gendol

gendol river

We were back on the ride, that sunday back on the bumblee bee wandering the river of gendol and kuning. The trip was started in afternoon, just 3 of us, me, my brother, and my cousin. After refueled we headed to the big stone at the sabo dam of gendol river, just above the dam, we descended into the river, gendol river is one of the floodway for merapi volcano, literally there are tons and tons of materials in form of volcanic sands, gravels, stones, and gigantic stones. The sabo dam was created with Japanese vulcanologist assistance. Its function is to stop those material floods from entering the city. 

overlooking gendol river

We met fellow enduro motorists there, most of them are my brother's friends. Tag along with them, to make long train of enduro bikers. The motorist cruised along sand miner truck track but sometimes the track just end and we have to make our own route, climbing up and down the valley banks and crossing creek. Even entering village road along the river. All for sudden when I took pass of miner truck my rear tyre blew up, replaced it in the nearest garage we can find, then continue our journey. 

my bro

We decide to cross gendol river then down to cross kuning river and go to museum gunung merapi in the west side of kaliurang road, there is playground for off road motor enthusiasts, with circuit and obstacles simulating off road condition. I got no gut playing in that playground, just sat smoked and drank shitty cheap rice wine that was brought by one of the motorist.

One small happiness of that day. Put a little smile on my face. Let's do this shit again bro.

along sand miner's track 

enduro motorist in museum gunung merapi circuit

merapi

sunrise from pasar bubrah

So volcano, we meet again and this time was not a motorcycle trip again. It's a hike, damn, yes it was true six hours walk man. So it was nine of us, divided into two team, the fast new school express and the slow old school express.

Basically over and under 30 group. The only fast express over 30 was our mountain guide Badu, that saturday it was his 3rd hike in that week.

the summit

We left city of Jogja by 7pm that evening and reached the town of Selo by 9pm. We registered our name and group in the last village that was nearest to the volcano, which also act as first base camp for the hiker. The basecamp was good, that place is also used as radio tranceiver and one of the monitoring bases to observe Merapi volcano activity, the status was active normal, safe for hikers to reach the summit crater.

pasar bubrah

Our hike was started at 10.00pm, Badu our mountain guide lead the way on ward to the first mountain post. Bloody hell the first route that was still in form of an asphalted road is very steep, it's heavy. After leaving the asphalted road we entered steps of farm fields, farmers grow tobacco and cabbage in this area.

The steps were acceptable (for an old dude like us) in this area, upon leaving the farm area the path getting extremely steep again. The new school express gain the upper hand of leaving us, while the old school express stayed relax, chatted, and joke a lot along the way. While the new school walk in meditation silence. Surprisingly for us it was aunt widi (the youngest in the old school express) always lagged behind even behind the oldest uncle alejandro, come on dude you are no longer babe, you are dude for us.

aunt widi and her niece riris

We stopped at several places not just at those four resting posts, overall it was 6 hours hike. We left our beloved aunt widi in the small cave at kendit the rocky area not far from pasar bubrah the last post before summit. Because her tiny ass was slowing us all down, she got vertigo and her feet blistered from the stupidly moron cat walk with uncle alejandro to jatiningsih couple days earlier.

3 stooges

Then we reached pasar bubrah, an open field with volcanic stones as far as we see. Pasar bubrah literally mean mashed up market, it was believed as the market of the spirits in the mountain by the locals. We rest a while there before summiting for sunrise. It supposed to be an hour final hike to summit, at 4.30 we hike again but it was the hardest hike. We were already exhausted by the long hike, and in this final route the path consist of sands and loose gravels, the climb was very very steep we need to use hands, our feet kept sinking to soft sands, really drain our energy, I was the last in our train party. And there were herds of bules tourists stampeding toward the summit.

We finally started to leave the hell of sands steps and reached rocky part. But one of the new school express hit the wall, could not continue anymore, uncle alejandro and me had to rush her down to pasar bubrah for safety reason

badu the mountain guide

Then we chilled down under the setting moon and the rising sun. It was all hell broke freeze. We were just too lazy and tired to re-hike for the summit.

Enjoying the majestic sun rose and gave us all warmness. We waited for the new school express to descent then we made hot chocolate and instant noodle in pasar bubrah. Rest even nap in the stony path.

We came down at 9am and reach the Selo by 12noon. Headed back to Jogja for grilled pork, it was heavenly wicked end. I will do just do it and do it again. And in the next day morning of July 22nd, Merapi got small eruption, it was raining volcanic ashes.

moron family, video by pius badu

sleep on the path

old school + new school = big happy family

uncle alejandro

on the ridge

majestic

View merapi in a larger map

onward to the ocean

Really sorry, no motorcycling on this occasion, that sunday morning me, panji, and dharma metup with our international friends from AITI program from MIT, Nicole, Lynn, and Markus.

We got no plan that day and we just rolled away, we decided to go to the beach without any proper beach clothing, I meant jean and T-shirt only.

We head for the south karst hill-range of Gunung Kidul, meandering through the curvaceous hill road. With beautiful scenery, sorry guys no photograph, I was driving.

After two hours about 34km away from the city we reach the beaches. The beaches face Indian Ocean. Ngobaran and Nguyahan are two adjacent beaches. Ngobaran is a cliff rocky beach, it got Hindu temple on it. That place is believed as the final resting place of the last Hindu ruler in Java, King Brawijaya XVII from Majapahit empire in 14th century.

And then we started to make pictures as how tourist should behave. Lynn particularly is a photographer enthusiast, I think she made a lot of nice photographs, come on Lynn share your pictures with us.

Then we went to Nguyahan beach, which is sandy beach. Markus went for a dip, Nicole and the other walking up and down the beach. The waves was insanely huge that day, up until three meters high. We all got wet at some point, when we strolled by the waterline all for sudden the big wave just splashed on us and made our clothes wet (somehow it's not appropriate to tell, mmmm beat it)

At afternoon, chow time we ordered grilled and fried fishes from the local food stall. It was a long wait, we played card games and slap darma games hahaha. Finally, worth the wait the meal came and it was good, or maybe we are just too hungry and everything taste better.

After meal we went for another run to Nguyahan beach, did more tourist poses, at dusk we went back to the civilization.

We ended our day by dinner at Viavia Cafe, Prawirotaman. Great friendship, great food, great journey, great beers, what else would you need. It was a one fine sunday.

View nguyahan in a larger map

gunung nglanggeran

It was night and rain.... again. Why is that? Well because we love rain so much, we adore and worship rain haahaaa and it's because of the wet dry season. More and more rain during dry season, crazy global warming effect.

That evening, we catch up our friend Anjas who just mudik from the States, we were agreed to have really cheap wine that night.

After a short heavy and ridiculous rain with strong wind we went to Nglanggeran hill, an extinct old volcano just south east of Jogjakarta.
Short 45 minutes ride it was, thru a mild drizzle. 

My bumblebee take me away to the hillfoot, where we should park our vehicles and pay the ticket and insurance for the venue. The local village run that place, it's nice to see local social entrepreneur village. Anyway we hiked for about 45 minutes thru 4 posts after we reach camping area near the summit (it's about 600m above sea level) we set up camp, built tent, set camp fire, started with coffee, then opened 2 bottles of really cheap wine.

All night my friend kept playing the heartbroken almost suicidal rock songs from 80s-90s, along with intense conversation about life.
It's enough, by 3am, descended, head back to the city, faced the reality of final exam by 7.30am.

View nglanggeran in a larger map

night ride #3: jatiningsih

It's been a while since our last ride, too many things to do. At least we're still able to squeeze a little short ride for our soul. So me and my bee went out for the night, it was the second night of consecutive insomnia. I spent my first night writing paper, not that because of doing paper I stayed awake all night, but because I stayed awake all night I got to do something. The second night we decided to depart somewhere, it was after midnight. We rolled our tyres toward Jogjakarta outer ring road, we headed west.

We were entering Jogjakarta-Godean Road, a straight road for about 20km that leads us to the Progo river in west of Jogjakarta. We stopped by Jatiningsih, a quiet sanctuary by the Progo river. If we cross Progo an go straight we we'll reach Menoreh Hill and to the Purworejo town, we'll do it next time.

Went home in the morning, short rest then do my daily activity.

View Jatiningsih in a larger map

Gesing Run - the beach

Remember our first run toward Tritis, an we said we want to visit Gesing beach. Well here we went, it was an overcast day, nice for the ride and we got companion on our side Tebo and his minerva 150cc. Wild honey bee were on duty, after that night ride it got new clutch setting and carburetor setting. We went at noon, a stupid habit that always cost us daylight. The route we took was the same Siluk-Panggang route from Jogjakarta-Imogiri road. Same old story on the hill climb but we did better run with better engine service. 

We reached Panggang and headed left, on the first intersection we found Gesing sign straight ahead, but the asphalt was terrible, we were told that there is better road farther to the east, in the T-junction with big banyan tree nearby. So we turn left headed east, we found the T junction with banyan tree but there's no sign whatsoever, the sign was only for those who arrive from the east direction. So we turn right to the south took the road and motored away, we were enjoying our ride until suddenly the asphalt disappeared and we felt sun in our left, it was afternoon which mean we were heading north WRONG WAY. We asked some people there and they said we overshot the T junction to the beach by 5 kilometers.

On our way back we were careful and scrutinized all small T-junction and read the road sign carefully, There we find to beaches sign Kripak beach (or something I'm not really sure) and finally Gesing beach. The sign was just a small woodboard 30x15cms and was handpainted, too small. The road was just asphalt with potholes, not so bad. Then we finally found the beach, no tourist ticket no parking lot, only 3 or 4 food vendors. It was not heavily commercialized, NICE. It was pristine fisherman beach, the beach was in a fjorded bay, the water was calm, you can swim safely here in the contrary with other southern open beach here which has strong wave and rip curl.

We didn't take the dip just hang there by the beach then went for a coffee in the food vendor nearby, there we met a US expat and a lifeguard who also agree that so far this was the most beautiful beach we could find, it was beautiful, quiet, lack of tourists, no electricity, no cellphone signal, and it was not heavily commercialized. Let's keep it that way. And why in the world I'm leaving breadcrumbs for you guys, so this is it, anyone reading this blog entry have to burn their computer, laptop, and gadget immediately.

*put Moby's porcelain on

Riding distant: 123km

Riding duration : 4 hours

View gesing in a larger map

Merapi-Parangtritis Cosmos Balance

We meet again, this time with the Javanese Jogjakarta cosmos. The whole Jogjakarta Sultanate legitimization were based on this two worlds, Merapi volcano and the southern coast of Java facing Indian Ocean. Nyi Roro Kidul the Queen of South Ocean were married to the whole heritage line of Jogjakarta Sultan, this gave Sultans the legitimization to rule over southern coastal people who worship the Queen.

While the mountain considered as grand dad by the sultanate, its big stature offered the sign of protection and literally protection from Dutch hegemony in the northern coast and eventually British invasion of Java during Napoleonic war at then. The volcano also bring lot of fertile soil to the valley of Jogjakarta and it brings life to this agricultural kingdom. The city of Jogjakarta were built as a straight axis line between the peak of Merapi and the southern beach of Parangtritis.

We planned this journey, to hug the merapi by riding around it and then go to the southern beach. The eastern route were taken, it was drizzle then rain then off then on and off the whole way. By noon we headed east to Klaten town then went north to Boyolali town in the central Java province. From Boyolali we headed west to the small town of Selo. Selo means gap, it is an ancient mountain pass road that pass between Merapi and Merbabu mountain. It's the gap between those two majestic mountain hence its named the gap (selo) town.

Up from the Boyolali to Selo, the scenery was beautiful but once again in this episode we were held by the rain, I promise we will redo the photographs when the weather went better. The rain stopped at the top which is Selo town then fogs appear on our way down, after the fogs came the rain again. It was a smooth hill ride until on our way down toward Blabak town which was famous for its paper factory. The road toward Blabak is also road for volcanic sand miner trucks, those trucks really destroy the asphalt, at some part the government tried to replace the asphalt with concrete, but the project wasn't finished yet. We were withheld behind line of trucks, rain pouring heavily. At 5pm we reached Blabak town it was quite dark like dusk due to the heavy cloud, but the rain has subsided.

Blabak was a T-junction town with Magelang-Jogjakarta road, wide 4 lanes road. From here we headed south until we met the Jogjakarta outer ring road then we turned right, ringed the city until we reached the intersection to Jogjakarta-Bantul road, took a right turn toward Gandjuran church. There I said my prayer then fell asleep, exhausted.
I woke up about 10 pm and continued our journey south, just a small hop toward Depok beach adjacent to Parangtritis beach, from Depok we strolled the beach road to Parangtritis. Strange-fully there's no wind that night as we expected. Took a smoke break here for a while then we headed back to the city.

Ride distant : 193.9km
Ride duration : 10 hours.



View merapi run in a larger map