Gunung Agung - THE MOST RIDICULOUS HIKE EVER

The next thing on our vacation to-do list is to climb a volcano. We get ourselves set up with a company and drive out to the base of Gunung Agung at 1am so that we can climb to the summet in time for sunrise. We're greeted by a tiny Indonesian woman who hands us flashlights and apologizes for not speaking much English (more on this later). So we start off up about 200 steps. I'm already struggling a little because of the late hour (it;s about 1:20am) and having just woken up from an impromptu nap in the van on the way over, but I'm enthusiastic about the climb and excited about sunrise. We stop at a temple and stand around awkwardly as our guide sets up several offerings and says a prayer. Then the real adventure begins. THIS IS NO HIKE FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! IT'S MORE LIKE ROCKCLIMBING THAN 'WALKING'. Unfortunately, our guide can;t communicate this to us as hervocabulary appears to be limited to yes, no, slowly slowly and enjoy. So as we duck under trees and climb over others, scrambled through trenches 3 feet deep and maybe 1 1/2 fet wide all she can really say is 'yes yes' and giggle as I gasp for air and ask if it is like this the whole way up. An appropriate answer would have beend ' No, this is the really easy part', but I guess it's better I didn't know that yet as I was already thinking I keep thinking '5 more hours of this'!?! From the trenches we move into a section that is all rock, but that can mostly be climbed like big unstable stairs, from there it turns into smaller rocks that create severely unstable steps at an angle that requires us to climb them on all fours. Note that now it is almost 3am and we've been climbing in the dark for 2 hours without any breaks and have been up since 8am. To my great dismay, every time I see the flash lights of the other group (who are about 30 minutes ahead of us) stop and ask if they are almost at the top our guide just laughs and says no. She doesn't offer any further encouragement or ETA. My greatest motivation at this point is that stopping for more than 30 seconds makes me shiver uncontrollably and going back down would be impossible and incredibly foolish in the dark so I have no other options except continuing up.
After about 5 hours, 2500 and some odd meters and a couple of moments of extreme panic (sometimes me panicking and Court being the rational/calm one, sometimes the other way around) we finally make it to the top in time for sunrise. We drag ourselves over and into this pit and look over to the east, only to see that a huge bank of clouds is completely blocking out the sun. DAMN, but c'est la vie eh?

The way down is a huge concern to us as in our mninds the dark stretches of mountain not lit by our flshlights are huge chasm. I'm sitting at the top replaying the climb up and remembering the couple of times we had to eadge our way across ledges or full out cross huge holes rockclimbing style, but with no harness and thinking 'how the hell are we going to get down?'. The worrying combined with the intense cold at the top is making it hard to enjoy the view. Court's action epitomize out fatigue, anxiety and loss of interest: I say 'Want to take in this view before we head down', she leans past me to glance at the beautiful peaks of the valcona inthe orange light with a look of total disinterest and says 'yep, got it, let's go'.

The next 6 hours, with the exception of the first 30 minutes when we are giddy with relief at the ease of sliding down the mountain on our backsides, are total hell. With aching knees, scratched legs and arms, sweat drenched shirts and empty bellies we struggle our way down the volcano. A full 12 hours after leaving our van in the parking lot we collapse back into it grateful to be down safe.

We decide a reward is much deserved and check ourselves into a really nice hotel ($30 a night) and spend the next 18 hours basking in aircon, fluffy towels and think duvets.

So after sleeping, eating and having my legs finally repair themselves and allow me to walk without looking physically challenged (this takes 3 days), I look back and think: it really wasn't that bad! lol Just goes to show how well our minds distort our perceptions in a way to comfort ourselves. Gotta love the psychology behind it.