House bound for over six months due to a succession of injuries and illnesses, I realised have been suffering from a case of Forum Fever as well.
Like a log cabin in Alaska in reverse, I just had to get Out and About for a wilderness sanity check before I went postal over the Naked Ramblers, Bear Grylls’ machete, climate change and other topics.
Daughter No. 3 had just had her birthday (11) and also wanted some time in the hills so we set off to the nearby volcano complex known as Puncak leaving the more frequented vents to others in favour of a less visited one.
We travel local-style on mini-busses, motorcycles and trains
It would have been too arduous to set up a bush camp for the three days so we elected to sling our hammocks at a small hobby farm and nature school for kids on the slopes of Salak.
Here is the view across the valley to the regularly visited volcanoes
Here is the side on which we camped
The basic terrain is a series of radial ridges 360 degrees from the cone but it has been complicated by the volcano having two vents, which make for a more interesting complex of dissected ridges and a more challenging terrain.
The flora is interesting. Some ridges and slopes have pine forest while others have tropical hill dipterocarp and others have a scrub of palms bamboo and pioneer secondary forest species.
Sometimes there are interesting mixes – palms next to pines or acorns next to tropical plants like this
We started up a pine ridge and down into a gully and up into yet more pine.
By the third ridge we were in hill forest and in another gully I found the fire bamboo used in the bamboo-strike a light method.
Interestingly the locals had no idea of its use for that purpose though they used it extensively for the usual things like blowpipes or flutes. You can see the long internodes. D3 is as tall as the average 13 year old.
We met wood cutters just like in children’s stories and others who were collecting herbaceous plants for the goats down in the valleys.
I found pieces of an aromatic wood which had been cut with an adze. The tree was felled by a chainsaw.
When we were not walking D3 played in the gardens with critters like this katydid or did things with flowers.
Meals are available cooked over a wood fire by yourself or a cook from the village. Forgot to take a pic of the kitchen hut but dinner is nice with no electricity. It is available but used sparingly.
We also walked down slope to the farms and villages
Cassava fencing
Taro field divided by cassava
We were delighted to see a manual Merry-Go –Round being assembled in a village
My sanity is slowly returning along with my fitness. In two weeks time I’m off to Brunei and then to Sarawak for a river trip.
Like a log cabin in Alaska in reverse, I just had to get Out and About for a wilderness sanity check before I went postal over the Naked Ramblers, Bear Grylls’ machete, climate change and other topics.
Daughter No. 3 had just had her birthday (11) and also wanted some time in the hills so we set off to the nearby volcano complex known as Puncak leaving the more frequented vents to others in favour of a less visited one.
We travel local-style on mini-busses, motorcycles and trains
It would have been too arduous to set up a bush camp for the three days so we elected to sling our hammocks at a small hobby farm and nature school for kids on the slopes of Salak.
Here is the view across the valley to the regularly visited volcanoes
Here is the side on which we camped
The basic terrain is a series of radial ridges 360 degrees from the cone but it has been complicated by the volcano having two vents, which make for a more interesting complex of dissected ridges and a more challenging terrain.
The flora is interesting. Some ridges and slopes have pine forest while others have tropical hill dipterocarp and others have a scrub of palms bamboo and pioneer secondary forest species.
Sometimes there are interesting mixes – palms next to pines or acorns next to tropical plants like this
We started up a pine ridge and down into a gully and up into yet more pine.
By the third ridge we were in hill forest and in another gully I found the fire bamboo used in the bamboo-strike a light method.
Interestingly the locals had no idea of its use for that purpose though they used it extensively for the usual things like blowpipes or flutes. You can see the long internodes. D3 is as tall as the average 13 year old.
We met wood cutters just like in children’s stories and others who were collecting herbaceous plants for the goats down in the valleys.
I found pieces of an aromatic wood which had been cut with an adze. The tree was felled by a chainsaw.
When we were not walking D3 played in the gardens with critters like this katydid or did things with flowers.
Meals are available cooked over a wood fire by yourself or a cook from the village. Forgot to take a pic of the kitchen hut but dinner is nice with no electricity. It is available but used sparingly.
We also walked down slope to the farms and villages
Cassava fencing
Taro field divided by cassava
We were delighted to see a manual Merry-Go –Round being assembled in a village
My sanity is slowly returning along with my fitness. In two weeks time I’m off to Brunei and then to Sarawak for a river trip.
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