Gunung Gede – 2958 m

Posted by ronnyvalstad

Gunung Gede (Mount Gede) is located just 2-3 hours south of Jakarta, and is therefore way too close to the city to carry any expectations. I just wanted to get out of the hangry city and hike a volcano during the peaceful month of Ramadan (it turns out fasting people are generally not too keen on hiking). Here are some pictures from the trip.

We left Friday night, spent one night in a hotel right next to the starting point in Cibodas, started walking 10 ish on Saturday and were back in Mega Kuningan by 15:00 on Sunday. We met quite a few people that were doing the whole trip in one day. On the beng-beng scale this trip was a 4-5 (meaning I only ate 4-5 beng-bengs on the whole trip. Check Rinjani’s beng-beng score). To get started you only have to beat the traffic of Jakarta and the bureaucracy of the park…

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We started in Cibodas, camped one night at the top of Gunung Gede, and ended up in Gunung Putri. The first day we walked about 15km, and another 13km the second day.
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The morning view from the hotel in Cibodas.
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This is where all the yellow cars ended up…
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The porters in Gunung Gede had real shoes and proper backpacks.
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One of the advantages of having a stay permit is that I can pay local-price on places like these. The only problem is that a medical certificate is required to get the local price. The tour operator made some doctor’s notes for us…
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Most of the hike takes place in the forest on a path made of stones.
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This is mildly maintained toilet.
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Walking through a steaming hot waterfall was a first for me.
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That is my macho army backpack to the left. The porter was obviously overcompensating for something…
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It wasn’t for the lack of juice in his legs.
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Made it to the top with plenty of time to set up tents and tripods before sunset.
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The view from the top was stunning!
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Øystein let me borrow his wide angle lens.
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Since he brought his drone I figured I could leave mine at home. I’m seriously considering buying the Mavic. The best equipment is the equipment you can actually be bothered to bring and use. Anybody wants to buy a perfectly fine DJI Phantom 3 Advanced?
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The mountain is alive and steaming.
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Smoke coming up from holes in the crater. Awesome!
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Our guide said this place is normally packed. Thanks to Ramadan we got the top almost to ourselves.
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Day 2 started with 30 minutes down through a steep forest before we came to this open valley.
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Then some more forest.
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The locals prefer smoke over fresh mountain air.
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The last part of the trip took us through some farms.
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All the kids were running around with their kites
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Gunung Gede was a very positive surprise. I can highly recommend it as a weekend getaway from Jakarta. Especially during Ramadan. I have no idea how crowded it gets the rest of the season. You can check this page for trips and bookings: http://wisatacibodas.com/. Check Øystein’s homepage and Instagram for drone shots and time-lapses.

There are more volcano adventures lined up: Bromo, Ijen and Tambora! But first some surf trips.

Ronny

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