Climbing Trail

Terror on Mount Dempo Part 1

Although the energy is almost exhausted, but I am grateful to have succeeded in reaching Dempo Peak and Merapi Peak in a row.

Now all we need to do is stay in the courtyard, enter the tent and rest. We were six, five boys: Amran, Idan, Anes, Ale, me, and one girl: Yuni. We are all still in school, only Bang Amran and Bang Idan have graduated.

In this climb of Dempo, Bang Idan acted as the leader of the group because in addition to being older, he had also been here before, as well as Bang Amran and Yuni. For everyone else, including me, this is the first climb.

There is a ridiculous error but the consequences are never imagined by us. Unintentionally Bang and brought a pornographic picture playing card in his carrier. Bang and found the card in his pants pocket when he had just changed clothes after we had just arrived in the courtyard.

"That's why Dan was taken? You're not really teaching." Bang Amran said when he saw the stack of cards.

"I didn't mean it to Am." Replied Bang and timidly, then added with a cry, "We played last night, eeh kok even carried away packing."

"Be careful Dan. They're still in school, let alone girls." Connect Bang Amran.

Bang ldan just scratched his head with a shy smile. But the incident we soon forgot, instead we were grateful, the pornographic playing cards were immediately played even though we were forced to while holding back saliva to see the images of his shur.

Towards the magrib I approached Anes and Yuni who were cooking rice outside the tent, telling us that we wanted to

pray magrib first.

"I pray magrib first Nes, Yun." I said.

Anes nodded his head and replied, "lya Pin, I'm here

yuni Nemenin. He haids it out."

"Not so?" My reply.

"It's so new." This time it was Yuni who answered without looking at me.

Finally, the four of us prayed magrib together, while Yuni and Anes had different beliefs.

Finish praying with cooked rice. But just as we were preparing to eat, it suddenly drizzled along with a strong wind that was followed by a crashing storm. We all rushed into the tent.

The hunger is no longer thought of. Heavy rain and strong wind seemed to want to tear down our tent. The tent frames sounded rattling withstanding the pressure of the storm. The tent fabric that was loose from its stake fluttered about producing a voice that shrunk its guts. I saw one by one the pale faces of my friends. This was our first experience of being hit by a terrible storm on a mountain. My flame dropped to its lowest point, let alone no one else on this mountain other than us.

What I was most afraid of was if our tent was blown by a storm, because I felt the longer the wind was getting louder. I then took the initiative out to check and tighten the tent pegs.

Bang Amran came out with me. We each held a flashlight because the dark had started to come down.

But other than this windstorm there was another sound that caught my and Bang Amran's attention. The sound was lost between the whirring of the storm wind, but the intensity was clearly increasing. The sound was like it was coming from the ground, it felt like I could also feel the vibrations under my feet.

Then my eyes saw the most terrible thing I've ever seen. Bang Amran also looked as if he did not

trusting sight. For a second, our feet both seemed to be stuck to the ground unable to move. Then as my consciousness recovered, I cried out to the friends inside the tent.

"WATER BAH!! BLURRED! RUN AWAY!! RUN!!" I screamed in panic.

Hearing my screams, my friends rushed out of the tent and with their own eyes saw the most gripping sight we had ever seen.

In horror we saw from above the Peak of Merapi the flood down rolling towards us. Without thinking again we immediately ran the ridge in a higher direction. Time seemed to be moving slowly for us, while behind the sound of the flood was getting closer and faster. Yuni ran while falling down in panic.

We arrived at a safe place on time. With our own eyes, we watched the flood in our tent,

tore it apart and lost to the flood. I saw Yuni fall down and cry. The other friends also looked shocked. I looked at my two hands that were shaking violently. We almost died just now. I did not expect the water in the crater of Puncak Merapi could rise and cause flood. A little late, we will be dragged along like the fate of our tent. Fortunately there was no one else but us in the courtyard.

The night is getting darker. The storm had already lost its power, but the spatter had still not stopped. We gathered together jostling, confused as to what to do. Our tent and all our equipment are gone. All that's left is the flashlight that Bang Amran and I held.

The night is getting bigger. We can no longer tell which is the ground and which is the sky. The peak of Merapi is only visible at a glance when lightning strikes. After that, it was only darkness. Bang and finally decided to go down. The longer we stay in a place without a tent, the more dangerous it is. What's more we still have to go through the peak of the dempo to get down. Not to mention the cold temperature plus the spatter, hypothermia could pounce on us at any time.

We walked slowly. The rocky road to the top of Dempo became slippery due to the rain. We have to be careful. Bang Amran

walking in front while directing his flashlight noticed the increasingly uphill path. Behind him are me, Yuni, Ale and Anes. One more flashlight I'm handing over to Bang and the one that's running the back.

I was concentrating on my breath when suddenly lightning struck the cantigi tree sprout behind us. My heart

almost lost because of shock. A flash of fire was seen in the former lightning strike before it finally disappeared due to rain. We all looked at each other without saying anything.

Not to lose our shock, another lightning bolt struck a closer cantigi tree. Then another bolt of lightning struck a large rock that was even closer away. The stone was split open and burned with fire. My heart is racing. My gut feeling said something was wrong. My instincts screamed for me to run away from it quickly. These lights are after us!

And with no more command, we were all running around in panic as we could. Lightning continues to strike

behind us, getting closer. Every time his voice shook my heart it stopped beating. In that panic once in a while I heard the terrified sobs of Yuni.

-tbc