Marc's Public Blog - Hiking / Backpacking

As part of our quick Tour of Flores Island, Indonesia, we got up at 02:00 (argh!) for a scheduled departure of 02:30, but it ended up being 03:10 due to our driver being late. He drove us to the trailhead which we barely reached with our 2WD car on the pretty bad road inside the park (we had to back up and run through holes and rocks a few times until we made it through without being stuck in the sand, or stalled).
The drive there was supposed to be 30-45mn, but it actually took 1h10, so by the time we started at the trailhead, it was already 04:15.

We booked a local guide who was a gazelle in flip flops :) (i.e. he was super fast on rough slippery terrain with crappy flip flops which don't offer much traction). We started at night with flashlights and got to the top 20mn after sunrise (sucked that we missed that, but the view from the top didn't allow for seeing the sun rise anyway).

After a mere 1h35, we made it to the top (normally they budget for for 2h30. It was only 3.5km (1.9 miles), but very steep climb (800m/2700ft):

we finally got to the top

To be honest, the view was only so-so, but eh, it was still a good climb.
Going down took longer (1h40 after subtracting out the picture breaks I took) because the terrain was treacherous and more dangerous when you're going downhill:

After a good night in our cabin, we got up early to catch breakfast and be on the first trail before 08:00. For that trail, we needed a permit with a ridiculous process including a local who can vouch for you, is actually called by the NPS to make sure they'll answer the phone and vouch for you, and then you have to give your permit to a guy who will open the physical gate (padlock) to the trail. We arrived early because we wanted to score one of the only 3 legal parking spots by the trailhead.

turns out it's actually ants that build nests in trees

picture of the bridge that started our trail

And that finished our hike (6.4km return, about 3h and change). It was supposed to be a much longer one way hike, but the trail was damaged by a typhoon, and we had to content for that. I found the trail to be not bad, but when you've been to Yosemite and done things like the Glacier Point trail, it's a bit hard to beat that :)

Next, we did the swallow grotto trail, which was mostly walking by the original road that was now one way (a wider bypass replaced it), and while the hike was braindead simple, it was quite scenic and worth walking 1km down the road and then back to our car:

nice swallows, with orange necks

After that hike, we went further on the road to see a few more sights and do a more minor hike (which in hindsight was skipable):

When then headed back to our hotel for a short hike there just before sunset and dinner. By then we were both sick with a cold that Jennifer picked up and nicely shared with me :) so we needed the rest.

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