Breaking Dawn Part 2 Sub Indo
Raina Giorno
We had visited a few stinking craters in the Dieng Plateau, visited tea plantations, hot springs and a surreal crater lake in Bandung, investigated the ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples of Prambanan and Borobudur near Yogkakarta and yet.... we still felt that we hadn't yet fully romanced with the island's true essence.
Being such an active and explosive volcano, Mt. Merapi has a very colourful history and many of its past eruptions have caused numerous fatalities and displaced thousands of people from their homelands.
During an eruption in November 1994, a pyroclastic flow raced down the western flank of the mountain towards the village of Muntilan and killed 27 villagers, who were unable to evacuate in time. Since then there have been several more pyroclastic flows, lava flows and volcanic earthquakes.
Mount Merapi is tackled by most people from the small village of Selo, located at the foot of the mountain on its northern face. Selo sits at an elevation of about 1,600 m above sea level, putting it about 1,300 m below the summit of the volcano.
You can use the Trans Jogja rapid transit bus service (only 4,000 IDR) to get from Jalan Malioboro in Yogyakarta to the Yogyakarta Bus Station, where there should buses leaving for Kartasura on a fairly regular basis.
Another affordable option is to hire a motorcycle in Yogyakarta and ride it to Selo. Just take a small daypack with you on the bike and if you have a larger primary backpack, you can ask your guesthouse to look after it until you get back to Yogyakarta.
The best area to look for affordable accommodation in Yogyakarta is around Jalan Sosrowijayan, just off the main thoroughfare of Jalan Malioboro in the city centre. You'll find a high density of small, agreeable guesthouses catering primarily to foreign tourists in this part of the city.
Once you reach Selo, a small side road branches off the main road running through the village and leads uphill along an asphalt road for about 1.5km to the trailhead at a viewpoint known as New Selo.
About halfway up this hill, you will meet a registration checkpoint where you will be forced to buy an overpriced 'foreigner' ticket. We've written more below on how to avoid running into the ticket mafia.
We actually decided to spend one night in Selo and stayed in a very basic, non-descript guesthouse along the main drag, where the owner started chatting to us and told us his nickname was 'superman' was because he had climbed Mount Merapi hundreds of times in his youth.
The summer months (May-October) are the driest months for climbing Gunung Merapi. During the wet season (November-April), there's a higher chance of having the expedition beset by bad weather and trails become more slippery following heavy rains. However, you can still climb it in the wet season and many people do.
Since the distance from New Selo to the crater summit is only 3.5 km and the elevation gain is a doable 1,356 m, many people tackle Mount Merapi as a very challenging day-hike and this was our approach as well.
Just be warned that the climb is generally quite steep and strenuous with broken ground and uneven terrain. The final push to the summit is tremendously steep and involves climbing up a slope of loose shifting scree and volcanic sand.
Otherwise, a very early morning start (5 a.m) would be best to avoid hiking uphill in the midday heat. You should be back down in Selo by mid-afternoon at the latest if you do it this way and won't have to descend in the darkness.
A third option that seems to be popular with adventurous Indonesian backpackers is to set out in the late afternoon or evening, camp in a tent on the mountain overnight and then tackle the final push to the summit the following morning.
Guides are not necessary or compulsory for Mount Merapi because the trail is easy enough to follow for the most part, although you will need to care not to lose the correct track in the forested lower reaches of the mountain.
If not taking a guide you do however need to keep yourself briefed on the latest safety reports and warning status of the mountain. It is an active volcano after all! Locals in Selo will know the situation best so ask around.
If climbing without a guide, we recommend you go with a friend, although if going it alone there is still a good chance you'll run into a group of other hikers if you're trying to reach the summit for the sunrise, especially if it's a weekend.
The guides however are well aware of people trying to tag along with their group, so you should probably just try to avoid the guided groups altogether. Just don't become another statistic like the Indonesian student who got lost in September 2002 and fell down a ravine to his death.
Expect to pay around 300,000 Rp. per person for a group of 2 or 3 people. The price will jump to about 450,000 Rp. if you're planning to camp overnight. That's why it's much better to do it without a guide, if you can.
Assuming you're tackling the mountain as a day hike, you won't need to pack too much and the less you pack the better, because the climb is already arduous enough without the burden of a heavy backpack.
If you're planning to camp, tents seem to be the most popular option and there are also plenty of places to string up a hammock and tarpaulin, even in the upper reaches. Make sure you bring a warm sleeping bag and sleeping mat too because it gets quite chilly up there at night.
If climbing without a guide and especially if hiking at night to make it to the summit for the sunrise, take some means of navigation, just to get you up above the treeline. We recommend a smartphone with GPS and a downloaded map of Java island with the maps.me offline navigation app. This app is the best we've found for accurate GPS hiking trails.
Be warned that there are very few, if any possibilities for obtaining drinking water along the trail to the summit. Any streams or springs you do find will probably be sulphurous and unfit for drinking so you should make sure you bring plenty of drinking water and if camping overnight, bring loads.
He asked us if we had bought tickets and we told him we had (lying of course). When we were able to quote him the correct price for the ticket he was seemingly convinced and allowed us to continue.
The climb begins from New Selo on a concrete path that passes through an agricultural area and soon starts to rise up steeply through forested terrain. Here you will often find yourself walking inside deep ruts in the trail and hiking up steep mud paths criss-crossed by tree roots.
Macaques, forest birds and beautiful wildflowers may be spotted here along this forested stretch if hiking during the day time, although if you're trying to catch the sunrise, you'll have to wait until the descent to see this part of the mountain properly. There are a couple of checkpoints and a shelter along the way where you can take a breather and have a water break.
After a few hours of hiking and considerable altitude gain, the trees start to become shorter and smaller, the vegetation becomes thinner and you will find yourself walking along a fairly narrow ridge. The spectacular views begin around here and continuing up along this ridge, you will eventually be brought above the tree line.
Just above the tree line, there's a great opportunity to view several other volcanoes far off to the west. The most distant peak is Gunung Slamet and the two closer ones are Gunung Sumbing and Gunung Sindoro. Beyond Sindoro to the northwest lies the Dieng Plateau volcanic region.
The lunar landscape of Pasar Bubrah is quite surreal and many people may be camped here in colourful tents when you arrive. Some guides may stop here at the plateau, depending on the current status of the volcano.
Once you reach the true summit you can peer inside the crater and witness the 'smoke' (actually a mixture of steam and other volcanic gases like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide) emerging from the rocks.
The summit ridge, which curves along the crater edge, is very narrow and steep on either side so great caution is advised when walking up here. Tragically, a young 21 year-old man from Yogyakarta died here in 2015 when he attempted to take the perfect selfie while standing too close to the edge of the crater.
If you arrive before the sunrise then it's just a waiting game in the chilly pre-dawn air. We managed to somehow arrive perfectly on time for it and the sun was just peeping above the horizon at the very moment we set foot upon the summit ridge.
A few other hikers, both Asian and Western, had arrived at the peak before us but their presence didn't spoil the magic of the occasion. It was truly a momentous occasion, standing there upon the summit of Indonesia's most active volcano, as our chilled bones welcomed the first warming rays of the morning sun.
Following the glorious sunrise, the pre-dawn darkness that hung over the valley below was rapidly lifting, revealing stunning views of the formidable looking Gunung Merbabu to the north and the plateau below where the hikers had pitched their tents.
When during our descent we reached the ridge below the treeline, we found an unattended red hammock set up at a vantage point overlooking the same incredible cloud inversion that we had first seen from the summit earlier in the morning.
Because we were pretty spent from the ascent, coming back down wasn't the easiest task in the world but we managed it well enough. Our feet were definitely beginning to develop some hotspots but thankfully no blisters developed before we reached New Selo at the bottom.
After reading this guide, you should now be fully prepared to take on the mountain. The next thing is to go and climb it once you get the opportunity. We hope you enjoy it and experience beautiful, clear weather and have fabulous views as we did.
Our names are Eoghan and Jili and we hail from Ireland and India respectively.
We are two ardent shoestring budget adventure travellers and have been travelling throughout Asia continuously for the past few years.