his hand, we moved
forward to the last point where we were going to be picked up by the trekking
organizer with a car that would take us to Senggigi.
We walked
along a plantation, fenced with bamboos, belonged to local people. For the
first time in my life, I see coffee and cocoa trees. The locals called the
cocoa as “kopi coklat.”
At 5.40, we
reached the last point, left behind the national park. A car had waited for us.
We went first to meet Pak Harry, the organizer, at his house. We said good bye
to Syaiful who had been very nice during our three days of trekking in Rinjani,
and promised to keep in touch.
We went
straight to Senggigi that night. At
around eight, we arrived at a guest house in Senggigi, not so far from the
beach. Gilang went out to buy dinner and a medicine to overcome my fever. After
taking a shower, I had dinner and took the pill. When I was about to sleep, I
couldn’t help but trying to convince my self that we had actually reached the
summit, the highest point of the mountain. But every time I feel my legs, yes I
would be convinced.
- Sunday, July 22, 2012
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