VOLCANO GUIDE

 The team walked through the little paths of Merapi slopes. One little mistake can lead to disaster because if you stepped on the wrong place you will fall down to the deep cliff. But the fear suddenly cured by the magnificent view on our left. Everything was look so beautiful from the top. On this point, we saw Javanese eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi) flied across a hill in front of us. Near to Merapi, we saw mount Merbabu (3142 meters above sea level) and Telomoyo hill. Far away on the west, we can see mount Sumbing (3371 Meters ASL), Sundoro (3150 Meters ASL), and Slamet (3428 Meters ASL).

Next, we walked through a very steep hill. This hill leads us to Pasar bubrah plateau, the last post before reaching the garuda peak. We were stepping a ground made of solid cold lava. There were only stone and some highland plants. About 30 minutes, we arrived at pasar bubrah plateau. In this plateau, there are many big stones lying around all over the place. There is myth that the people in merapi consider this plateau as a traditional market of ghost. We took a rest for a while before continuing the journey to Garuda peak (the highest point of Merapi.

We left our bags on the pasar bubrah. The bags were take cared by our porter as we climbed to the garuda peak. The way to the peak was very dangerous because the ground we stepped up was not stable. The hill was made up of many big stones and sands, the stones can fall down at any time. This hill called Gunung anyar or New Mountain, actually gunung anyar was a lava dome that was created between 1902 -1911 at that time was also known as the east dome.

After the exhausting journey, we arrived at the top of the most active volcano in Indonesia. First, we visited Woro crater on the left side. Near that crater, there was Gendol crater, where the last eruption in 2006 took place. I tried hard to see that active summit lava dome but the smoke of the sulfur blocked me, caused suffocation for several minutes. Next, as we walked to garuda peak, we saw the death crater or kawah mati. We saw that the crater was filled with big stones and solid lava from the lava dome. Today, the famous garuda peak is only consisted of small part of its original, as the result of the volcanic earthquake of the eruption. For about 30 minutes staying on the top, we got down again to Pasar bubrah to get our lunch.

As we have planed, we got down to Selo where our driver picked up the team. The way down to Selo was also extremely beautiful. We walked through the peaks of hills, everything was so green and so beautiful.