Okay, so technically it should be Germany 2/6, but who's really counting. Of the five people in my tour to start the climb to Merapi (the two people that made it came in a different car, but we started at the same time. It should also be noted that the two were frequent mountain climbers, the boyfriend having boasted of bagging some 900 peaks, and the two live outside of Munich, where they frequently climb the alps), only I, the greenhorn mountain climber, whose only prior experience relating to mountain climbing involves ascending the staircases of several towers and parking garages. Let's face it, the only time I've ever actually climbed a mountain is when I have been squarely planted on the seat of a chairlift.
In case you didn't hear the news--there is no news--the mountain was quiet and it's volcanic activity didn't cause any sort of problems, unless you consider the rank, rotten egg smell of sulfur to be a problem--but I'm used to that--it reminded me of my mom's cooking.
While the mountain did cooperate, the weather unfortunately didn't, which was why we didn't get a good view of the sunrise at all. To illustrate how cloudy and rainy it was at the summit, here's a picture of me taken there (the one at the bottom). My fingers were about to go numb.
I will describe the climb later, but all five of us in the car ride on the way back agreed that if we knew what were getting ourselves into before we started, none of us would have bothered. It was a rough and steep hike, not meant for novices like myself, and if a murder is ever committed at Merapi, I'm screwed, because my fingerprints and handprints are all over the mountain.
The pic at the top is me farther down where the weather was somewhat nicer--we had already gotten to the top, and were descending.. I'm surprisingly still awake even though I only slept for about four hours last night, and spent about 9 hours hiking up and down a steep volcano. That's bound to change later in the afternoon, though.
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