Climbing Semeru mountain

Hallo everybody….this is my first time writing trip note in English, so hopefully it can be useful for anyone who liked to read it. Ok, what I’m talking here is my trip from Yogyakarta to Semeru mountain which has a height 3676 M, and it’s the highest mountain in Java. It’s located between Lumajang and Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Semeru can be climbed from Ranupani, Lumajang.

Day 1

Me and team settled in taking trip from Yogyakarta by economy AC train named Malioboro express which costed Rp80.000 per person. It took 8 hours to arrive in Kotabaru terminal, Malang.

Day 2

After arriving at 8.00, we had to rent angkot (one of public transportation in Malang) to go to Tumpang Market which costed Rp10.000 per person. We arrived In Tumpang market at 8.30, and we would go to Ranupani by truck at 10.00 which costed 25.000 per person (depends on the quantity of members). While waiting for the truck we prepared some logistics in that market such as fruits, rices, and etc. the truck came at 10.00, then we went to Ranupani (legal basecamp of Semeru climbers). Arrived at 12.00, we took some rest and lunch then started to walk the track at 13.00.

The first destination we’d like to go was Ranukumbolo lake, it has wide and nice ground to camp with a beautiful view will be in front of our tent. The track wasn’t to difficult to walk but long enough, it took 5 hours to reach the lake. We arrived at 18.00 and build the tent in front of the lake.

Day 3

4.30, I woke up, feeling cold and couldn’t sleep anymore then I woke my friends up to go outside at 5.00 because sun was about to rise. We didn’t want to miss that moment, it was great moment to take some pictures of lake when the sun risen. Most of climbers woke up to enjoy that moment, it might be about a hundred persons camping in that base camp, because that was a week end. While enjoying lying down on the grass with beautiful sun showing up behind the hill, some of my friends cooked and prepared the snack for breakfast. After having breakfast, we were ready to walk on the next track, tanjakan cinta, oro-oro ombo, cemoro kandang, kali mati. We continued the walk at 10.00 and I never thought that the track after Ranukumbolo was that beautiful, but it was, and I was surprised by the savanna “Oro-oro ombo”. It made us walk slowly to enjoy that savanna.

We finally reach the next base camp at 12.00, it was 3 hours. We actually planed to camp in Arcopodo, an hour from Kali mati but we met one of ranger who said that the weather wasn’t too good, so we camped in Kalimati. It has a wide ground to camp and we could take the water in sumber mani, 100 m to the west of Kalimati.

Day 4

We woke up at 1.00 to attack the summit, and the weather was great to reach it, but it was cold enough for Indonesian like us. We reached Arcopodo at 2.00, then it took next 6 hours to reach the summit. It was more long than we expected, because one of my friends was injured and made us climb slowly, besides the track is sandy, extreme and difficult to us. The sands really wasted our energy, so it needed more struggle and patience. Finally we reached the summit at 8.00, and it was dramatic when I saw my friend injured also reached it, he tried hard to do it till made him cried for maybe 5 minutes more, and couldn’t hold the tears running down the face. I said to my self, “holy God, he did more than what I thought.” It was a great lesson.

Then we went down slowly and finally arrived at 12.00, everybody was exhausted after that summit attack till needed to stay for one more night at kalimati.

Day 5

In this fifth day, we continued walking for an hour and half till arrived at Ranukumbolo. We got better situation than before, so the nature was really beautiful to enjoy at the time especially Oro-oro ombo. That was what made us taking some pictures for about ten minutes, we don’t want to miss it. At 13.00 we started walking again and arrived at Ranupani at 16.00, then rented the same truck to go to Tumpang market at 18.30 and arrived at 20.00, and it costed Rp30.000 per person. we needed to arrive at Kota Baru terminal that night, so that we took the car to rent which costed Rp100.000.

Day 6

The ticket we reserved was for the same train as first we came here, malioboro Express, and it would go at 8.00. It took 8 hours to arrive at Jogja.

All right guys, hope it can be useful for who wants to climb Semeru. Have a nice day

PS:

Pak Ruseno ( truck driver): 0341789162

Ranupani: 08283930822, 08283404515