Route B3 -- With Pk Santoso

On Friday, 9 May I walked this route with Pak Santoso, the managing director of Green Radio, and another friend. An avid hiker, Pak Santoso had often walked in the foothills of Gn Pangrango while a student at IPB but never with a map. During our walk he read the map for this route assidu­ously and found it sufficiently clear and accurate. Meanwhile, we observed changes for a number of identi­fying elements in the text narrative for B3 – for example, some warung had closed and a second roadside bench has appeared in kmp Ciaul. It appears that the map will stand the test of time better than the book. If other hikers are interest­ed, there is much to be said for distributing the job of updating the narrative among users, and Pk Santoso was hopeful that Green Radio could support this kind of collaborative approach (gotong royong) with publicity via its website at http://www.greenradio.fm/.

At the start in Kmp Pondokmenteng (near Tapos), we heard of other walkers who had simi­­­lar­­ly begun the B3 circuit, perhaps using the Puncaktrek map. There were similar reports throughout the walk, although less em­phat­ically and consistently than at the start, making us won­der whether some had gone only part of the way. A Western man (Tom Wright, I later learn­ed) had trekked here recently with his Indonesian wife and their 8-month old baby – many locals recalled the threesome.

In Kmp Babakan Bawah we met Pak Endi, owner of the lone house near the Ci Salada, which he is now trying to sell. The photo shows Pak Santoso (L) with Pk Endi. In Kmp Babakan Atas we saw a stack of recently cut wood with a strong aroma -- all that remained of a pete tree. Indeed, the wood did smell like the pete bean, and we wondered if a house built from this wood would smell the same.

On the last stretch of B3, as we descended into the valley of the Ci Pomndokmenteng from Pr Koja amid cinnamon and pine trees, we spotted a kiacret tree ahead in full bloom. The large red-orange flowers, visible from afar, had become a scenic attraction in this remote spot, leaving us to wonder how this exotic species (the African tulip tree, or sabado dea) had made its way here.

Before the end of the hike at 1:30, the subtle mass clicking sound of the uir-uir and tonggeret was heard. Here too the local locusts and cicadas had begun to greet the advent of the dry season, a bit later than on route B1, which is only to be expected given that the climate is a bit dryer in Nangleng.

Easy navigation on this route for us -- and for Tom Wright as well, according to his email.