To season hot

Summer is coming. It’s kind of funny, because even though there is nothing remotely resembling winter in Indonesia (i.e., a Canadian winter), a lot of bules here, myself included, still think in terms of summer versus winter. Interestingly, the summer/winter concept actually works here. Sitting near the equator, Bogor (our town) enjoys a narrow range of temperature from chilly nights of about 23 degrees C, to sweltering afternoons of about 31. That’s it. That’s the entire range 24-7/365. Going outside that range would mean earth just got hit by an asteroid. In fact, the typical daily range is more like night lows of 25 to afternoon highs of 29. It’s just always warm.

So what’s this talk of summer/winter? As Milli Vanilli used to say: blame it on the rain. To Indonesians, there is musim hujan, and musim panas – literally: season rain and season hot. Season hot, seems hotter simply because there is less rain, not really because it’s that much warmer (recall the previous “range” discussion). The beauty of it though, is that season hot coincides pretty much perfectly with Canadian camping season, with the primo weather months being July and August. Perfect. No need to reset the brain calendar. And of course, season rain lines up perfectly with the depth of Canadian winter, with January/February being the most dreaded. I know, whoever set that up so perfectly was a genius.

So ya, it’s May, and summer’s coming. In fact, the past month or so has been unseasonably nice with less rain than usual. Season rain appears to be firmly behind us, and days without rain are upon us. We learned the hard way that they call it season rain for a reason, and that attempting to climb volcanos and things like that in “winter” is just asking for it. Getting caught in a midday tropical deluge on top of a volcano is definitely an experience you will never forget (or want to repeat).

It’s been a fun month with a few local outings. Nice to stretch the legs lately and do a few bigger missions that we have been storing up for season hot. We’re probably jumping the gun though on season hot – you know, like a hot sunny May in Canada, but you just have to get out there don’t you?

One of the recent missions we ticked off involved a local hike into the back forty, surprisingly close to us. The challenge to outdoor recreation in Indo, is that nothing is described, there are no maps, no designated trails, no signage, and definitely nothing oriented towards making it easier for outdoor recreationalists. In fact, dealing with the logistics of “where to go” is by far the hardest aspect of it. Trails are either goat paths that connect the rice fields, or where water runs down the mountain. Constructing sign-posted trails solely for the enjoyment of weekend sojourns has yet to hit this part of the world.

The hike (we call it a hike, locals call it “the way to my village”) traverses along a beautiful forested ridgeline that Amy and I pass on our regular weekend biking route. Many a time we have looked up to it and thought: ‘that would make a great hike”. And it was! Anywhere else it would have its own website. Here, it’s just a rutted, eroding dirt track through the forest that locals use to get their chickens to market. We joined forces with our good Dutch friends Basja and Peter. They had an inclining of where to go, and own a car (very luxurious for us), so that took a lot of the painful logistics out of the equation. Hard to believe that was in our backyard for the past 2 years. We’ll be back!

Then there were a couple of missions up our local volcano, Gunung Salak (remember gunung = mountain/volcano). Salak is a love/hate thing for us. The trails (again, not trails, but simply where water flows when it pours) are mucky, root-infested, steep, and dangerous. The summit is forested and therefore does not offer a view. And, more often than not, it’s raining and treacherous. But, it’s our volcano. It’s in our backyard and we wake up to it every day. As a famous guy once said ‘because it’s there”. So alas, we must.

We’ve gotten to the point where we know the routes now, and can mix it up. We tried out camping on the summit to make it a two-day expedition. Sounds kind of fun, but not really. Camping in Indo means you are almost always sharing the summit with the hoards of chain-smoking, noodle-eating teenagers that frequent gunungs these days. Sharing a camping spot with 30 chanting teenagers, with no sense of personal space or the idea of “quiet time”, is rather trying. Another “experience” though J

The pinnacle of achievements recently, probably was a traverse of Salak where we combined an ascent route we have been wanting to do (waiting for season hot), with a descent we know well. It’s a big day with a 1200-m ascent and 1700-m descent, so it was fun to just do it. The best part though was a nice soft landing at a place we have recently discovered called “Portibi Farm” (www.portibi.com). We walked right to the door, where we had a cold beer waiting for us. The place is owned/operated by an American guy who embraces the “you are what you eat” philosophy. Situated at 700 m (fresh air!) on the lower slopes of Salak, it’s a fantastic weekend getaway of amazing food, good wine, country-farm setting, and perhaps what Indo used to be 100 years ago.

In fact, I am writing this blog from there, while sipping coffee and watching rural Indo wake up. So taken by the place, this long weekend we decided to cycle out to Portibi for a couple nights of R&R. Keeping it local, which is nice, and actually a fun cycle-tour through rural Java. Our fossil-fuel footprint has come down, Amy is enjoying a morning of yoga, we are supporting the local economy, and the sun is shining. Here’s to season hot.