Climbing an ancient volcano? Why not!

#12 in 18 Things To Do In Jogjakarta

A friend, whom I met in Jogjakarta, suggested the visit to Ngelanggeran Village near Jogjakarta. He said the new thing to do is to explore Gunung Api Purba (Ancient Volcano) in the village. I was intrigued by the idea and the location. We wanted to hike Mount Merapi, but the area was closed due to an accident that happened a week before we arrived. So, hiking an ancient volcano sounded like a good alternative.

The site was only popular to the rock climber communities. One of the climber, succeeded to hike his way up to the summit of the mountain. Not only that, he figured out a way to get to the summit by hiking. Since then, the locals went crazy over hiking it. Even the government wanted to take advantage of the craze, but luckily the locals won. The company that manages the geopark is a private company and I could see that it did a great job in managing the place.

The scenery in the village definitely looked very different from the scenery we saw along the way, which was just flat lands, farms and typical hills at the backgrounds. As we reach nearer to the village, the hills started to show different cliff formations that were higher and bigger. I saw cliffs on the mountains that looked more of giant boulders. They did look like very old rock formations. Apparently, according to geologists, the rock formations were from volcano eruption very long ago at the site.

Anyway, with choki-choki on my hands, I was ready to do some hiking.

It was quite impossible to get lost as the directions to the summit (even alternative easier route) were everywhere.

The signs also have cheers for the hikers!

There were paths, such as this narrow trail, that looked very dangerous. I had to walk side ways. Do you see that rock stuck in between? It reminded me of the movie 127 hours.

Every view-point was a winner. The picture above was taken not long after we started the hike. It made the hike so enjoyable.

The air was so cooling at the summit. We wanted to stay there as long as we could and enjoy the sun while laying on the rocks. But we had to go back to visit other places that day.