Mount Parang Rock Climbing Via Ferrata (Eng)
Mount Parang Rock Climbing Via Ferrata (6 June 2019)
This
time my trip is different, not a solo trip but an open trip. And also not a
common destination visited by families, but I guarantee it’s fun. I have been
wanting to try rock climbing on Mount Parang for months. Finally, I joined open
trip. One of the open trips that offer affordable prices is "explorer", Just
install, register, pay, show up on the meeting point and here we go!!
The
trip started from Plaza Semanggi, Jakarta, the bus left at 6 am and arrived
around 10 am. Due to the holidays, there were many groups who already came
before us, while the guides are limited, so we had to queue. While waiting for
our turn, there is a shop, we can eat instant noodle (indomie), buy some drinks
(mineral water, coke etc) or go to restroom, don’t worry it’s clean.
There
are 3 tracks : 250 m, 300 m and 900 m (up to the top), these 3 tracks are the
length not the height of the mountain. There were 15 people in my group, only 5
males and the rest is females. Initially before going up, everyone looked
worried and afraid that they could not finish. We all register for 250 m track
and we want to change into 300 m track, there will be additional fee for IDR
50.000. My guide, Iyan asked me “Do you want to change into 300 m track?”,
“No.” although I am curious, but I was not sure if I can finish 250 m track,
haha…
After
we were fully equipped (harness, helmet) at 11 am we started hiking. Do not
forget to bring gloves, it’s very important, grabbing the iron bar and opening
the carabiner for many times will make the skin blisters. But if you don’t have
one, you can buy it at the shop, one pair for IDR 15.000. The warm-up hiking
lasted about 20 minutes, and everyone started to felt tired. After a short
briefing we started climbing. There are two safety ropes that are attached to
the steel wire, and every time we move, we change the carabiner position, attached
it to the nearest wire. Slowly but sure everyone started to climb.
At the
beginning it looked tough and scary, but in the middle of
climbing, when I looked down the scenery is very beautiful and all fear
suddenly disappeared. The tough one was the heat from sunlight, it reflected on
the rock and everything became hot (the rock, the iron bar and no wind).
At
the 250 m track point there is no going down path, if we stop here. We must go
down through the same track to starting point. But for 300 m track, there are
different path to go down, and between 250 m and 300 m the track is not going
up but go around the mountain (horizontal), the view is also more beautiful.
And all of us decide to continue until 300 m. I suggest if you want to try it, better take 300 m
track.
One of the photo spot on 300 m track.
It’s
12 pm and the heat was unbearable, all I had in mind was ice cola, I missed it
so much ^_^
At
300m track point before going down, the guide would take our pics holding a
carton “300m Mountain Parang via ferrata” one by one. I had been
thinking what will happen if I dropped the carton, and there were still 9
people who were queueing after me :p
In
this trip beside the guide from explorer, there are also 2 guides from Mount
Parang. They help us to take all pics in group and individually.
This trip is not as scary as it looks, as long as you follow the instructions and prepare for good stamina, a beginner can finish this trip. The
time you need to finish the track is depends on the people in your group. More
people need more time to spend, waiting for taking pics or resting. The iron bar is very strong and sturdy, can hold very heavy person.
On the way down to starting point.
Around
2 pm, all of us already went back to the shop without any severe injury (the
worst was just bruises from bumping iron bar). Ice coke, sprite, tea any kind
of cold drinks were sold out. At 2.30 pm we returned to the bus and ready to
depart. I completed my trip with a nap and back to jakarta with unforgettable
memories, cool pics and a little bruises on my knees. End of journey. See you
on my next trip.
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