After having planned a trip to Papua for many months, in order to climb the very accessible Cyclops mountain, I finally arrived in Sentani on Friday after flying overnight from Jakarta via Makassar.
There are some excellent views of the range and also Sentani lake as planes swoop down to land. I got a very good view of the highest peak, which lies pretty close to Sentani town.
Despite Cyclops being a very prominent range just a few kilometres from Papua’s main airport and less than an hour’s drive from Jayapura, I had found very little information on routes from searching on the internet. However, I had finally gotten in touch with a Westerner who has lived in the Sentani area for most of his life. He was keen to climb the mountain again (it would be his second time) and we decided on this weekend as one which was convenient for us both. He kindly arranged a ‘surat jalan’ for me in advance and booked me into a local hotel, very much appreciated. I was never actually asked for the ‘surat jalan’ and I’m not sure you really need one for the Jayapura/Sentani area (which covers the Cyclops mountain range).
We met and he said he had arranged a Papuan guide to take us up on the Saturday. I asked about the origins of the name Cyclops, mentioning that the Dutch had called it Cycloop on maps. He said there used to be an area of vegetation near a waterfall close to the start of the trail which looked like one eye glaring at you. Apparently it’s not so visible anymore. A friend of his has climbed to the top just two weeks ago and there is a trail right to the top which is used fairly often.
Some locals call the mountain ‘Dafansoro’ (at least phonetically).
After some food in Mickey’s, I decided to get some sleep.
It rained constantly from 9pm until past 9am on the Saturday morning and, given that the hike requires about 8-10 hours and the terrain is very steep, we had ideally wanted to start at about 5am – also to avoid the worst of the heat as the trail starts at not much more than 100m above sea level, so that’s about 1900m elevation gain! We decided that we would climb on the Sunday instead – my last available day on which to climb so I said we had to go whatever the weather – luckily the forecast was pretty good.
Later on, yesterday (Saturday), he let me know that he would not be able to join me on the hike on Sunday for family reasons but that the guide would meet me outside my hotel at 5am. I was somewhat disappointed he wouldn’t be coming as we had planned this weekends a couple of months previously. Anyway I took him and his kids for a quick meal as a way of saying thanks for helping me arrange the hike. He gave me the HP number of the guide and I sent a text message
to confirm we would meet at 5am. No reply, but I was fairly confident he would show up, even if a little bit late. I spent the rest of the day having a look round Jayapura. stopping for a kelapa muda at one of the huts overlooking the very picturesque bay, and making a quick trip up to the MacArthur monument near Sentani which offers great views over the lake and airport. This is at the eastern end of the mountain range and the notable lesser peak near here appears to be called Gunung Ifar.
I woke up this morning at 4.30am and shot downstairs to grab a coffee before standing outside waiting for the guide from about 4.50am to whom I sent another sms to say I was waiting. After an hour, I sent a message to the guy who had helped arrange the guide and a second message to the guide saying we must set off soon and the weather was perfect – blue skies, while much of Western Indonesia was suffering from storms. No reply from either. I waited until 7am and still no word from anyone. I sms’ed them both again to ask for an alternative guide or explanation of what was going on and nothing came back. I decided to go back to my room and watch TV while waiting, presumably, for the guide to get up and get over here. It never happened.
Time was running out and it was too late to find a replacement guide and not a good idea to attempt a hike alone so I really didn’t know what to do.
At about 9.30 I received a call from the guy who helped me ‘arrange a guide’ to say he had just been called by the guide to say he couldn’t do it today. Talk about unreliable.
So, a ridiculous distance to travel and a huge price to pay and I don’t even get started on the hiking trail. It has certainly been interesting to experience Papua and my humour at such a ridiculous trip ending in failure has slightly calmed me down. Very expensive though, and the lack of manners on the guide’s part, seemingly unable to reply to say he couldn’t make it, in time for me to look for a replacement, has not exactly made me regard him with much respect and has been a sad introduction to the people of Papua.
Hiking can be notoriously difficult in this province but Cyclops is one of the few that definitely is baggable and I hope others will have a better experience – just remember to have plenty of alternative guides ready. Also, be sure you get to a suitable starting point for the highest part of the range.
After December’s weekend trip to bag Salahutu (Ambon island) ended in not reaching the highest peak (locals don’t go there!) I didn’t think I would experience a bigger failure for quite some time. Well, here it is. It definitely gets the prize for most ridiculous Gunung Bagging fail so far, but I am pleased to have at least seen some of this interesting province.
Dan (still stuck on 35 Ribus)