This story began in late 2019 when my friends and I wanted to hike a mountain. I gave them a suggestion about hiking to Lawu Mountain and they were excited about it. But we had a problem which was money. We must have a lot of money if we want to hike that mountain because it is too far away from our town. So, not everyone felt optimistic. Then, I gave another suggestion to hike Puntang Mountain because it is in our town so it won't need much money. But some of my friends still wanted to go to Lawu and because of that just a few friends of mine that would hike to Lawu Mountain next year in 2020.

Then, we made a plan that we will hike in 19th - 22nd January 2020. Because we're just 4 people, I invited some friends from another group of friends. So now we're 7 people who are Bobi, Alfath, Misbah, Fathur, Arin, Bella, and me. We were preparing all the things we have to bring and buy.

January 19th, 2020. Finally, the day has come. We have prepared all the stuff and ready to go. In about 8 p.m we went to the Kiara Condong Railway Station using Go-Car and arrived there at 9.30 p.m. There were a lot of people in the station, I thought it wouldn't be that many. As always, we were taking some photos and updating our social media status while we were waiting for the train. The gate to the train entrance was open at 10.15 p.m. After it opened, we went straight to the train so we can store our carriers on it. The train departed at 11.15 p.m and would be arrived around 08.43 tomorrow morning. On the train, we talked and ate a little and we fall asleep at midnight.

January 20th, 2020. I woke up early in the morning and I was still on the train. The view outside was magnificent when the sun just rose. A few hours later around 9 a.m., we arrived at Sragen Railway Station and we got out of the train there. Two days before we go, we have booked a car which will carry us to the basecamp of Lawu Mountain and also will carry us back to the station when we will go home. We waited for about an hour and then the car came. The driver took us to the basecamp and we arrived there around 11 a.m. We planned that we will start hiking tomorrow morning because we didn't have enough food for 3 days in the mountain, we had to wait for a grocery driver tomorrow morning. So, we just rested there and did daily activities such as take a nap, eat, chat, play games, etc. There is a temple there that is Candi Cetho. In the afternoon we walked there to see the temple. The view there is nice by the way. And I tried some kind of meatball that is called pentol, it tastes very good. At night, we were just hanging out until we fall asleep.

January 21st, 2020. I woke up early morning again but now I was at basecamp. We did shalat and we were getting ready until a grocery driver comes. Some of us took a bath, but not me. The water was really cold and make me felt freezing, so I didn't want to. We ate porridge for breakfast. But it tastes so bad. I was forced to eat it because it was bought. After that, the grocery driver came and we bought some foodstuff for we eat on the mountain. We bought mushrooms, flour, oil, seasoning, and vegetable for soup. And we also bought two fuel cartridges because we were not allowed to bring it on the train. After everything ready, we went to the real basecamp of the track to the mountain. We registered our identity and pay for the ticket or known as simaksi. Then we started.

We walked through the track that is structured by stones for maybe 1.5 km. The weather is sunny that makes us felt happy. The vegetation there is the same as other mountains that I have hiked, but still felt amazing though. Around 15 or 20 minutes after we start we found another temple which is Candi Kethek and we saw some people doing worship there. I wanted to take a photo of the temple but I didn't. We hike across the soil track and it's getting steep. On the way to Pos 1 we were still enjoying the track and I had time to eat some candies. After about 50 minutes, we reached Pos 1 and took a rest for a few minutes.

At 9 o'clock, we were continuing our hiking. On the way from Pos 1 to Pos 2 still easy to stepped in because it is not too steep but the track is full of soil, just a piece that arranged by stones like before. The vegetation is still the same and we started to feel a bit tired and thirsty. We drank some times and also listening to songs while we were hiking. After an hour, we reached Pos 2 and we took rest again. Actually, we took rest many times on the way through but in Pos, we took rest longer. After 10 minutes we started to hike again and the way through Pos 3 is the same so I don't write about it. We arrived there at 11.30 and we planned to take a rest there for a long time because there was a water source. So, we can drink a lot of water and we can cook noodles. We ate noodles and snacks that we brought. After we ate, we do shalat and then we prepare to hike.

The Track

We started to hike at around 12.50. My college friend told me that the track after Pos 3 will be easy. But he lied. OMG, the track is so awful. It's so steep and very long. The track makes us really tired and sick around our bodies. That is I think the worst part but we didn't give up. We keep walking through the track and arrived at Pos 4 in about one and a half hours. We took a rest for 15 minutes and then we continue our way. After more than an hour, the savanna has begun to appear. That's what we wanted to see. And just a few minutes after that we finally saw the Lawu Savanna. So huge I thought because it was my first time to see real savanna with my own eyes.

Lawu Savanna 1

We took so many photos there and enjoying the view. It's really magnificent. While we keep walking we were looking for Pos 5 but there's no sign about Pos 5. We walked through the savanna for an hour and a half and we finally saw the campsite. We arrived there and I asked somebody where are this place and they said this is Gupak Menjangan, the place that we planned to camp there. So there it was, we finally arrived. It was at 5 p.m. So tired, I ate so much food before making a tent. After we recovered, we built two tents and cleaning up. We finished at around 6.30 p.m and we started to cook our big meal. We cooked rice and soup, and there was someone gave us sardines. The rice was failed for the first time, so we make another. After a long time, our meal was finally ready, it was around 8.30 p.m and we ate our dinner. After that, we changed our clothes, did shalat and then we slept. I set my alarm at 3.30 a.m in the hope that I will wake up.

January 22nd, 2020. I didn't wake up at 3.30. I woke up at around 4.30, it was late. But it's okay. I went outside the tent and see there are so many stars in the sky. I woke up my friends but they were hard to wake up except my photographer friend who is Fathur. Actually, he was looking for stars to capture with his camera, so he woke up. I did shalat shubuh and then I made coffee. We planned to hike to the peak at 5 a.m but we didn't. We were not ready yet although it was 5.30. So we started at 6. It was late, but it's okay. Again, the view is really unbelievable, really. It was like in Jurassic World. We took many photos while keep walking. It was still savanna vegetation around it.

Lawu Savanna 2

After 45 minutes we passed the savanna and reached Pasar Dieng, the vegetation is still beautiful, with rocks and beautiful plants and flowers such as edelweiss. Pasar Dieng which has a myth but because it was morning we didn't scared. We kept walking and enjoying the view. About 20 minutes later, we reach Hargo Dalem that is where Mbok Yem is. Mbok Yem is something like a canteen or we called it warung. It was the highest canteen in Indonesia as I know. But we didn't buy anything, we kept hiking for about 20 minutes later, we finally reached the peak of Lawu Mountain.

Puncak Lawu 3265 MDPL (Peak of Lawu)

Yes, we did it. We arrived at our destination. It was so satisfying. We are appreciating and enjoying the view on the top for a moment and then we took many photos. While I was taking photos with Fathur, other friends were cooking noodles and when I got back, noodles are gone. Damn it!. At around 8.30 a.m we get back to the campsite and arrived there at 10 a.m. On the way there, we bought some soft drinks at Warung Mbok Yem. After arrived at the campsite, I cooked fried noodle and after that, we clean up everything and getting ready to down the mountain.

The atmosphere and the view were still the same as we hike, so I won't describe it more. But when we down the mountain we did not stick together as we hike because some of my friends were slow, and I couldn't slow because my feet hurt and I didn't want it took for a long time. And I usually walk fast when I turn down the mountain. I forget what time it was when we arrived at Pos 5,4,3, etc. but we arrived at basecamp at 3 p.m. It was really tiring but at the same time very satisfying. I ate fried rice with an egg that was so delicious to eat that at that moment. We cleaned up our stuff, took a bath and went back to Purwosari Railway Station to catch the train to Bandung at 9.53 p.m. We arrive there around 8 p.m and we did shalat before we went back. Then the train came and we went back to Bandung. Finally, we arrived in Bandung at 7 a.m tomorrow morning.