We climbed Cikuray on October 1st 2011.

The car journey from Jakarta to Garut takes 4 hours- 2.5 hours to Cileunyi and 1.5 hours from Cileunyi to Garut. (Be careful on the long slow descent after you cross the railway tracks; the road to Garut forks right unexpectedly as you near the bottom, though a new road is under construction.)

We stayed in Cipanas in Hotel Cipta Bela 2, down a back alley behind the upper car park; for Rp100,000 it offers a room with a garish paint job, bathroom tank big enough for two and a malfunctioning TV.

There appear to be three routes up Cikuray- from Cilawu in the northeast, from Bayongbong in the northwest and from Cikajang in the southwest.

Ever keen to check out new routes for the benefit of Gunungbagging readers, we chose the Cikajang approach. Besides, on Google Earth it looks like you can start from higher up the mountain on that side.

Although this route is sometimes called the Giriawas route, after the nearby tea plantation, the place you actually need to get to is Olan, a small village with a pesantren at 1450m altitude; turn left at the alun alun in Cikajang and head upward for 4km. Allow 60 minutes from Cipanas to Olan.

If you need a guide, it would be a good idea to scout around in villages on the way up the road as villagers in Olan are busy in the fields. Eventually though we persuaded an Olan villager Dede to leave his cows overnight and join us for a night on Cikuray.

We started hiking from Olan, but an ojek or 4WD could carry you up the farm track beyond the village as high as 1680m. At the end of the farm track is a valley with several footpaths; turn right to climb up onto the ridge on the right side of the valley.

There are numerous trails from this ridge leading into the forest. If you don’t have a guide you’ll need to ask as many farmers as you can find, or staying on the center of the ridge should keep you on the right trail.

The forest begins at 2000m and there is a junction where you turn left at 2160m. The trail is narrow and steep and requires plenty of scooting under tree branches, skipping over roots and skirting around landslides. With our newly-imported “Craghoppers” pants we had visions of bounding merrily over all obstacles, or at least not getting that feeling of sweaty fabric clinging to the thighs, but the gradient was still far from comfortable. Next time I’m going to wear lycra stretch pants like the ladies wear for yoga, and damn the fashionistas!

There is a campsite at 2410m and another at 2610m, where the trail emerges onto a ridge. Thereafter, the gradient slackens off slightly and the route proceeds pleasantly up to the summit. A path from the left, perhaps from Bayongbong, joins up at 2740m, though the main Bayongbong trail comes in from the left later, just before the summit.

The last section of the ridge below the summit is broad enough for lots of tents. There’s more camping space around the cement shelter on the top, but we chose a more sheltered site just below the summit on the east (Cilawu) side.

Ascent time was 4h30, giving us a whole afternoon to while away cooking, chatting, doing yoga and clambering onto the cement shelter roof to admire the panorama of clouds. Descent the next day took 2h30, so this would be a comfortable day hike.

Cikuray was busy, with some 40 people there enjoying a SAturday night out. All except us had come up from Cilawu; they reported ascent times of 1h30 up to the TV tower, plus 5 hours or so from the TV tower to the top.

We also heard that there used to be an air traffic control signal transmitter atop the mountain. But a few years back it was stolen along with the steel perimeter fence.

Let’s hope nobody steals the cement shelter! It would have made a great perch for photos if the clouds had actually lifted in the morning. But they didn’t, depriving us of the hoped-for views to Papandayan and Ciremai. We hikers need a weather website advising us when the views are going to be clear!

From my experience. It took 2 hours from Cilawu to Tower by foot. And took 7 hours from tower to summit (night) and 2 hours down to Tower

how long did it take from Cilawu to TV tower? What time of day did you start and what time did you reach the summit?

From vague memory less than an hour from Cilawu to TV tower. Took about 4 hours to the summit walking reasonably quickly. 3 hours down. A straightforward daytrip from Bandung as long as you set off before daylight.

Just for information. Actually u can take ojek from Cilawu to TV Tower, it will cost u around Rp 30.000. But, i did hike from Cilawu to TV Tower. Steep but was great