Another adventure on route B4

Somehow, route B4 always turns into an adventure and Friday, 16 May was no exception when I walked it with a friend.

At point A (see Puncaktrek map) on Pr Bobojong we suddenly ran into a dirt road that had not been there before and were puzzled why anyone would build such a road on an uninhabited pasir. (The name Pasir Bobojong was unfortunately left off the map but the reader can find the pasir by following the arrows for route B4 from point A upward toward point B.)

The new dirt road climbs the pasir, mostly along the previous foot path. As we had first noted a year ago, many pine trees on the westward slope of the pasir have been singed by fire and many of these are now dying, sad to say. This vandalism was said to have been car­ried out by youth who spilled the pinesap that was being tapped and set it alight one night in early 2007, perhaps as a prank -- a sad testimony to the ability of some people to spoil a good thing for no clear reason.

The German cemetery is a well tended, restful haven that never fails to impress one with the solem­nity of its fraught history. After a good rest, we proceeded to Pr Pari, where the appearance of a barbed-wire fence surprised us. (Sad to say, the name Pr Pari was also left off the map -- the toponymy team has dropped the ball for this corner of the map -- but the read­er can find Pr Pari by following the B4 arrows from point B across to the next pasir.) A villag­er explained the land now belonged to the Arca Domas Agro-Wisata-Rohani project under Romo Gabriel and Romo John. Curious about this new landlord, we took an uphill detour to a stone road where an imposing green house overlooked the valley of the former tea plantation. Fortu­nately Romo Gabriel was at home, preparing to leave for Bandung.

Romo Gabriel (R in photo), who is Italian, preferred to speak with me in Indo­nesian rather than English. He invited us in and told us of their plans to develop an eco-retreat in this secluded loca­tion. He mentioned that he had order­­ed the building of the road in Pr Bobojong so that a paved road could reach this serene spot (at present, visitors must traverse a rough road from Kmp Linja via the Arca ceme­tery to get here). We showed him our maps and explained that Pr Bobojong had previously been the pris­tine location of a section of route B4. In the future, we hope to persuade Romo Gabriel to main­­tain a foot­path beside the new road, as well as beside the barbed-wire fence in Pr Pari, so that walkers can con­tin­ue to use route B4.

Returning to the fence in Pr Pari, we traced our way on an obscure path beside the fence to its end, and then diagonally across and down the pasir to approach the pine forest. We continued on the standard route, enjoying the glimpses of the sawah below. This brought us to the its T-junction at point C, where we turned sharply R onto a faint descending path. The path was so overgrown from the rainy season that we had to guess at the trail – another adventure, but we guessed right and reached the sawah in the bottom of the Ci Sukabirus valley. Across the bamboo bridge we began to climb Pr Walahar.

What with various delays and detours, it was now late in the afternoon, despite our early start in Kmp Situ. We enjoyed a light breeze and the splendid views from Pr Walahar of the Cisukabirus valley. A downpour began as we came off Pr Walahar and climbed back to the main ridgeline. At 5:15 we reached point E and began to enter the Cisukabirus valley. The rain had stopped but the descent was slow on the slip­pery path. At dusk we waded across the Ci Sukabirus in our boots -- no time to take them off and too late to worry about whether this was the “right” crossing spot or not. We scanned the broad carpet of rice paddies for a well-trod path toward Kmp Situ, soon found one and hurried across the flat terrain to the small musholla, a landmark on B4. It was now after 6, nearly dark. Without a flashlight, I was reluctant to proceed on the standard route to the kampong, which involved a bit of steep climbing on slippery paths. A villager said we could follow the narrow paved bank of the irrigation ditch into a cluster of houses ahead of us, which we decided to do. Amid the houses, known as Kmp Sawah, a friendly group of pesantren kids kindly guided us further along the waterway and up to Kmp Situ. Another exciting day on B4, leaving me to wonder just how it took so long to cover only 6.6 km!