A Walk up Gunung Sibayak, North Sumatra, Indonesia

Just two weeks before my husband and I visited the island of Sumatra in February 2014, Gunung Sinabung erupted, killing at least 14 people. The province of North Sumatra is not that big: Mount Sinabung is in the Karo Plateau, only 40 kilometres away from the Lake Toba Supervolcano, and in the general region where we would be travelling. When we arrived at Bukit Lawang, about 50 kilometres north of the mountain, volcanic ash still hung thick in the air, like smoke.

Part of our our itinerary was Mount Sibayak, an inactive (but not extinct) volcano a mere 30 kilometre drive away from the scene of the Sinabung explosion. It is always hard to know, as an “outsider”, whether a visit to a region will do more harm than good when there are problems, but the guides assured us we’d be well away from areas of risk.

Still, it reminded me of a drive we had made, years ago, through flooded and washed-away villages just a day or two after unseasonable rains in East Java, en route to another Indonesian volcano: Mount Bromo. On that occasion, we stopped overnight in Cemoro Lawang, got up around 3am to have a cup of coffee before crossing the cold, dark plains at the base of the mountain on small ponies, and then scaled a rickety stairway up the flank of the cone in the bone-chilling dark of a January morning. I am usually a bit of a mountain goat, but I remember feeling anxious about falling as we carefully picked our way through the crowds gathered around the slippery edge of the crater. When we looked down (never a good plan!), the ponies appeared as small as ants on the ground below, while the heat and the smell of sulphur bubbled up to meet us from the inside vent – alluding to the hellish death that would result from a fall.

Huddled in the dark, we waited for the sunrise. Unfortunately for us, because of the overcast weather, daylight arrived murky and diffused. It was rather anticlimactic; we climbed cautiously down the stairs and pathway, tired, cold and hungry, and without the benefit of the promised display. Two years later, Mount Bromo exploded, killing two.

We were assured, however, that our climb up Gunung Sibayak would be far less eventful. After all, it is the easiest and most accessible of Sumatra’s volcanoes, taking less than two hours to walk up.

There is nothing quite like soaking in a pool of mineral-laden hot-spring waters that have been piped in from the mountain you have just hiked!

Not particularly “eventful”, but interesting, and well worth the effort.

Happy Travels!

Photos: 17February2014