Climbing Gunung Merbabu, Java, Indonesia

/ ryan.mazure​​​
/ ​​​​
I wasn’t too stoked with it being a Sunday morning and seeing hundreds of tents and people all climbing the hill but the top more than made up for it.
I left Solo at 1.30am and was at the Selo entry gate at 2.45am. Paid 5000k to park the scooter and found the whole place dead. Not a sole around. Went past the gate and straight up the trail. The path from Selo is very wide and at the moment it is very very dusty and slippery. If you go to hike be sure to take some poles with you, it will help a lot.
I reached the summit after 2.5 hours at 5.15am. There were a lot of people already on the top but it is really big so you just have to walk around and find a spot to yourself. I had some brekky at the top, took some photos and chatted with other hikers. The views are insane from the top and 100% worth the effort to climb.
I left the summit at 6.30am and slow jogged/walked down and was at the gate by 730am, 1 hour down. I was then back in solo before 9am. Amazing trip up the hill.
I’ve noticed that if you go around 2am or 3am there is no one at the gates to collect fees and for us foreigners its quite a saving. So all in all it cost me 5000k for the parking of the motorbike.