Hiking Mount Cikuray

Last weekend me and five of my old college friends went hiking to Mount Cikuray (2.821m) in Garut. This was my fourth time to Cikuray and the first for my friends. Using one of my friend's car, we drove from Jakarta on Friday night. Arrived at Garut at Saturday early morning, we parked the car at Wisma LEC Garut. Then we used local public transportation, an angkot, toward Patrol in Cilawu. Switched to motorcycle taxi/ojek to Pemancar/television aerials as our starting point. Started hiking aroung 8.30 AM, we struggled uphill. I felt not too tired but one of my friend was, so we had to walk slowly. As consequences, we reached Pos 6 or the false peak when it was almost 3 PM. And it started raining, so we decided to make camp at Pos 6 rather than at the actual peak. Usually not many people hiked Cikuray, but this time there were so many around us. It turned out, a group of hikers were doing mass climbing. We glad built camp in Pos 6 as we figured out that we wouldn't be able to get a space at the peak with so many people like this. Sunday morning, at 4.30 AM we left the tents and hiking to the peak, bringing only water and some food. Around 45 minutes later, we reached the peak of Cikuray. And yes, it was full with people and tents. The weather was clear and we could view the surrounding area. There was Mount Papandayan with its famous white crater walls. Far away we could see the top of Mount Ciremai and Mount Slamet. It was so beautiful. We hanging here for about 45 minutes, chatting and taking photos, before hiking back to the camp. Made and ate breakfast of fried noodles and eggs, then we went back to Pemancar and Jakarta.