Ever felt that most of our interaction with the Earth’s geographical features is through textbooks. Unless and uptil we get up close and personal with glaciers, volcanoes, canyons and various other forms they seem an enigma. Up until a few month ago, my only encounters with the volcanoes were in the geography text books. I remember creating a volcano model in grade 8 with wet newspapers molded in some sort of conical shape. I further created a hole on the top resembling a caldera and spray painted the model. It surprisingly turned out good and got me some cute looks while I was explaining my new found theoretical knowledge on volcanoes.
However, as is true with most of us the knowledge was strictly theoretical. All the info about glaciers, canyons, rivers, volcanoes was to be read and soon forgotten. I got the associated grades but never the admiration for these geographical forms and the beauty they represent. Over the years got chances to trek on glaciers and see the rivers forming, however the volcanoes always found a way to elude me. However Indonesia was going to change all that.
The first tryst with the volcanoes was our encounter with Mount Raung which decided to delay our arrival in Bali by letting out smoke clouds in the atmosphere. After few interesting incidents at Singapore airport and having our fill of the movie Terminal type adventures over the course of couple of days, Mount Raung relented just a little bit to allow us to land on beautiful Bali.
However, it was not till we reached Lombok that the first adventure happened. Mount Rinjani is the looming presence on the island of Lombok. It’s a classic active volcano with a well formed caldera along with the inevitable beautiful lake to go along. A trek to Mount Rinjani while very enticing had to be abandoned for lack of time and money, well to be true mostly money. However the lure of Mount Rinjani was too much to be totally ignored and that led us on a day trek to beautiful waterfalls within its natural park. The waterfalls were simply exotic with lush green surroundings and rainbows at its base. Classic movies location. The location was beautiful to entice us to fall in love again.
And, how do you keep trekkers from trekking and reaching the summits. Most certainly not by presenting them an ever increasing presence of volcanoes to trek. The target for the elusive volcano trek was Mount Batur on the island of Bali. It was interesting how we somehow found ourselves together in a mini Van in the middle of the night with a Brit teacher, a German Corporate worker, 2 Austrian University students and an international conference about the futility of the education system and corporate world passionately ensued right there. Before a solution could be figured out, the mountain appeared looked menacingly in the middle of night and the trek started. Slowly and steadily the Sun rose and revealed one of the most beautiful sun rises over another volcano Mount Agung.
There was something mystical about the whole experience whether it be the breakfast of eggs cooked in volcanic steam or the sight that unfolded with the lights of the Sun. the morning light let us to observe what the wonders of Volcano trekking entail. Not only were we walking on Lava rocks, we were witness to a full blown caldera, a beautiful lake and a lava field. And all of a sudden the long forgotten geography lessons started to make perfect sense.
Another beautiful experience is to witness the Lava sparks of Mount Merapi in the morning light of the Sun from the serenity of Borobudur. The whole setup promised something spectacular. However the Sun decided to play hide and seek with the clouds and eluded us of the spectacle. A full army of photographers perched upon every empty space in Borobudur could do nothing but smile and admire as Nature demonstrated who the real boss it.
The time soon come to leave Indonesia. Mount Raung had relented so far to let us travel to and fro to Java from Bali. The love affair with Mount Raung had one last twist remaining. On the flight back, the captain made an announcement which went something like “For all those who want to watch Mount Raung in action may do so through the Windows on the left side.” And so the spectacle unfolded, a volcano emitting smoke clouds. Mount Raung, buddy you have been forgiven for robbing us of few vacation days. You are spectacular. Last I heard Mount Rinjani has joined in the act.
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