π
2014-10-11 01:01
in Hiking, Indonesia2014
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:
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