PHOTOGRAPHY TRIP TO MOUNT GALUNGGUNG
Having a
three-days holiday means that I have to do some photography trip. There are
some places in West Java that I really wish to visit. So, with strong
determination I planned my trip with the following schedule;
Day 1 : Get
sunrise in Argapura terrace ,and visit Curug Puteri (Puteri Waterfall),
Day 2 :
Visit Galunggung Mountain, and Curug Dengdeng,
Day 3 :
Visit Telagabodas crater, and getting back home.
On May 5th,
I got my bike and started my trip. Unfortunately, due to traffic (caused by
holiday season), Rainy weather, and other technical issues, the only place I
could visit was Galunggung Mountain. It was so unfortunate that I could not
manage to fulfill the plan, but hey, at least I tried and it was not a complete
failure anyway :D
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| Traffic during holiday |
Galunggung
mountain is perhaps one of the most beautiful mountain in West Java. In ancient
times,
the mountain erupted, leaving a huge (it is Indeed very huge) crater in
the center of it, and over time, parts of the crater were filled with water,
making it looked like a lake. Galunggung Mountain is not an “actual” mountain,
meaning that we don’t have to climb all the way to the summit, instead we just
have to hike the 600 steps (or so) of stairs. Well yes, 600 steps doesn’t look
like a problem at all, but in reality, it is very leg-breaking. The most
saddest part when hiking this stair is the condition of the stair itself. Well,
I’m not saying that it is unfafe to hike, but some of the handrail are in a
very bad condition, some of them are even lost ! Moreover, there are so many
sketches (handwriting, gravity) along the stair done by “un-educated” visitors.
I think that’s the problem with this country, as there are too many
irresponsible people living here.
After
we hike the stair, we will arrive in the peak of the mountain with a huge
crater in front of us. Most people usually enjoy the scenery (and taking
photograph) from up here. However, we can go further down to the crater by
walking down the sandy trail which is located on the other side of our beloved
600-hundreds-steps stair. That’s right where I was planning to go as it was
definitely no way for me to get photograph from up there with tons of people
lurking around taking photograph with their cellphones.
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| The 600 steps stair |
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| View of Galunggung crater from atop the mountain |
And so my
journey begins… I walked for a few hundred metres to get to the other side of
the crowd and arrived at the aforementioned trail, The trail, which led to the
crater, was not too steep.However, you have to be extra careful when hiking
down this trail in rainy season, because it makes some of it slippery. Halfway
to the crater, the structure of the trail was spontaneously changed, from muddy
soil to a complete black sand ! Yeah right, I’d have to walk my way to the
crater by walking this sand. It felt kinda awkward when I step my feet and then
they just getting “swallowed” by sand. We can actually safely sliding down this
sand trail for fun :D
Around 15
minutes, I arrived in the crater of the mountain. Being in the there felt like I
was stranded in another world. It was the complete opposite from up there, the
was hardly no one but me (there were couple of people fishing in the lake). It
was so quite down there, making it easir for me to scout the area and find a
composition. If only other tourism objects would doesn’t have any crowd just
like down there…
However, I
was disappointed by the fact that there were so many litters down here.
Whenever I walked, I always found a litter or two which is very sad L. I heard that this area was used by some
people as a camping ground, maybe that’s where all this litter came from. To
those of you reading this, wherever you go and whatever you do, PLEASE DO NOT
leave anything instead of your footprints !
After
spending some time, I decided to shot the lake in the crater. The greenish
water, which is caused by algae, made it looked like an alien world. I decided
to take few images of the lake with a different composition. Still, I found it
hard to get the right composition due to unevitable presence of the litters.
I decided to
end my time in the crater because some people were coming down to set a camp. I
walked the other trail which led me back up to the “Hell stair”. This trail
consisted of muddy soil and stones which is kinda slippery, so I had to be very
careful when hiking up. Upon arriving at the stair, the crowd was increased
(luckily, I was done with my photography :D), then I decided to leave the
place.
Watch the video below to see how I made it, more vlogs to come :)
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