Two days after Christmas I joined a group of Americans and Indonesians on a camping trip into the coolness of mountains. Rainy season isn't usually the wisest time to go camping, as we soon found out (see story below). But despite the bad weather that was pummeling East Java, we set out anyways. We found a small wooded area about 400 meters away from a small lakeside village. In the other direction we had this beautiful view of an expansive valley filled with carrots, cabbage, onions, and a village of local farmers. Our three-day, two-night camping trip was filled with fishing (we caught a grand total of 3 fish after about 3-4 hours), cooking (mainly rice and instant noodles), practicing archery, relaxing, and trying to keep dry.
The rain began when we showed up the first afternoon, and didn't stop until the next morning. We discovered a few leaks in our tents, but 3 out of the 4 at least held out a majority of the rain. On the second day we were refreshed by sunshine and a light breeze. It felt like a spring day in Kansas. But by 4:00 pm the skys were darkening, the rain began spitting down, and the wind started to blow a little harder. We all took shelter in tents, played guitar and cards, ate nuts, chatted, and relaxed to the sound of pattering raindrops on the tent rain-covers. By 5:00 pm the rain was picking up, as were the winds. By 6 pm the wind was howling through the trees, the rain was coming down in sheets, and our tents were threatening to collapse or fly away, depending on the style of tent. By 6:30 pm the winds were roaring. Trees were swaying back and forth, threatening to snap over under the force of the winds. At this time two of our fellow campers were literally scared to death, and so without telling anyone else, suddenly bolted from their tents and hightailed down the trail toward the village, seeking refuge in the a local prayer room. By 7:00 pm the winds ripping and roaring through the trees was deafening, reaching an conservative estimate of 80 mph. Rain pelted down without mercy. Tents stakes started pulling out of the ground. The decision was made to abandon camp and flee for our lives down to the nearby village to find shelter. I was actually grinning from ear to ear and reveling in the experience, and so volunteered to stay behind with my friend Mitch to guard our belongings and try to keep the tents from taking flight. We took shelter on the windless side of a large tree that appear that it wasn't too likely to snap over on top of us. The intensity of the storm only increased, and by about 7:45 the decision was made to hightail it out of there. Mitch, who plans to get married when he goes home from Indonesia, decided he'd rather not die first. We rapidly decended with one eye on the trail and another on the ominously swaying trees above us. On the way down the trail to the village we came across 6 large trees that had snapped off or uprooted and fallen over. This was apparently fiercier than the average storm faced by those trees, some of which were 50 years or more. Like true, hardcore campers we stayed the night at a small hotel, arising at 5:30am to return to the site of our destroyed campsite, were 3 out of 4 tents lay flattened, and equipment laid wind-blown and scattered across the ground. We gathered up our stuff, cleaned up the sight, and around noon headed home, still a little soaked but feeling a close-knit bond of having made it though a near-death experience to camp another day!
Two days after Christmas I joined a group of Americans and Indonesians on a camping trip into the coolness of mountains. Rainy season isn't usually the wisest time to go camping, as we soon found out (see story below). But despite the bad weather that was pummeling East Java, we set out anyways. We found a small wooded area about 400 meters away from a small lakeside village. In the other direction we had this beautiful view of an expansive valley filled with carrots, cabbage, onions, and a village of local farmers. Our three-day, two-night camping trip was filled with fishing (we caught a grand total of 3 fish after about 3-4 hours), cooking (mainly rice and instant noodles), practicing archery, relaxing, and trying to keep dry.
