I’m going backwards a bit with this post. School is school. Grading is grading. Teenagers are… [hormonal/temperamental/heartbreaking] teenagers. Cute village tots are still cute village tots. And if you forgot, Indonesia is still really, really HOT. Every day has its fair share of bizarre moments, of up’s and down’s, of beauty, but nothing sticks out enough that I feel the urge to share. I’d rather share some photos from a recent hiking trip to Mount Lawu that I took back in August, with a bunch of bomb-diggity friends of mine. I needn’t explain much because two of them have already done that quite well… check it: DP‘s ‘Doing Lawu‘ & JAlf‘s ‘The Sky Is Open‘.
What isn’t depicted in these photos (thanks JAlf):
A group of 7 of us rode up to the trail head, driven by a slightly crazy and more than slightly awesome person, to begin at around 10 at night. We made our leisurely way up through the posts along the trail, stopping at post 3 (of 5) to eat and sleep a bit. We sat in the frigid night air consuming trail mix, cookies, and peanuts. Unfortunately, the stop also lowered our body temperatures to the point that it felt my muscles were doing some sort of sadistic foxtrot under my skin. We, again, relied on the Cuddle Puddle™ to save us. We raked ourselves together into a leaf pile of people and attempted to get some fitful rest before going on toward the top.
All I have to say is, thank goodness for Cuddle Puddles™ or I’d have frozen to death.
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(1) The initial ‘we peaked’ jig looked something like like this. note: I have about 25 more of these —
(2) The sarongs kept us warm and cozy and then the bromance kicked in…
(3) After the bromance wore-off [just a little], there was more dancing, pop-tart toasting (minus a real toaster, more like a cheersing), mini-naps in the sun, and overall happiness to have peaked Lawu together.
(4) Perhaps hiking down wasn’t as smooth as it should have been. There were some wrong turns that led us to rock climb (it wasn’t enjoyable), we were hungry and tired, legs felt like jell-o, thighs were kiiiiiickin’ tight, and we all felt gross. The aftermath was nice though as we slept and were fed liiiiberally.
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side note: Not a day goes by where I regret that I brought a down vest and wool socks to Indonesia. Even though Indonesia is HOT, mountains are COLD.
From Charlottesville to Indonesia 