That night we had a fish bbq back at the hostel. SOOOO tasty, with squid and mackerel. This hostel has a very family-ish atmosphere and before long you're best friends with everyone that is staying there. Shane wasn't feeling so well and tried to get some sleep. Meanwhile I had been talking with a russian couple that had arranged to climb the tallest mountain on bali with a guide that night at 11 pm. The were going to do a camera timelapse of the rising sun and passing clouds. After showing my interest they invited me to join, which I happily accepted, which ment I'd be leaving in 2.5 hours. Sweet! So I went and told Shane my plans and that I would see him the next day and then we'd bounce out to wherever. He sleepily acknowledged. I was a little surprised when Ayeshia the hostel owner said I would need to dress warmly, as I have done nothing but sweat while I've been here in bali. But She had already done it and so I took her advice (thankfully) and grabbed my sweatshirt and jeans and then climbed into the Van with Alexi and Anna.
2 hours later I awoke to the van stopping and Alexi and Anna talking with the driver. We were here and after waiting about 15 minutes we met with out guide and then began trekking up the side of the volcano. Oh yea btw Gunung Agung, is 3148 meters tall. That's about 10328' feet! haha awesome. and after 350 stair steps we had made it to the mother temple, which is at about 1500 meters (4921') Great, we're off to a good start :) Our guide, Potak, made a quick little prayer and offering at the temple and then we were off using headlamps and the nearly full moon for light. It was about 2 am when we started and the sunrise was at 5:45 or so we had to climb about a mile vertically in less than 4 hours. cool. Haha it wasn't too hard but Alexsi is actually an avid photographer and what he was really saying when he told me about doing the sunrise timelapses the night before was "I'm gonna bring the biggest backpacking pack you've ever seen in your lift and carry 4 different professional grade cameras, tripods, audio recording equipment all the way to the top of this volcano." Haha it was a little slow going and I felt bad, but he wouldn't let me carry any of his equipment (except the tripod) haha which I was ok with, I was a little scared of the price tags on his equipment. Well we made it to the summit around 5:15 and began setting up camera equipment left and right. then we waited. And IT was freezing! haha
Oh yea, I spotted this little climbing wall. Looked easy enough, until I actually got to it, it was about a 60 foot wall and after picking out my route I started up the side. There were a couple different types of rocks. Some which stayed put and others which crumbled. After navigating my way up with general ease to the halfway point I began to have doubts. I was not longer dealing with the crumbling material but rather the stuff that was originally staying put was no longer so. I like climbing silly stuff and exploring, but when large basketball sized granite rocks start to dislodge themself a thin boundary line begins to rear its head in the back of my mind. Breath becomes short and rapid, and the all too familiar feeling of vertigo has to be fought off. lol have to spend a couple of moments steeling my nerves to rationalize the situation. Ok, looking up, looks grim, but I feel like I can constantly have 3 points to grab onto the entire way up. (you know encase two of them decide to un attach themselves from the wall) But on the flipside I still have to climb down this stupid rock. Climbing UP is 10 times easier than climbing down. The number one reason I don't climb up certain routes is not that I can't, but rather because I'm not using ropes and the way back down is going to be treacherous. So I decide to go a little further up onto a nice flat rock that I can sit and rest my arms and legs.
Ha, well I made it up to that nice little resting spot but not before realizing that a crevasse I wiggled up through was moving. the rock that made up the crack was about 10 tall and 5 wide, and that baby definitely had some play. So that's where I decided to turn around and head back to our small sunrise surveillance camp.
Our guide laughed at me as I got back and said " dangerous, no?" lol, you bet. He later told me that he is going to bring out some climbers that are going to try to climb around the entire rim of the volcano, They're bringing ropes and harnesses to make it up to the top of that rock formation.
Once I got back to pandang bai, I thanked our guide and said my goodbyes to the russian couple. They were really cool, interesting talking to them about the happenings of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment