I am sitting outside my room eating my breakfast of scrambled eggs, when the guide I met last night arrives. His name is Kurnia and he is a really interesting guy. He seems to have travelled the world working for a shipping company but is heart is in Pangandaran so he came back to teach surfing and take tours. He only earns a fraction of the money doing this but it makes him much happier. At 32 it is really unusual that he is not married but he knows he will have to work abroad again and he doesn't want to leave anyone behind.
He has nothing booked for the day and I have no plans or any idea of what I want to do so he kind of decides that I should go with him to the Green Valley. We ride though through palm tree plantation established by the Dutch and he comments that Java was unlucky not to have been colonised by the English. We then pass lots if rice paddies and ride through villiages, he points out cocoa trees and we try the fruit, we also see lots of peanut plants, avocado trees, and pineapple plants. When he climbs the tree to get the cocoa I suddenly find myself surrounded by lots of 6 year old school children, huge, wide eyes and smiling faces, all so cute in there little uniforms and tiny head scarfs. As we ride through the villages I am either greeted with shouts of 'hello' or 'kulit putih' which means white skin.
Once at our destination we snack on some fried vegetables and fruit. I change into my bikini with shots and a top over it. We then walk about 3km upstream and then give our things to one of Kornia's friends to carry back to the restaurant for us. The place is pretty quiet and there are only a few groups of Indonesian tourists and very few women. To say I stick out would be an understatement. There are some people swimming in the river, holding onto a rope as the current is really strong and I begin to get nervous. I then watch as one by one the group clambers onto a rock and jumps off the top of the waterfall. It is not a huge drop, maybe 2-3 meters but is enough to get me even more anxious. Soon it is time for us to get into the water and Kurnia says I should follow him. The water is not warm like the sea but it is not too cold either. Kornia's swims up stream and to some rocks in the centre of the river but I am not ready for how strong the current is and even though I am swimming hard I am getting no where so he has to pull me in. We climb over the rocks and on the other side the current isn't so strong and so we get back into the water and swim into the huge cave. The deeper we go into the cave, the darker it gets. I follow Kornia, but with the light behind me, he soon disappears into the black. Then a hand reaches out and pulls me to the side and we are able to rest on a little ledge listening to the water and the echoes of the cave. A few more meters up stream the river disappears into the rock we have come as far as we can.
So we swill back down stream towards the waterfall. The river gets really shallow in places and I try to follow Kurnia's line as he knows the the river really well. At some stage though I stub my toe on the rocks but have no time to stop and thing about the pain as Kurnia is moving fast. We float over some shallow rocks at speed and then into a deeper pool. Before climbing out out onto a large flat slippery rock above the waterfall. Kurnia gives me instructions, I need to jump into the same spot as him and then swim to the left and grab onto the rocks as then we are going to swim under the waterfall to the cave behind. I am not ready but he jumps anyway. I tell myself to stop thinking and just step out and with an embarrassing little scream as I go I am falling to the water below. When my head pops up from the water I try to swim out of the current and Kurnia reaches out for my hand before I float away. I am warned that there isn't much space between the water and the roof of the cave, and to be careful not to hit my head, to tilt my head back so i can breath. Then we duck under the pounding falling water into the relative pease of the cave behind, after about half a meter the space opens up and rest on a little ledge for a while. When then scramble over a rock to the other side for the waterfall ready to swim back out into the river. The force of the falling water is stronger here and the sound really deafening. Kurnia tells me to swim out first, grab onto the rope and then make my way to the left hand bank. I don't want to do it and tell Kurnia I am scared, and immediately feel really silly. There is only one way out I should just go before I make a complete fool of myself. So I take a deep breath and disappear under the flow. The water pushes me under and when I come up I have been pushed far down stream, I can't even see a rope, I swim towards the side and try to grab the rocks. I get a hand on but the river is flowing so fast I cannot get my body close. I must look ridiculous hanging onto the rock. Kurnia isn't far behind me and he effortlessly climbs onto the rocks before helping me on. We sit for a while and Kurnia asks if I warns to jump in again. I decline, once is more than enough for me. We push off from the side and float down the river some more. There is one more waterfall to jump off, lots of rocks to clamber over and a long, long swim. The swim is really peaceful and I feel so lucky as I look to the left and right at the trees and take the time to remind myself that I am swimming in a river in West Java, Indonesia. I feel so lucky.
He has nothing booked for the day and I have no plans or any idea of what I want to do so he kind of decides that I should go with him to the Green Valley. We ride though through palm tree plantation established by the Dutch and he comments that Java was unlucky not to have been colonised by the English. We then pass lots if rice paddies and ride through villiages, he points out cocoa trees and we try the fruit, we also see lots of peanut plants, avocado trees, and pineapple plants. When he climbs the tree to get the cocoa I suddenly find myself surrounded by lots of 6 year old school children, huge, wide eyes and smiling faces, all so cute in there little uniforms and tiny head scarfs. As we ride through the villages I am either greeted with shouts of 'hello' or 'kulit putih' which means white skin.
Once at our destination we snack on some fried vegetables and fruit. I change into my bikini with shots and a top over it. We then walk about 3km upstream and then give our things to one of Kornia's friends to carry back to the restaurant for us. The place is pretty quiet and there are only a few groups of Indonesian tourists and very few women. To say I stick out would be an understatement. There are some people swimming in the river, holding onto a rope as the current is really strong and I begin to get nervous. I then watch as one by one the group clambers onto a rock and jumps off the top of the waterfall. It is not a huge drop, maybe 2-3 meters but is enough to get me even more anxious. Soon it is time for us to get into the water and Kurnia says I should follow him. The water is not warm like the sea but it is not too cold either. Kornia's swims up stream and to some rocks in the centre of the river but I am not ready for how strong the current is and even though I am swimming hard I am getting no where so he has to pull me in. We climb over the rocks and on the other side the current isn't so strong and so we get back into the water and swim into the huge cave. The deeper we go into the cave, the darker it gets. I follow Kornia, but with the light behind me, he soon disappears into the black. Then a hand reaches out and pulls me to the side and we are able to rest on a little ledge listening to the water and the echoes of the cave. A few more meters up stream the river disappears into the rock we have come as far as we can.
The top of the waterfall
My lovely new friend
