Bali Volcano and the Goblin Under the Broccoli Tree

June 19, 2014 at 7:32 am  •  Posted in Bali, Hiking, Inspiration, Nature, Sports by

Just the idea of waking up at 2 am made me yawn, let alone actually waking up at 2 am and climbing a volcano. But, it’s a good thing my dad is gifted with powerful persuasive ways, because I looked past that pre-felt tiredness and saw a must-do Bali experience; in other words, I gave in.

 

So, our story begins at a sickening hour in the town of Ubud at the Rumah Cinta. At the spike of 2 o’clock in the morning, a powerful voice bellowed towards a boy of the name Otto Sharples. The voice came from a man named Dad. “Wakey Pakey”, the voice spoke in a melodic fashion, the same tone you would use to shout “yodale heehoo”. Otto, laying in his bed, in a deep, deep slumber was all too annoyed when the blade of his father’s voice pierced into his sleep. He was especially flustered due to his lack of shuteye. He folded his thin layer of covers away from his legs and swung his weight over the edge of his bed, simultaneously letting out a low grunt. His face formed into a hefty scowl. He expanded the crack in his white mosquito net and walked out in a wobbly manner. He slowly stomped his way down the tiled staircase holding onto the wooden rail, still displaying an angry face. He saw Dad, Yve and Wescott waiting at the front door of the house already prepared with shoes and daypacks. Otto had his clothes on and his backpack pre-packed, anticipating his mood the day before. Slipping on his mud stained green and black sneakers without untying the laces, he hopped on one foot over to his string bag filled with snacks and tightened the opening at the top.

 

Otto and his family rushed out the door without conversing and walked through the oak entry gate of the villa onto the walking streets of Penestanan. They hustled down to the main street of Ubud, not surprised to see Juli, their driver, waiting with his car. They exchanged greetings and got in. Otto immediately continued his sleep with his head pressed up against the glass window. While Otto slept, the car stopped at David’s hotel. He was a friend visiting Project Equator and wanted in on the volcano climbing action.

 

“Otto we’re here!” Otto’s eyes opened to a blinking rhythm while they adjusted to the LED lit parking lot. He crawled out the car and spread his arms wide causing a gliding yawn. Some anxious tour guides quickly targeted Otto and his family, haggling with them to try and be their guide for climbing the volcano. One tour guide was selected and escorted the group of volcano-bound adventurists to a room with a small plastic table lit by a single bulb that attracted hundreds of bugs.  This is where they would pay for the tour and get the down-low on what type of hikes they could chose from. The hike that really caught their attention was the 5-hour hike. “The five hour hike is the longest. Your guide will take you up to the rim of the volcano and cook you breakfast. After you watch sunrise, you’ll hike around the rim for a little bit and then check out the volcano which erupted in 2000. You can still see bubbling lava and steam coming out”, the man lecturing in the room explained.

 

With visions of lava and steam, the group unanimously decided that they would take the 5-hour hike and they were on their way. As they all started to walk onto the trail a pleasant surprise excited them.  Juli, their driver was walking along with them. “Juli your coming!” they all exclaimed. They tried to convince Juli days before to come with them but he didn’t want to commit for fear of being too tired after the long drive.

 

Juli, David and the Sharples trekked uphill, up a steep rock slope panting hard and every once and a while, taking a swig of water to make up for the sweat they had lost. Otto’s thighs were burning, but the image of a beautiful sunrise and a scenic view of bubbling lava kept him going. Finally, they had made it to one checkpoint where 50 others were resting as well. The benches were all occupied but they still had time to catch their breath and take a few gulps of water. After 5 mins, they set off again to get to the place where they would watch sunrise.

 

The group arrived at the next checkpoint 20 mins later and luckily they were the only people resting at that checkpoint along with the tour guides. They cooled down quickly because of the crisp cool breeze that skimmed the rim of the volcano. Eventually, they got cold themselves and were in search of warmth. All prepared with coats, they bundled up as much as possible but still couldn’t get warm.  Fortunately, they were on a volcano, and there is nothing hotter on the surface of the earth. The tour guides pointed out some steam holes that they could sit by to warm up.  Otto sat there for so long that when he left, he was colder than before because his skin and hair was moist to the point that it was dripping with moisture from the steam.

 

Many pictures were snapped at the sight of the rising sun over the neighbor island Lombok.  A horizon of pink, orange and red colored strips of cloud, with a glowing orb of light slowly warming the air, memorized everyone.  The sky was beautiful.  A cresent moon sat over head as the sun painted the sky with warm colors and a lightning storm flashing miles away.  The scene started to get more and more crowded during sunrise, but Otto and Wescott sat closely by the warm steam vents to get away from the crowd.

 

While Otto and Wescott bathed in the aroma of warmth, a hairy human-shaped creature passed right in front of them, only a couple of feet away.  Second later, many others creatures followed.  It was a pack of monkeys in search of a quick bite.  The pack of juvenile monkeys walked into the crowded area of the checkpoint.  The funny thing about monkeys is that humans are more scared of them then they are of us, so they’ll use fear to their advantage and frighten their way to a banana in their hands, no problem. The tour guides and terrorized tourists fed the monkeys many bananas and one monkey even snagged a person’s plastic bag filled with food. It was clear that these monkeys do this every morning, because they were pros.

 

With the sun glowing upon their faces, it was time for the humans to hike along the rim of the caldera. With a smile of joy on everyone’s faces, they walked along the crumbly path surrounded by tall golden grass. Every footstep was a crunch of the loose gravel. They looked down the steep slope of the volcano at the black hardened lava flow.

 

I’m grateful that my dad was blessed with the gift of persuasiveness, because I would have missed out on a killer sunrise, a high quality work out, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And the fact that we saw monkeys even doubled the awesomeness factor.  If you didn’t notice Otto is actually me, the narrator. The goblin under the broccoli tree is another story :)

Our group at the top after sunrise! (left to right: David, our guide, Wescott, Juli, Yve, Dad, me)

Our group at the top after sunrise! (left to right: David, our guide, Wescott, Juli, Yve, Dad, me)

 

Wescott and I enjoying some tea at the top.

Wescott and I enjoying some tea at the top.

 

Yve and David.

Yve and David.

 

The monkeys taking off with some of the breakfast items.

The monkeys taking off with some of the breakfast items.

The guides cooked the eggs in the steam vents.

The guides cooked the eggs in the steam vents.

 

Epic views in all directions!

Epic views in all directions!

 

We didn't see bubbling lava but we did see a lot of steam holes which was super cool!

We didn’t see bubbling lava but we did see a lot of steam holes which was super cool!

 

Crater rim hike....definitely worth doing the 5 hour version!

Crater rim hike….definitely worth doing the 5 hour version!

 

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