Climbing the queen of Indonesian Mountain

by Firda Amalia Husna (Indonesia)

A leap into the unknown Indonesia

It was the second time my experience climbing a mountain, Mt. Prau 2.565 meters is our choice for this time. Who doesn’t know mt. Prau? The mount which has the best view and it’s so familiar for Indonesians because it’s always been one of the most popular mineral water product. Prau means ship, but this mountain doesn’t have shape like a ship. from this mountain you can see another beautiful mountain in the central Java such as mt. Selamet, mt. Sindoro, mt. Sumbing, mt. Merapi, mt. Merbabu and mt. Lawu. that’s why Prau always be favorite destination for newbie climber. The best place to take a picture, the best place to drink a cup of coffee. We were riding motorcycle from my friend Tony’s home to Dieng, dieng is one of the way to Prau which people always called as the village above the clouds. But unfortunately, we didn’t find it along the way, the weather was rough at the time. Even we couldn’t find a beautiful view, we hope Prau is going to give me a pleasure and not to disappoint us. 4.30 pm we arrived at Patak Banteng basecamp, time to keep your body warm by a cup of hot coffee and instant noodle because the atmosphere was getting cold. Dieng is known as the extremely extreme weather for tropical countries like Indonesia. However, we can find snow and temperature is below 0 degrees when winter comes, where it shouldn’t exist in a tropical country. We started to climb at 7.00 pm when the sun has gone and changed by the moon that will accompany us in our journey. My friend Ryan prefer to climb at night. Everyone agreed except me for this time, the wind was piercing my bones hard, I was feeling bad. Climbing mt. prau takes only 2 hours for pro, but we do it for 4 hours because I’m a rookie. I’m not suggesting a night hike for mt. Prau, because as I said before the temperature of this mount is extremely extreme. I stopped to rest many times. But, it didn’t make me give up, when your friends are encouraging you there is no reason to give up. this is very important in this situation. As I suspected, Prau is never too quiet from visitor. We reached the summit at 11 pm, Tony look for the place we could set up the tent. Tent was ready but the view at that night was disappointing. No stars, no moon, and too cold to went outside the tent. So, we would rather boil water and drink coffee while talking inside the tent, each one was already using sleeping bag, we made the atmosphere warmer. the only hope is the mountain view firmly lined in the morning as anyone would expect. We sleep with what we can muster. 5.15 am Rhonie woke me up, “wake up, let’s come out to see the sunrise!” he said. Immedietly I open my sleeping bag and get out of the tent, so excited. But again, what I see is only like a big white wall out there. I was so upset, but Tony told me not to be sad, he said, “there is no point regretting a hope we can’t get, just enjoy” he said, “aren’t you upset?” I asked him, “nope” he smiled “peak and beautiful view are not the purpose of climbing, but the effort, the struggle, in our journey is the most we are grateful for.” He explained. “I thought this is what people look for when they climb” I said, “climbing a mountain is like a life, we can expect everything, but we can’t deny that everything is not always the same like we expected, but the important is, how struggle you are to get it, what has you sacrifice for all you want? Time? Energy? Money? the most important is not the success, but the process we have done” he explained So, I tried to be grateful and enjoy every single moment I have. We climb down the mountain at the afternoon, we got a lot of pictures even we did not have the best view, but we have got the best and unforgettable moment.