Climbing Gunung Api was our last activity on Banda. As soon as we returned, we left.
The climb is a long hot difficult one, so we left the boat in the dark before sunrise. We filled up with litres of water before leaving, and carried a couple of bottles of water to replenish on the walk, but with the extreme humidity, it was impossible to drink sufficient water.
The climb up took over an hour, as the terrain is steep loose rocks. Each rock about the size of a fist appeared to be fluffy like pumice but is actually heavy black basalt that must have recently been (geologically speaking!) part of a cooling lava flow. The climb up through the stones is covered in thick jungle, but the walk is so popular that the path has been well cleared by those going before us. At times the path was simply a steep washed out gully, with the sides above our heads. Some of these gullies were blind, leading to a cliff that forced us to back track and find another path. At other times we were climbing rock cliffs, and at time using jungle vines to pull us up over fallen logs.
But the view was worth it, and neither of us had ever seen an active volcano before. Steam was been ejected from deep wide fissures all over the peak, and the view over the lip into the crater was covered in steam and sulphurous gases that hid the bottom of the crater.
After sitting to enjoy the view, the trip down was more difficult and took longer than the ascent. Not only was it hotter, later in the day, but the crumbling stones made it difficult to grip the ground as the stones fell away at every foot fall. I climbed bare foot, but put on shoes for the descent as I feared that each step down would be longer and may hurt my feet, but shoes prevent you from feeling the grip of the ground, and slips were frequent.
Our climb was delayed till the last opportunity before leaving the Banda Islands as Birgit had been suffering with fever and respiratory illness ever since the group of villagers swarmed over SeeBeeZee at Gofa. The climb may have been too much, as she was sick again for another week afterwards, but remains adamant that she would not have missed this once in a lifetime experience for anything.
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