As soon as we enter the park, we are surrounded by the song of birds. Kerinci National Park is an important place of residence of Sumatra’s endemic birds, so it is not surprisingly that this park is frequently visited by birders. One of the target birds on the lists of birders is the Salvadori’s Pheasant. On first sight, the female of this bird has many similarities with a brown chicken and we almost step on such a female because she sits on the path where we find our way up. The first part of the path is easy, but it gets more difficult when we get higher. Some parts we have to walk under low hanging vegetation and Edwin sometimes gets stuck under the vegetation with his big backpack. But when we hear some tree branches breaking we don’t have time to feel tired. When we look up, we see a beautiful Siamang. This black gibbon is truly a gifted acrobat and we have a great time watching him swinging from tree to tree. When the gibbon is out of sight we proceed our way on the slippery paths. Some parts of the paths are through very narrow slots through slippery rocks. Fortunately, the weather is still fine. When it rains, these paths will be even more slippery.

When we reach an altitude of 2700 metre, we start to feel our legs. The scrambling starts taking its toll and, even worse, the sky is clouded over. Luckily, it stays dry until we reach the camping ground at 3200 metres. We pitch the tent that we hired from the guesthouse. Because some other trekkers warned us that the tent isn’t fully waterproof, we put an additional sheet of plastic on the tent which we attach with strings and rocks. From small pieces of wood, we make tent pegs and after half an hour we are finally ready to open the lunch packages that the guesthouse prepared for us. Because we are in Indonesia, this means that we have to eat rice. This time it is cold white rice with a skinny chicken chop, a fried egg, two slices of cucumber and some strong sambal. At a small campfire we dry our clothes that have become wet due to the muddy paths and the wet vegetation. We are kept company by a group of small birds that have it in for the spilled over grains of rice. Around 6 p.m. we are forced into the tent by the rain. From the inside, the tent seems even smaller then from the outside. Even Ivonne can’t stretch herself while she is only 1.63 metres. So, you don’t have to have a lot of imagination to visualize how Edwin has to curl himself up to fit in the tent. There is a cloudburst and a thunderstorm right above our too little tent. This in combination with the too thin sleeping mattresses causes for a sleepless night.

When we are back at the camping ground we eat our second lunch package consisting of white rice, chicken chop, fried egg, cucumber and sambal. The lunch packages taste a lot better than the cookies take keep us going the rest of the day, but on the next trekking we prefer to have “real” food. While we are eating, dark clouds are coming in. We break up the camp and pack our backpacks to continue the way down. The backpack of Edwin is full again, and that is clearly noticeable on the way down. Because of the rain of last night, the paths are even more slippery and on some occasions we have to go down on mud slopes. The first hour we keep it dry, but then it starts raining heavily. Fortunately, we have the rain ponchos with us to keep the backpacks dry and we need it because the rain keeps coming down tree hours in a row. The paths transform in small waterfalls. Sometimes we can’t walk down and we need swing to on our arms from tree to tree. Sometimes we slip and the tear in Ivonne’s trousers is a direct result of that. Edwin’s knees are feeling like wax and really don’t want to go any further, but we hang on. At this moment, Ivonne can do that thing that Edwin does normally for her: helping with the descent. Now, she is happy that she didn’t climb the last 150 metres to the top. She is also tired, but she still has some energy left and this way we both come down safely. When we arrive at the park entrance, it stops raining. Slowly, the workers come back at the tea plantation and they can’t suppress their smile when they see us coming. Two extremely wet, very dirty and exhausted foreigners who climbed up and down a mountain for fun. We can see them thinking: “Those foreigners are completely mad!” Maybe they are right, but we don’t regret climbing Gunung Kerinci. The surroundings are beautiful; we have seen nice birds and even a black gibbon. The next time, however, we would do it differently. On a next more-day trekking, we will take a porter and make sure that the food is better. After all, we do these trekkings for our pleasure! Al in al, climbing Gunung Kerinci is a great thing to do but in this way we would not do it again.

© copyright - Babakoto.eu / 2008