Mountain Expedition: Mt. Lembu 3050 M above sea level
It was during the holy Ramadhan in 2016 (Jun, 2016), I was contacted by 2 biologists to escort them for their research deep in Aceh Rainforest for 16 days. We agreed to build the team, but, because it was Ramdhan, surely not many of our exploration team able to be in the jungle neither the local guide. Said and I started to set up the trip, this research had focused on birding, invertebrate and insects. When we had an agreement with these two biologists, then we prepared any necessary equipment and logistics, I met Oli and Iris in Medan and bought some other equipment and logistics that we need for the trip. Oli Broadhead is from Bristol university and Iris Berger is from Edinburgh university, both of them love to explore deep into the jungle, that makes us as a solid team.
Left: Iris Berger from Edinburgh University, Righ: Oli Broadhead from Bristol University, at the meet with them in Medan at one of coffee shop.
The next day we arrived in Gayo Luwes for reporting to local authority, including police department regarding our trip, we met Said who had been there waiting for us, while he prepared all necessary documents. As you my has known, during the holy Ramadhan, all the muslim including me and Said were fasting about 14 hours within daylight.
We had a short briefing to discuss plotting road and technical exploration, because actually, we need to open the path crossing the unpredictable high density rain forest, what we could see only what was stated on the map. Said and I were the most experienced member of Aceh Tracker for this are of exploration, because we had had previous experience to reach the peak of Mt. Lembu, the second highest peak in East Aceh 3050 meters above sea level (M ASL). First team stepped on the peak were 6 of us in 2014, including said and me (the second team after the Dutch colonial expedition team in March 1913 when they constructed the Triangulation Pillar P.123). So, this is our second time to get to the peak through Uring village, Gayo Luwes Aceh. Finally, only 4 of us proceed as a solid team to conduct observation and research in the area, Oli and Iris were the first Biologists and foreigner visited that area, mostly the scientist will prefer to do research in Leuser National Park, because that name is really famous among the environment activist. It is really serious mountain expedition
Day 1, camp 1
The next day, four of us ready to go to start point with 35 kg load in the carrier on our shoulder, those weigh we need to carry for 16 days crossing the river, jungle, mountain ridge and valley and multiple characteristic terrain to the top of the mountain. Those weights were including our equipment and foods, as the plan set in advance. We had 1 GPS, 4 set of topographic map, 2 compasses and protractor.
First day, we walked along the riverside, we were able to walk only 2,5 km/day with the weight and such difficult terrain. My throat was burned out. Said, Oli, Iris and I walked along the riverside with fresh crystal clear water right from the mountain. I won’t take a sip off, I was fasting. Keep walking and the sun right on top, finally we took a little rest, I washed my face while I put my bare legs in the water. It was so fresh, while my companies sat themselves on the rock. It is not a short trip at all.
It was still 7 hours to wait for the sun completely down and I can break my fasting day. During the holy ramadhan we are as a muslim all over the world will hold ourselves from any food and drink, smoking includes for 13 hours 45 minutes or 14 hours (In Aceh), or can be longer or shorter in other part of the world.
Resting for 30 minutes recharge my energy to continue our trip to the top of Mt. Lembu, the highest peak of East Aceh, but we started from Uring, Gayo Luwes, Aceh. Our plot was for 16 days walk deep in the jungle, one way in and out. There is no other way opened to and from the mountain, this is the only path we made in 2014, we were six in the team work for 16 days to make a path to the peak.
First day had no problem at all, we set the camp at the riverside and stay for a night. The research was begun; they started to find any kind of frogs and snake around our camp ground. I prepared for dinner and Said love to set fire to avoid wild animal, the camp was 4.5 km away from the nearest village.
The second day, we were still on the riverside, sometimes we crossed from one side to another to find the easiest path for walking through. That day we only made up to 1.7 km, it is normal when we start long trip with the heavy luggage and our body will need some times to get used to the new condition, yet Oli and Iris had been a long way from Europe. Our second day camp still at the riverside and that was last time close to the water.
Day 3, camp 3
It was the hardest part climbing of the longest ridge crossing high density rain forest. This mountain area is not a tourist area, therefore, there were only a few of local hunter doing their illegal activity around the camp, but that camp spot was the farthest point for their hunting activity. Oli and Iris are ready after Said and I. I forgot to tell them that I was fasting, and they need to manage their drinking water, each of them brought 1.5 L of fresh water.
Around 4.30 at the evening we found the space to stop and take rest for 15 minutes, I checked their water. There was no water left, except a few drops remain in the bottle. This was the problem. And the nearest water spot is 450 meters down the valley, that was really not an option. I brought 200 ml for breaking my fasting day, and Said still have about 100 ml in his bottle, that was what we shared before we reached the next water spot, it was about 800 m to go at the initial camp site, 800 m on the city road is not really big deal but in high density forest can be huge disaster especially when we walk at night, limited visibility, lack of water and tired, yet wild animal start to hunt at night, snake getting more dangerous. But, we had no option to stop in the middle of the ridge. I took the lead, and got my headlamp out of the carrier and ready to use any time, I asked the rest of the team to do the same. At 7 pm, the path completely dark, even at 5.30 the path was about to dark since the jungle canopy was really thick. We stop for 30 minute, Said set the fire, we sat close to each other and keep watching around. Finally, at 9.30 pm we arrived at the camp site, first thing was water, that area was the main reservoir for the river we crossed a day before. Oli and Iris waited no longer to drink right from the small ditch, their water had gone long time ago. We went to sleep at 11 pm after late dinner and prepare for the next day crossing thick mossy area, with some part of thorny rattan close the twisted bushy path
Day 5 and 6 camp 5
We had been 3 day crossing 8.9 km, the most difficult part of the pathway, and this evening we got a bonus track before we reach the camp five. It a large grassy and soggy field, we have a lot of water for shower. Shower?, definitely not for me, the temperature was between 4-6 Celsius degree, I prefer in the sleeping bag to getting myself into smoky tiger hunting zone for shower. Oli and Irish was so satisfy since they had found 35 species of bird and some new unidentified birds, some of incredible fact of insects, frogs and some plants including rare orchids. We decided to stay one more day for recovery. We really need to rest properly after 5 days walk through most difficult terrain with 35 kg load on our shoulder. Even the weight had been reduced 2 kg a day, which mean it had reduced 2.5 kg for each of us. While we take a full day rest, we reset the food packaging to maintain the equal weight. I helped Irish and bring some of her load and said help Oli, the problem was not only the weigh, but also the creeping part of the terrain, we literally needed to creep on to pass the tunnel of moss. This cam was so special for both Oli and Irish, this cam was the first time I made pan cake for them to break the monotony of rice and our common local food. The dough was as simple as possible. The mixture consists of; 2 eggs, 200 gr wheat flour, little salt, 50 gr chees, 330 ml fresh milk (Bear Brand)
All ingredients were mixed together become thicken and puffy, before fried on the pan, half cup for each pan cake. I made 4 pan cakes. That was my first pan cake at 2,800 MASL.
This is my photo, taken at the same place in 2014 (my original work)
This photo of me is property of Oli Broadhead
Day 7, camp 6
We started earlier that day to reach as far as possible and get closer to the peak, our target was not only one peak (mt. Lembu), but the highest Peak of Mt. Kurik 3085 MASL (Meters Above Sea Level). This part of pathway was much easier, only crossing the grassy flat area with minor slope, but it was only half-way to the initial camp site. All of us had got used to our new daily routine, Oli and Iris seemed enjoy the trip and walk faster than us. 8.30 at the evening we arrived at the summit attack camp, obviously that area has cave system, Oli and Iris found 3 caves nearby the camp site. They were the first scientist who explored the area and found many incredible animal lived around the camp, we had never noticed before. We set the camp and started to cook for dinner, Oli and Iris helped me to prepare dinner willingly we were absolutely solid team work. You can check the photo of Oli Broadhead here
Day 8, camp 6
We decided to recover and discover the area, Oli and Irish wanted to explore a little more to find the cave system and the ecosystem round the cave. It would be very great day if I had camera, but I did not, I only had my stupid phone to capture some of the moments. The area was out of phone signal coverage, the last signal spot was only at camp site fifth, yet that was only able to send sms one in a while. The other area were the top of Mt. Lembu.
Day 9, camp 6
The next morning I made another pan can for 3 of them, I had prepared for those, because I knew, Oli and Irish had enough with rice since the first day of expedition. Especially Iris, she is a vegetarian. This was the second time of pan cake. I broke my fasting by midday (shame), because Said and I need to open the pathway which was new plotting route through Mt. Gemiring 2985 MASL, so I share one pan cake for our lunch with Said. We expected the closer way to get on the peak of Mt. Lembu, but we only made up to 2650 MASL before I cut my finger to the bond. I did not bring proper medical kit, so I chewed a hand full of moss for antiseptic and to stop bleeding before I wrap it with a piece of ripped clothes.5 pm we reached the camp and I did further medical treatment for my wound. Honestly, it was difficult to handle such thing by myself in the middle of nowhere, the nearest hospital or clinic was 5 days walk crossing high density rain forest (it is always faster to return than climbing up the mountain). Normally it takes half of the climbing time to get back to start point.
That was my finger looks like, Photo taken by Oli. Image property of Oli Broadhead
Day 10, camp 6
Decision was made in accordance with the latest situation, I decided to stay in the camp, only 3 of them would summit to the peak of Mt. Lembu. I could not risk this expedition and lost my finger in the jungle, so I need to avoid the bleeding and reduce the movement, before I can return to start point. Oli, Iris, Said, should complete the journey without me, besides, I had been on the peak once. I prepared the food for them since they will be away from the camp with minimum load to increase the speed of their movement in such difficult terrain, they will definitely creep and duckling under the small tunnel to pass the mossy trees in the rainy day. I gave them 20 hours limit started from 7 am (the time they left the camp), before I took emergency action in any necessary way, in case of something went wrong. That was our standard procedure to track on the pathway if the time pass the given limit, and initiate the next step of rescue procedure. I realized that only Said and I have ability for night tracking and self-survival skill in our community, but bad thing could happen any time, just like my bad luck at the other day. They arrived to the camp safely at 10.30 pm, and dinner had set accordingly for all of them; rice, sardine, wild veggies, and instant noodle. Is the Mission Accomplished?, nope, we failed to reach the peak of Mt.Kurik. But, they had more than 50 bird species, frogs, mammals, insect, and invertebrates were well documented for research purposes. The next day, they took full day rest before heading back to the village. Another 5 days high risk adventure.
That is normal when are failed in our life, but we should not give up to carry on the next step of our journey. Said and I have been more than 5000 hours in the jungle, failure is a normal thing, success is bonus, new lesson and gaining more experience are the true goal of every expedition.
Day 11, camp 5
We swept the camping ground and packed every single stuffs we brought in, including our garbage and ready to return home at 8.30 in the morning, we plan to head up at the camp 5th before dark fall. And finally we made it, my finger got bleeding, and I had bandage to cover the wound properly. I took antibiotic and pain killer to avoid any further infection.
Oli has similar photo with this one that you may find it in his website, but this one is my original work.
Day 13, camp 3
We passed one camp on the way back to the start point (Uring Village), we reached camp site 3 (water spot camp) at 7.45 am and take a night there, no big deal for all of us, and my finger had stopped bleeding and remain swallowed and had a bit red skin, but still unmovable. Finally, I decided to use splint (a piece of small short wood) for better protection before further medical treatment.
On the way back to Uring. Photo taken by Said.
Day 15, Uring
We reached the village at 4.00 pm, safe and sound, first thing we did was report to the police upon our arrival in to the village, but we need to rent motorbike to the nearest signal spot, meanwhile, all the villager were there, sitting after their farming time, we sat with them having tea and coffee, talking about the history of the mountain, the elder greeting us and expecting us to bring more scientists to discover new things in order to mitigate deforestation of the area. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough photograph to support the story, some pictures I took from Oil Broadhead facebook pages with proper cited.
Some Photographs of Orchid
This is my first article about my mountain adventure, I wasn't doing the expedition only for hobby, but mostly for education and environment protection. I hope by reading this short article, more people have their interest to come there and discover the secret of jungle life. I am willing to help If anyone wants to explore those or other area in Aceh. Warning! “Those areas are dangerously beautiful!”
With my best regard
Congratulations! Your high quality travel content caught our attention and earned you a reward, in form of an upvote and resteem. Your work really stands out. Your article now has a chance to get curated and featured under the appropriate daily topic of our Travelfeed blog. Thank you for using #travelfeed
Learn more about our travel project on Steemit by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord
thank you very much @travelfeed
Very well done! God luck!
Thank you, good luck for you too @see5staar. Have a great day
Roy @el-nailul ... this is not a short article, it's like watching several episodes of documentary films on National Geographic. Amazing ... oh yeah ... love the orchids, especially the white one
Only 15 minutes read actually, the white orchid also my favorite one, I have never seen that kind in the market @rayfa. You can enjoy the story, but if you were there you might think "not nice" to be 15 days in the wild, :D
It is short version, compare what I have written a complete report for eiger, it was 75 pages with hundreds of photos only for seven days trip to Kemiri August 2017
Hahahaha... 75 pages, it can be divided in 75 posts then
yes it could be, or a wrap up for some articles is also possible to do so
Thanks, @el-nailul.
A well-written adventurous article.
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi Capt! That's a nice write up!
I always want to do such expedition on a rainforest mountain. But, please Sir, I hope there's an inn every 10 miles or so. 😀 Getting lost is nothing without getting found. 😀
you can have short trip with me, 3 days perhaps, or one week with me, just you and me, how about that?
What mountain. That's a cool idea. What to prepare for a week trip and for three days one.
a week or 3 days, there is no different things you need to prepare, the only different is the quantities of our logistic to bring, only your personal stuffs you need to bring if you like to go with me for jungle trip
If there is an inn.. let's me in your team too
Sure you can if you want to joint, general @aneukpineung, where dyou think we should do this little adventure?
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 11 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 5 SBD worth and should receive 177 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig
, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
![trufflepig](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SmokinCaterpillar/TrufflePig/master/img/trufflepig17_small.png)
TrufflePig
Thank you very much @trufflepig, wish you all the best
Hi @el-nailul🤗 that's really best article about trip and travel to find the beautiful places around the world😁 warm regard for you and for your friends too, I am @neilur from north Aceh, hope we can be a friend too😊
it is not the best article, but I consider it is a fairly good read @neilur :D, our name is much closer, is that your real name or only steemit nick name?, thank for stopping by my post and yet, we have been being a friend since we are in the platform. Btw, I am from Panton Labu, north Aceh
Yeah! And I really surprisely about it, actually name real name "Syarifah Nailurrahmi" and I take @neilur as my steemit name👌 and you can see the comphere of my real name and your steemit name only in the last letter and that's amazing🤗
And I see you really mastering English well, are you from the English department before?
No I wasn't, I was in Math Dept. long ago. Your english is good too, you only need to practice it and read more english article @neilur, it will help you to improve your ability. ON this steemit platform, communication is an important think to have in order to gain more friend from across the globe, and the people you are communicating with may not understand Bahasa, so you will be able to be connected with them in English.
Besides starting off your venture fasting, then to cut yourself. It seems it was quite an adventure. You look at ease in the pictures, like you are in your element. The orchids are amazing. I haven't seen any like those around here in the stores. I actually hope I don't they are perfect where they are.
Doing the venture during the fasting day is really not a recommendation to do LOL. We must have some thought training to get there. I was lucky I had a chance for such training, during my survival training in the rain forest. the rest we need to practice both fasting and doing hard work to get there @tryskele
That is good. When you mentioned that all I could think of is you're very lucky not to get dehydrated and sick. Glad that there was training you went through to be able to do this.
Dyou like mountaineering?, because you can make a team and you can come to Aceh for a cheap real adventure to the new land. or if you know someone who love to spend days in the untouchable place, there is a perfect place for first ascent. I am not telling you this as a guide, in fact I am not a guide, but build an adventure team for real. Or you know someone want to do some research then that is a good place for the first time. No one has known what is there yet
What a great adventure! Congratulations about being highlighted by @pifc! Excellent work!
What is that? I have no clue at all yet. I just came back to check it. thank you for letting me know brother @trincowski
I was talking about this post:
https://steemit.com/payitforward/@pifc/member-spotlight-04-el-nailul
ohh thank you very much, I just checked a few minutes ago @trincowski