This was the final of 3 peaks I climbed last week. After Sibuatan, I had another night down in Tongging before arranging Bagus Taxis to pick me up at Sipiso-piso waterfall. The car was late, but then it was Hari Raya and sharing a vehicle with a few other tourists heading to Tuk Tuk from Bukit Lawang made a lot more sense than relying on public transport via Pematang Siantar. The direct route to Samosir is straight down the east side of the lake to Parapat. There are some superb views as the roads winds its way along, above the vast expanse of water. I was expecting Pangulubao to be an easy, enjoyable hike and…. it was. I chartered an angkot to the entrance for Rp80,000 and had a chat with the family who run this rather prestigious conservation area. We set off shortly after first light and we were up at the Bukit Manja viewpoint in about an hour and a half. It was a grey morning but the view was impressive nonetheless. After a break for some beng-bengs we continued onward along the much narrower and less used trail beyond Bukit Manja. The trail was overgrown and apparently nobody had been up there all year – perhaps not since Andy and Gill climbed it in Feb 2010. There were less pitcher plants than I expected (I saw far, far more on Sibuatan). Looking at my GPS it seemed that although we were already above 2100m we still had a couple of kilometres to go to reach the highest point. All of a sudden the cement trig pillar appeared – quite unexpectedly. It had only taken us 3 hours to get here, including a good rest at Bukit Manja. Anyhow, I felt that something was not right. The GPS gave a reading of about 2150m and I switched it off and back on again several times and got similar readings. It was previously thought that the pillar marked the true high point of Pangulubao mountain but my GPS told me according to Google Earth we were still 1.8km off. A long distance to cover in the terrain we faced. I could tell the guide had never been there and definitely wasn’t keen on trying! He said this really is the top and nobody really goes beyond here. The reading of 2150 made sense given that Pangulubao is often quoted as being 2150m high. But we had found another, less frequented part of the mountain (if ever frequented) that was approx. 2199m. Only 49 metres difference, but the difference between Pangulubao being a Ribu or not. Anyway, I decided to just enjoy the hike and look into things on my return.
On the descent the weather cleared up dramatically and the view back at Bukit Manja was gorgeous. Lower down, at around 1500m, we saw some black gibbons leaping through the tree tops but they were too quick to get a good photo of.
I was a bit disappointed, and so was Andy when I sms’d him to query the summit location. It would appear that nobody has been to the true summit before in recent decades, although there is of course a chance that a different route up from further south may exist. It’s a great hike from Taman Eden to the trig pillar, but to reach the highest point and make it back before dark is probably impossible. It would be a 2 day expedition and it’s difficult to estimate just how tough and dense the terrain would be. If anyone knows of a route from further south then do let us know…. for now, however, Pangulubao is yet another Indonesian mountain which can be added to the list of ‘very difficult to bag’!
I got an ojek back to Parapat for RP 50,000 just outside the entrance.