|
Arrived in Bali last night. As usual today is a busy day. Damian and I rented motorcycles to get wherever we want...driving around all day in a tropical paradise. Beaches, warm ocean, surf breaks...awesome. It's definitely interesting to drive on the wrong side of road. Zooming through traffic, dodging people and animals. We explored bat caves, wandered desolate beaches, cruised abandoned resorts, bouldered on cliffs by the ocean, surfed a bit, and got lost a lot. I knew this would be a different sort of trip from the start. I felt like I was just on vacation...on a normal vacation that is. |
|
Today we explored the other side of the island. Lots more villages; lots more people. We finally found a good beach and surfed for a while, or tried. We found it quite difficult to get outside. I can't decide whether this is nicer, or home is. This is a tropical paradise, but without all the comforts and pleasures of home. Hard one. |
|
Today we more or less chilled at the hotel. The rest of the group we are going with came in today, so we packed our stuff up for the mountain. The rest of the day was spent being lazy and thinking about life. Pretty good. I can't believe my family is sending me to these far off places where they would never dream to go themselves. They know it's a lot more than climbing, though. To be experiencing all of these cultures at this age is incredible. I'm learning world views, different religions, what's ok and what isn't in different societies. |
|
Today we start the journey towards the mountain. Apparently we will be going through some strange territory. You know those pictures of islanders with loincloths, bones in their noses, and huge spears? Those will be our acquaintances for the next week. Apart from sharing time with natives, Damian and I realized we have something else to look forward to. At Immigration we thought we would leave Indonesia to go to the mountain. Apparently we don't, so our 7 day visa will expire in a couple of days. This could land us a spot in the government prison. Hopefully we can play dumb. We spent all day in airports and island hopping on small planes. We were hours on this one island, so I spent the afternoon chilling in the sun. For dinner we went to a local cafeteria deal. All the locals just stared at us. Then, my "favorite" dinner. They brought out about 10 fish, freshly fried up and slapped them onto our plates, their little faces still looking at us. |
|
1:00 am flight, early start to the day. 3 hours on plane, then 8 hours in a small hostel deal. Ramen noodles and coffee for "breakfast", then back to the airport for this whole deal...my brain shut off and I followed where they told me to go, pretty much. Then, we boarded a small plane (Twin Otter) and flew to another island, presumably the one Carstenz is on. We spent the afternoon cruising the town. Interestingly here, there is a lot of money in the cars. The town is dirty, but a lot of cars are fancy. On our stroll we cruised a local market where in one shop you could find vegetables, machetes, shoes, doorknobs; lots of variety. Nobody local speaks English, but all of them are eager to sell their wares. It doesn't feel like you are 2 minutes from the beach when you are in dark alleys squeezing through people that are looking at you so hard they forget to move. |
|
Early morning drive to the airport, but our flight was cancelled after 2 hours of waiting. It's a flight to a small village farther inland. Off to a rocky start, the day turned out to be amazing. We rented a small catamaran to take us out to a tropical island. The ride was awesome, golden powerful sunrays shining down to glint like diamonds on the water. Reaching down to feel the surface yielded a touch of warmth. The water is so warm. Then we hit the island. It was incredible, something I think everybody dreams of. Less than a mile square, we swam around it, discovering no life. On our beach there was an abandoned Dutch resort, overgrown. A dock led out to a small sunhouse 20 meters offshore. After jumping off this a few times, we grabbed scuba masks and took a look under the surface. It immediately sprang to life. There was a whole coral reef virtually underfoot. We snorkeled for about 2 hours, seeing things I've only seen on TV and more. Moray eels, angelfish, scorpionfish, fish with colors brighter than a 1980's highschool classroom. We got attacked by clownfish and swam with a school of fish so big it was like being in a cloud. Unfortunately our day of paradise had to end. Our palm island faded behind us and we had to look ahead again, to go climbing mountains. Dinner at another cafeteria deal, these places are quite interesting as Indonesians don't share western ideas of cuisine. They eat the same thing 3 times a day so they think we do, too. As for cleanliness, not much can be expected. It's just different than at home.
|
|
Today we caught our flight to Sugapa. It was like taking a step back in time. A hill village, Sugapa is nearly impossible to try and describe. I won't be able to paint the picture I want, but on arrival 100 people turned out to greet us. These people have only seen westerners a few times. Nobody is over 5'8" and all are dressed in rags, probably the same ones they've used for years. The kids all have swollen bellies from malnutrition and parasites and noses dripping with snot and infection. Flies swarm on every open sore and every foot is bare. Mud caked onto their feet, feet with skin like leather. Then the traditional people. Nearly everyone is wearing beads, armbands, and woven headdresses. There are a lot of guys running around naked except for penis gourds. The grins that are flashed reveal teeth blackened from smoking. Bows, arrows, and machetes bristle in the crowds around us. Arriving at our house, we can finally relax. It's hard to tell who likes you and who might be angry with you. It's a little scary. I slept the rest of the day, had rice dinner, and bed. |
|
We were hoping to start walkin early, but as fate has it there was more involved. It's a simple concept-getting porters to carry gear-but that is on the surface. Everybody wants a piece of the pie, but they want to cut their own piece. If one guy wants a job-good-but he might not work if you don't hire his 2 buddies. Then you need to hire people from all the villages along the way. Everyone wants extra money for something. It's a very complicated process to hire 30 porters, but we finally got off. Lucky for us; a group earlier this year was stuck for 3 days. So we started off with a veritable army: 30 porters, 3 army guys, 3 policemen, and 5 hunters apparently needed for passing through the more hostile villages. This was a little unnerving when hiking through primeval territory. With a little work and a lot of bribing and hassling, we made it to the final village, our stop for the night. We were surrounded by people with bone necklaces and penis gourds as we set up our tents. Then the rain started. It was pissing on us, buckets and buckets just kept coming down. |
|
More fighting this morning. It took 2 hours of arguing, then it was decided we could go on if we prayed with the village. So we all prayed, then set off. And today is the start, really. Jungle. Everything made to tire you out, mentally and physically. Falling down mudslopes, tiptoeing on mossy logs, wading through rivers, fighting through bamboo forests. We are going to earn this mountain. It seems rubber boots are the preferred footwear here, but Damian and I are just in goretex running shoes. Not too bad. Camped by a river after a long day, and more tomorrow. |
|
Woke up, packed up, and got going. It's incredible for me. To think how few people, in total, have walked this "trail". And I am at 17. I'll have these experiences for the rest of my life. Crashing through the jungle in Indonesia, always a little worried that something will jump in front of us from the trees. It's thrilling. None of the porters speak English so charades is the game, but it does get a bit scary when they start yelling and waving their machetes around. Every bit of this is so different from home. There is nothing familiar here. Plants, people, food, nothing. It's crazy. Then of course reality kicks in. It started raining, and we had miles of swamp to cross mixed with thick jungle. After 3 hours of rain and 2 hours of standing helplessly at camp, some of the group arrived with porters and gear. We got a tarp set up and struggle through getting gear under it. It was far past dark by the time we were done. Soaking and miserable. |
|
Our day started off looking bright. Pack, breakfast, and start off with sun breaking over the treeline. Tramping through the bog gave us a nice start as we gazed on our surroundings. Last night we broke through the jungle, and were now in a sort of marshy highlands. Damian was doing a small photo shoot of me, and it got me thinking how different this summit is. Or at least the trek in. 6 days of jungle and marsh instead of the usual alpine walking. As much as we're complaining...this is a once in a lifetime. Thick jungle leading to a rock spire wreathed in clouds. Cool concept. Jumping rivers and wading through mud for 7 hours brought us to a relatively dry ridgeline camp. From here we could see tomorrow's walk, down to a big plain then into rolling hills at the foot of our mountain. |
|
A bright morning shone on us during another porter rebellion. These guys just can't make it easy on us. Apparently they now want their friends to get paid for carrying food for them. Complicated. We also seem to have picked up some of the porter's wives somewhere along the way. They carry the potatoes and babies all in one bag. You see the outlines of potatoes in a sack with a baby's foot sticking out. As long as they're happy. A trek in overcast weather ended in the rain again. We arrived at camp just as it started to dump and got set up. This is our last camp before base camp so I think everyone is a bit relieved. |
|
Finally on to base camp. The porters believe the first pass above our current camp is guarded by the devil, so only about 15 could be persuaded to take gear to base camp, and those guys made Damian and me go first through the pass. I could see how they would believe that. This place is spooky. Grey rock spires shifting up into the unknown above the clouds. The air is flat, dead, and all the trees are black, burned. We followed the path past a black lake, and up to our pass. Here things cheered. Skies showed above and white grass waved on the plains. Heading up into more rock, the rock is all limestone, sharp. We continued our climb finally ending up at basecamp. It is located between 2 pointed ridges on the shores of a shocking blue lake. The peak lies over one of the ridges. The group plans to leave around 1:30 am for a 1 1/2 hour approach. Damian and I will get up around 2:30-probably. |
|
August 20, 2009 SUMMIT DAY |
Midnight, and we heard the team start getting ready. We snugged deeper into our bags, chuckling.
They left and the rain began. We then passed out, we'll see what the weather is like later. 6:00 rolled up and took us with it. We were out of camp in 8 minutes with good weather promised. We met the rest of the group at the ridgeline making the usual 7 hour journey in a little over 2 hours. Damian and Johnny style. The climb itself offered less technicality than I was hoping. It was a scramble with fixed lines. Damian and I were going alpine style but most of the protection was to use the gear and to look good. Once on the ridge, we met the rest of the team and went with them to the summit. Wham, bam. I phoned home and couldn't believe that we have done 6 of the 7 summits! Just a couple of months ago we were on the summit of the world, at #2. Now, 4 peaks later, and uncountable experiences, we are on #6, probably the most inaccesible and hostile of the 7. It feels good. I set a goal and I can physically see how well I am doing. It's awesome. |
|
Today a pack up and retreat to the camp below, Devil's Pass. With our conquered peak hidden in the clouds, we ourselves disappeared into the mists. Trekking over rock and grass hidden by the grey air. The porters were so happy to be going home. They all came to help tear down camp, a job they usually watch us do. All day they were running around, shouts and warcries echoed off of the walls. Sort of eerie sometimes. |
|
The last 3 days of walking through the jungle were not too different from the walk in. Only my thoughts were different. On the way in, I was experiencing the jungle, looking at each plant that was different, everything was regarded with amazement. Now, as we went out after summiting, we were pushing long days. Instead of checking out wierd bugs, we were focusing on getting downhill. A flip of mindset I would say. And after the 6th summit, I'm so glad we walked into it. Some people fly to the base camp by helicopter, but that doesn't give the character that walking does. Walking in makes this peak a challenge, especially when it rains a lot. Looking at all the summits so far, each one completely stands on it's own with the local culture, the walk in, and each summit day. Now I see why the 7 Summits are a goal for people. For me, it was really about the climbing, gaining experience to use later. But now I see it as much more, I see it like other people. Travelling to 7 continents, experiencing the cultures, the food, the local people, everything is amazing. This has been an incredible year, all travel. Learning so much. Every continent and mountain you learn things about the culture and it makes me think about my culture, so I learn about myself culturally as well. It's a crazy concept, maybe I had too much time in the jungle. But we made it out, drank 47 Cokes and Sprites between 3 of us at Sugapa, and purchased some local clothing. Pictures included later. |
|
|
