Climbing Bawakaraeng

644 days ago
	The last weekend was filled with a much hyped and anticipated climb up Bawakaraeng, a monstrous mountain behind Makassar and is probably the tip of the original island which is now the southern part of this island. It is not so dramatically high (2600m), but is very spread out and has some tricky terrain. All tolled we had a group of 7 people who wanted to witness the sunrise from the top of the mountain. Our understanding of how to get to the summit was hazy at best, but thanks to Kiky's bro who came forward with many tips it wasn't so hard. Simon and I left in the early afternoon, set on finding a guide who would take us to the top overnight and then return the following morning. I was convinced a guide was needed seeing that anybody I talked to about the mountain in Makassar would only spew forth stories of how people die continuously up there. We easily (by Indonesian standards) found the village wherein expeditions usually start from. There we me Tata, an elderly fellow who knew the mountain well. He told us our plan to summit the mountain that night was not viable since it would take us about 8 hours to get to the top (originally I had been told 4) and then we must return. Conceding this, we agreed to go as far as we could and then return at the crack of dawn. He asked some young climbers from Makassar to take us up. By the time we were ready to climb and had all eaten, there were 13 of us in the group. 6 young fellows decided to come along with us, in part for the fun and to experience the spookiness of the mountain. This mountain is known in the area for its number of ghosts. There are pretty strict rules about talking and acting arrogant on the trail, which our group paid heed to. The climb up was pretty uneventful seeing as it was a new moon and the sky was overcast as well. We did get a great view of Makassar at night, which was over 2 hours away by car! At around 3 in the morning we had reached the halfway point with the hardest climbing ahead of us. However, some people were rather tired so I thought it best to camp. Unfortunately, it started to rain soon after that and we made a fire and quicky set up the dilapidated tent the guys carried along with them. I spent the rest of the morning around the fire and going out to collect more wood. The next morning the rain stopped followed by an extremely beautiful rainbow. We headed back shortly after sunrise, walking through thick jungle and pine forests. A really strange mix if you ask me. We back to the village about 11, meaning that we had weathered the mountain for 13 hours. One thing that made the hike really exciting was seeing how much ritual and myth the mountain hosts. Upon return we heard many ghost stories, and two of our company claimed to have seen ghosts. Over the course of the trip we were at points: forbidden to take pictures, not allowed to speak, asked to remove all red clothing, and asked to pray 6 times. Quite a list!