6th day already and we start the most westerly route where we will go to Java heading towards Dieng Plateau, especially known for the remains of its temple in the middle of the valley as well as these lakes and craters scattered all over the surrounding area.
This is a volcanic complex often included in tour operators. According to the owner of the GH the bus to Dieng passes just 5 minutes walk from there. So we walk just 2 blocks further and wait while asking people (or rather people asking us where we are going) if there is a bus. Bus that will indeed pass there (but it is not a stop strictly speaking).
It's just goodbye.
Loaded as we are, it's nice to have so little walking to do.
It's school time.
"Rasta" bus.
The journey is not very long despite a mountainous road full of curves, count 2 hours from Wonosobo. Arrived in Dieng, we are dropped off at the first crossroads of the city which is in fact more of a kind of large village that runs along the road.
Bags of rice instead of a passenger.
The weather is still depressing, we understand why it's low season...
The entire mountain is terraced.
This is what we had as a choice when arriving at the entrance crossroads, the fact is that we did not take the time to go and see elsewhere at the time because there are of course other homestays in the area. After taking a look at the one on the right in the photo we opted for the one on the left…
This is to be expected (the TV doesn't work, the curtain is not a window, at least it doesn't look outside)
The view from the window…
The corridor.
And finally the tiny toilets, the water was really too cold I couldn't take a shower during our stay here (only one night fortunately...) But at least it was clean.
The restaurant downstairs (delicious, I recommend it!)
The road we came by.
Behind these “shops” there are fields.
Mario Kart the return?
Another furtive greeting.
One of the (many) mosques in the area.
Once we had put our luggage down, we asked if we could rent a scooter and it was a nightmare... Basically, only one rental company was available...
He first offered us a price that was too high before telling us that there were none available anyway, we managed to get a more reasonable price (which the hotel owner told us) but there were still no scooters available... well yes, another tourist was supposed to return his by 13pm (it was 11:30am at that time) as we weren't staying in Dieng for very long, we preferred to wait to have a means of transport and see as much as possible.
Unfortunately, the tourist in question never showed up... We decided to walk a little in the meantime to "soak up the place" and stop hanging around uselessly.
Crops as far as the eye can see.
On pause.
For many, it is potato and mushroom crops in the area.
Modernity when you hold us…
Houses in the area.
In the middle of a chess game.
Children are playing in the street.
Young people smoking in groups.
Smoking is the second "scourge" in Indonesia. Indonesians smoke a lot, at all ages and especially in all places. Including public places and transport, when you are used to France or even Thailand which have these smoking bans in public places, finding yourself right behind a guy smoking on the bus is not very pleasant, hotel owners will even show us around the rooms with a cigarette in their mouths, eating when your neighbor is smoking you is not great either...
The only exception is the "executive" class that we take on the train where no one smokes, because it is forbidden, small consolation... Yes, during the journey to Bromo our driver will be polite enough to only smoke during pee stops, photo stops or other stops, not during the journey.
Look out for possible passengers.
Babysitter.
A local mini bus.
Coming back to our scooter, we were finally informed that tomorrow morning if we wanted it would be possible, a little disgusted because it was already 14 p.m., we accepted, because we didn't really have a choice...
Trusting the scale of the map, we finally set off on foot to follow a tour suggested in the guide and local map that we were given.
The children are already leaving school.
More warm greetings.
There was a time when the sidewalk was very present and very passable...
According to our map we were not far from a lake but according to this same map the entrance must have been in the corner. Indeed seeing the lake just after a bend we then head towards what seems to us to be the entrance, seeing a path leading to it. We wondered, while it is supposed to be touristy, why it is not developed. We will have the answer to this question… it is not the official entrance which is further on the road and especially all the more well developed as there is a gate and it is supposed to be paying… Oops… And a free visit one… (9000 IDR per person normally…)
Lake Warna (Telaga Warna in Indonesian, also more soberly called the colored lake), a rather pretty green but it would be better not to swim there, its water although lukewarm is acidic.
Here there is normally a second "lake" (the Pengilon lake) but this one was not dry but covered with vegetation because the level was relatively low (but apparently does not rise very high either)
Following the path it leads to a cave…
…which was closed.
The moss on the trees gives beautiful colors.
You don't have to be obese to go to the toilet here.
Further on, as the rain begins to fall gently (the trees are enough to protect us for now) we see this ghost village appear, abandoned after a previous eruption in the region, probably that of 1981 of the Sikidang crater, the closest to where we are. The previous big eruption took place at the Sinila crater which caused the death of 149 people mainly because of toxic fumes, nice region we tell you!
The plateau itself is a caldera 14km long and 6km wide, caldera: that is to say that it results from a previous eruption creating a depression by emptying the magma chamber to summarize… The volcano in question is still active and significant emissions of sulphide gas forming fumaroles, mud pools or acid lakes are the prerogative of Dieng. The caldera thus contains no less than twenty volcanic cones, five craters, four lava domes and ten fields of fumaroles and mud pools.
With all that, I just saw that the activity increased just a month after we passed and that today the authorities fear a new eruption in the region... that's Indonesia too, you have to know that.
A view of the village, or at least what's left of it, I think the previous sidewalk dates from that time.
After waiting for the rain to calm down, we set off again while Jitima was getting ready (something she has never done...) to take a big nap in the countryside due to lack of toiletries... but the rain got the better of us and we started to pick up the pace after this temple without much interest.
Lack of respect.
It's quite hard to imagine the drama that unfolded here...
Rain and fog are frequent in the region but with the altitude (over 2000m) the cold and the water are even more terrible...
The rain becomes too heavy, we start to run while wanting to cut through the village to reach our hotel and on the way the temple, we stop under a porch squatting with the chickens.
We go back a few meters during a mini lull before it starts up again.
The people in the house we were in front of offered to shelter us in their house, not speaking a word of English we just managed to find out their first names and the ages of the children. And at first they didn't want to be photographed (well not the children, the adults), I was able to take this one because they didn't think at that moment that I was taking a photo, the camera being wedged between my legs to avoid it being blurry, but later wanting to take another photo they kindly waved their hand no...
We've been stuck in the area for half an hour now, so we head back towards the main road we came from, having understood that we can't cut through the village at this point. Some kids are having fun digging up earthworms.
It’s not easy to get back…
And here we go again, stuck right at the foot of the mosque, barely 10m after the kids...
…who are quietly pissing in the rain, having a good laugh.
No real choice, keep going!
At this point we were already relatively soaked because we had left our temporary "roof" to continue taking advantage of a little lull, a stop about 5 minutes later and after that there were no more houses to shelter us while the rain intensified again.
Well, as we were able to take shelter, we stayed there for a while because the rain had become heavy.
It would last a good half hour like that, the road had become a river and was carrying stones…. Some farmers were still in their crops before retreating.
We protect ourselves as best we can as the rain finally eases.
The stairs going down to the temple, because yes our rain stop happened to be right next to the famous temple which is just below where we were, opposite us was the museum and that also explains the presence of this shop which “saved the day” for us.
Temple that is not very interesting, and it is not only because of the rain that we thought that, even if my shoes making "pshuit pshuit" with each step reminded me that I had just finished them...
The hill we just walked along is nothing more than a bad memory, our hotel is not very far away... paradoxically despite the rotten weather the shops of the temple were open... they looked at us a little credulously, for once without necessarily pushing us to consume but to shelter by the fire, yes because they were making a fire, while the cold was not intense to that point in our eyes, it was a scene a little surreal. But with all that only a cold shower awaited us at the hotel, you have to have morale, I couldn't...
