Springbrook and the big bang

 

While in SE Queensland last week for a family visit, we took the opportunity to visit the mountainous Gold Coast hinterland's Springbrook area. There's lots to see and do there, in the way of rainforest and waterfall walks especially. 

Springbrook is on the 'Scenic Rim', and I was quite taken by the views to the south, across the enormous 23 million year old volcanic caldera.

This was the site of one of the planet's biggest explosions. The crater is still there, and is about 40km in diameter, and the amazing Mount Warning is at the centre.

 

 

Here's one of the many waterfalls of the area, Purling Brook Falls.

 

 

 

 

Back in our digs at Surfers Paradise, I realised that I could pretty well see the crater's general form looking out of the window even from there.

Bukittinggi's volcanoes

There's a long line of volcanoes running down the length of Sumatra. Many are active, and one of the most consistently active ones is Marapi, pictured on the left here. (Not to be confused with Java's Merapi, with an 'e', which I climbed three years ago. Earlier this year Marapi exploded several times, and there was still smoke coming out of it last month.

On the other side of Bukittinggi is Singgalang - not active just at the moment I think. The clouds on the picture below are just clouds. I'd planned to climb a volcano or two on this trip to Indonesia, and these two would have been prime candidates. Didn't happen. A mixture of lethargy and a lack of other willing tourist expeditioners to share the costs with.

Lake Maninjau

The road down to West Sumatra's Lake Maninjau is quite an attraction in itself, with its 44 hairpin bends. Here we are, approaching bend 21.

It's a huge and scenic lake, formed 52,000 years ago in a volcanic explosion. Travellers often spend a few days here while exploring Sumatra.



One of the things you do is swim in the lake, usually in one of its 'hot springs' areas. I had a swim, and revelled in the perfect warm water conditions. I swam around and tried to locate the edges of the warm area, but couldn't find them. I was a bit hindered by my fear of the buffalo that was sharing the water with me. Saw later that it was in fact tethered to the shore, so I needn't have worried!

Searching for Sembungan

One of the things to do while visiting the Dieng Plateau in Central Java is to wander up the road from Dieng Village, to the highest village in Java: Sembungan (2300m). From there you continue a little further, and climb the mini volcano, Gunung Sikunir (another 100m or so to the top).

I was wanting a bit of volcano-climbing practice before attempting the real one - Merapi -and if there's a Java's highest village to knock off along the way, then that's fine with me.

Lonely Planet said it was a kilometre and a half from Dieng village to the Coloured Lake, and a further kilometre and a half to Sembungan. It said nothing about any other villages in between. Well that latter distance turned out to be all wrong. It was three or four kilometres at least, and there were two other villages along the way which The Book made no mention of. So I kept coming into yet another 'Java's highest village', photographing it, and continuing
upwards. One of these was this one, with the usual quota of very friendly residents and a stack of irrigation pipes spanning the roadway to service their potato fields.

Another was the one I strolled through while the noon call-to-prayer was playing from its one mosque and two prayer halls. A magnificently atmospheric experience.

Eventually I came upon the real Sambungan (pictured at top, with little Sikunir behind it). It was full of magnificently friendly folk, some very keen to ham it up for my camera!






Most domestic tourists who climb Sikunir, do it to the usual pre-dawn timetable, for the sunrise view. It's not much of an ascent, but a big deal seems to be made of it, with a sign at the base telling you all about the things you need to do and take with you! I must admit, I'd even forgotten my drinking water this time. But what with the cool climate and the rather undemanding little climb, I somehow made it back unscathed!

Climbing the Mountain of Fire

Central Java's Mt Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It has erupted several times in the last few years, and it often looks like it does on the poster I saw, probably depicting the situation four years ago. I even remember peering at it from a safe distance on a visit to Yogyakarta nearly three decades ago, and it looked like the poster then too!

When planning my Central Java trip the Merapi climb was the one thing I told everyone I was determined to do. So climb it I did. I found all the organised tours insisted that you do the night climb, ready for the view of the sunrise from the top. They pick you up from Jogja at 10pm, drive you to Selo village, give you a cup of coffee, a torch, and some guides, and up you go. I spent a day or two looking for someone who would do it to a slightly later timetable, thus allowing a bit of beauty sleep beforehand. They were all insistent though, that the standard timetable was the one to do.

It's a very steep and steady slog, ascending from 1500m to 2900m in four hours. Somehow the sleepless night wasn't a problem. The loose and slippery surfaces were though. We all slip-slided our way up in the volcanic dust, scree and sharp rocks, and it was like doing double the ascent. There were four rest stops along the way, and at one of them, just below the tree line, the guides lit a morale boosting fire to warm us and dry our sweaty backs.

At one of the seismic monitoring stations, one of the guides tried to contact the seismic HQ people for an up-to-date activity report, but couldn't get through. We can proceed anyway, he announced, "but careful". He told us later that he was seeing more sulphurous gas than usual coming out of the various fumeroles around the place, and he wasn't keen on spending longer up there than necessary.

We made it to the top with a few minutes to spare, and the views were magnificent - before, during, and after the sunrise. You perch on the knife edge of the crater below, and try not to move too quickly or pass too close to a fellow trekker in case you're accidently despatched. There's an amazing moonscape around you, and a new summit that you don't actually try to conquer. I gather that it appeared during the 2010 eruption, and increased the height of the mountain by 38m. Just to the north there's the spectacular Merbabu volcano, and looking either east or west you see a whole string of volcanoes peeking out of the cloud layer - the chain that forms the spine of this most volcanic island in the world.

Going down takes two hours only! That's because you can see where you're going, and because in the scree sections at least, it's almost impossible not to run! There were of course cuts, torn clothes, and at least one ankle sprain. The guides agreed that they do in fact have serious injuries too, and do get to take people to hospital sometimes.

Breakfasted in Selo, and back in Jogja by midday, I felt good about my Fire Mountain experience.

Wanna see my slides? - I've been to Java too!

And what a trip it was. I went to Central Java, specifically Solo City, the Dieng Plateau, and Yogyakarta (Jogja), to fill in a missing link in my Indonesia travels.

There were sultans' palaces, bicycle tours of the padi fields, a gamelan foundry, bird markets and countless other market scenes. There were the ancient Hindu temples at Prambanan, volcanic bubbling lakes, brightly painted mosques galore, and joyous festivals, marches, and gatherings of all kinds.

There was a world record giant batik production event. There was my night ascent of the 2911m Mt Merapi volcano. There were happy crowds of weekend domestic tourists on the beach and elsewhere. And there was the 'Idul Adha' Muslim Day of Sacrifice festival, where I was welcomed warmly.

Most of all there were friendly souls everywhere. What a wonderful place. What wonderful people. We probably don't deserve such good neighbours

 

I'll write up a few of my adventures in more detail over the next few posts.