Situ Gunung Takes Me Back To Nature The Way I Don’t Plan To
In the past few years, the mountainous area in Sukabumi, Indonesia, has always been a magnet for holidaymakers. It has a list of popular tourist destinations like Ciletuh Geopark, Ujung Genteng Beach, Buniayu Cave, and many, many popular small waterfalls (curug).
One of the new tourist hotspots in the area was Situ Gunung National Park, which hosts the famous Situ Gunung Suspension Bridge. As one of the main attractions at Mount Gede Pangrango National Park, the bridge has been branded as Southeast Asia’s Longest Suspension Bridge.
That title seemed to have been successful in attracting regional tourists, including ones from Jakarta. Tourists can enjoy the sky-high experience, explore the beautiful Curug Sawer waterfall, and adore the stunning scenery of Lake Situ Gunung.
When the night falls, they can rent tents from several camping grounds around the park, and get a thrill of a unique staycation experience in the middle of the forest.
Do you wonder if the first four paragraphs above seemed like they were taken from a travel website? Or at best, a short review on TripAdvisor? Yep, because they were.
Okay, I just reminded myself to honestly write my travel story here on my Medium, without ever trying to sound like beautiful advertorial pieces we usually find on travel websites.
I am of the opinion that traveling is not only about enjoying breathtaking sceneries and taking photos of them. It is also about carefully planning the trip, embracing the difficulties that may/will occur during the trip, and of course, snap snap snap photos and record the experience.
Let me rephrase the story for you. Sukabumi hosts Southeast Asia’s Longest Suspension Bridge. SEA’s Longest. Suspension. Bridge. That title alone, I believe, would draw people flocking to the destination. The fact that it is located in Sukabumi, just a few hours from the capital city of Jakarta, is all the more reason to visit it, especially for the Jakarta residents who long for a little bit of nature in their crowded busy city life.
Prepare for the crowds! was what I told myself at the train station in Bogor, before taking the short-distance train bound for Sukabumi, on a fine Saturday morning last October with one of my best friends.
Well, no shit, Sherlock! Crowds were indeed flocking to the site. It seemed that everyone on the train wanted to see the suspension bridge. The train was almost empty after most passengers got off at Cisaat station, the nearest station to Situ Gunung National Park. After that, it took only a 20-minute Go-Car ride before you arrive at the park.
The so-called SEA’s Longest Suspension Bridge
I can’t remember the exact amount of money we had to pay to purchase the ticket at the front gate of Situ Gunung National Park, but I do remember that it was under IDR 60,000 per person. The ticket included multiple entries to see the suspension bridge, Curug Sawer Waterfall, and Lake Situ Gunung. Pretty affordable, eh?
Brace yourself because you were about to hike, hike, and hike on rugged terrains leading to the bridge. I didn’t know the exact distance between the front gate and the bridge, but it took us around half an hour or so to finally, finally see the famed bridge.
The big shaky bridge offered a stunning view of lush forest. I could not help myself but to feel in awe towards this grand, breathlessly exquisite, richest woodland.
And the bridge, well, it was.. some bridge. I mean, of course, it’s an extraordinary one, nothing like I have seen before. It was one long bridge, sometimes shaky, but somehow looked strong enough to have tons of people walking on it.
The entrance gate of the bridge had several monitor screens telling us in real time how many people were on the bridge, and how many people were allowed to enter the bridge before it reached the entrance limit: 100 people.
When it was my turn, I got to wear a safety belt before finally setting foot on the bridge. The safety belt was equipped with a hook and could be attached to the handrail in case of turbulence. I felt safe enough.
The moment I finally walked on the bridge, I realized why people were drawn to this kind of attraction.
The big shaky bridge offered a stunning view of the lush forest. I could not help myself but feel in awe of this grand, breathlessly exquisite, richest woodland.
Well, make no mistake, while I was feeling in awe, I also feared for myself that I would fall off the bridge. I mean, you would feel the turbulence along the way. It was undeniably shaky when a hundred people walked on the same long bridge at the exact same time.
You would feel that you are going to fall off every single time you took another step on the bridge. However, I suggest you keep on going because at the end of it, you would realize that this breathtaking view was worth every turbulence you felt along the way.
It was nearly impossible to take a photo of yourself walking on the bridge without having many people in the frame. But we managed to capture a few alright.
The trick? You just have to wait patiently for the right moment, and took as many stills as possible. The photo above was decent enough, wasn’t it? It was one of the 485849399 photos my friend took of me on the bridge.
The Lone and Striking Curug Sawer Waterfall
You would need to walk half a kilometer from the bridge to find this aloof waterfall. It was located deep in the national park, surrounded by greenwood that turned out to be the house of many wild monkeys with long tails. It was kinda creepy to see wild monkeys jumping around from tree to tree above your head, but I reminded myself that it was just a natural scene in the forest.
Curug Sawer was a small but sparkling and scenic waterfall.
It looked as if it was minding its own business. It was allowing water to stream to the ground and undisturbed by the noisy crowds surrounding it.
The waterfall was also somewhat calming. Yep, no kidding, it was indeed somewhat calming and strikingly alone in the forest. If only there weren’t so many people taking full-body photos of themselves in front of the waterfall. Phew!
The Vivid and Charming Lake Situ Gunung
There was only one long road to reach Lake Situ Gunung. You could go on foot, or take motorcycle taxis (ojek pangkalan). I got my Garmin watch ready, so, of course, I chose to walk. It’s just about 3 kilometers long, anyway.
What I and my best friend didn’t know at the time was that it was one long, steep, and winding road to the lake. We are city girls, may I remind you. We were not used to this kind of terrain.
But I loved it. My calves were hurting like crazy every single minute of it, but I got a wide smile on my face. We finally arrived at the lake just a few minutes before sunset.
At the end of the road was this vivid and extremely singular lake, which was covered by majestic pine trees on each side.
Before long on the horizon above the lake, the only sun turned redder by minutes, as it was prepared to be sunk. A truly picturesque scenery.
After taking a few photos, we decided to just sit and enjoy the view.
I Didn’t Plan To Do This
When we hiked back to the entrance gate, I realized that I have been longing for this kind of mountainous terrain. I dreamed of them, many many times, to run on mountainous terrains like this. Oh, to breathe clean air like this while running!
This is what trail runners have been experiencing, I wondered. This was a luxury for a city runner like me.
With that thought in my mind, I then decided to do something I didn’t plan before to exercise a little bit on my way back to the entrance gate. Because…why not?
Instead of taking a slow walk, I run downhill and took a brisk walk uphill. I nearly out of my breath by the time we arrived at the gate.
And that’s what I called a good day’s workout, even though it only took about one hour or so. Here, I share with you my elevation gain that day, recorded by my Garmin watch via Strava app.
My longest running distance was, by far, a half-marathon (21 kilometers). I have run 5 half-marathon races since I started running in 2016, but not one of them gained me high elevation like this one. Bravo!
So that was my short trip to Situ Gunung. If any of you reading my story is looking for a nice affordable weekend getaway destination, which offers natural wonders and has neat glamping grounds, you should visit Situ Gunung National Park.
Yep, that last paragraph was also taken from a travel site.