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Zetongifts – For climbers, Mount Merbabu in Central Java is one of the spots that must be visited. The beauty and exoticism of this mountain which has a height of 3,142 meters above sea level makes everyone unable to look away from it.
So naturally, every climber who takes the time to wander on Mount Merbabu will certainly capture their best moments.
Dozens of photos are then perched on every social media account of the climbers, as if inviting everyone who saw it to feel the same experience.
But behind all those beautiful and amazing photos, there is an exciting journey with various stories in it. Starting from happy, sad, exciting stories, to mystical riches that can make you shudder in horror.
Even though it feels unpleasant, the mystical story during the journey on Mount Merbabu becomes ‘spices’ in the process of getting to the top and conquering challenges. What’s the story like?
Children of the Forest on Devil’s Bridge
The first story came from an employee of a government agency from Semarang named Otniel Adityo (23). In 2015, Otniel climbed Mount Merbabu via Cuntel, Salatiga, together with his friend.
While climbing, Othniel sees children running around the devil’s bridge. Devil’s bridge is the nickname of one of the extreme climbing tracks in Merbabu which is directly adjacent to the cliff. In the TRAVEL coil, Othniel tells that he almost became a victim of ‘children of the forest’.
“My friend, who is more capable, said the boys who ran around were known as forest boys, they said they lived under ravines and usually climbed onto bridges to mislead climbers.
Because usually climbers who are tired easily hallucinate and feel sorry for the children. Even though if they are followed, there will be climbers who will get lost,” he said when contacted via WhatsApp message.
Mysterious Shadow Figures in Savanna I
Azwar Annas (30) is an employee at a digital media company in Jakarta. During the span of 2013-2015, he has exploredMount Merbabu nine times. However, during the nine ascents, he only had the experience of meeting an astral being at Merbabu.
The incident began in 2014, when he was climbing with a group of other climbers. Tired and weak, he and his entourage stopped at Sabana I, which is a meadow area in the middle of Post 2 and Post 3.
“Personally, I’ve never heard of the Merbabu myth, because people who want to climb the mountain shouldn’t be allowed to know first so they don’t feel burdened. At that time, the condition was less than 12 o’clock at night, so we decided to take a break because we weren’t strong.
While resting, I accidentally saw a very large black shadow, like a tree. In fact, the logic is in the savanna where there are trees.
And the condition is also a full moon, so it’s very bright. Out of curiosity, I asked my friend, who knows if anyone saw a big black shadow, but he said he didn’t see it,” he said.
He only realized that the shadow was an astral creature after hearing the stories of local residents when the man from Rembang told his story after descending the mountain.
There are langurs that follow the climbers
Besides the big black shadow, on one of Azwar’s trips, he once found a langur watching his journey. According to him, the langur was hanging from one tree to another while watching the climbers.
“The langur is alone, shaped like a big monkey, sitting in a tree, watching from above and following him on the road,” said Azwar.
Hanuman on the Pine Forest Trail
Last November 2017, Jonathan Zilliwu, a student at a state university in Semarang, climbed Merbabu with his friends and girlfriend via the Suwanting route. According to the man who is familiarly called Jo, when he passed through the pine forest, he felt that he was being followed by something he did not know.
“He said that the place was inhabited by the figure of a white monkey, hanoman. But according to my other friends, it looks like a banana tree. If you can ‘see’, he can see the hanoman moving from tree to tree, but if you can ‘feel’ , he said he felt the banana tree moving from place to place.
I myself don’t feel there are banana trees or see Hanuman, I just feel someone is following from behind,” said the man from Subang when contacted by coilTRAVEL via the WhatsApp messaging application.
The kuntilanak that hangs at the foot of the climber
Still Jonathan’s story, apparently not only followed by the figure of Hanuman, his entourage was also ‘harassed’ by the kuntilanak. This incident began when Jonathan’s lover took ginger from a mountain area.
“When I was about to go down the mountain, there was a kuntilanak hanging from my boyfriend’s leg, it was like a grip on his ankle. Because he was hanging on it, he injured his knee, his leg hurt. Luckily it wasn’t too bad, but he had to go down so he had to be guided,” said Jo.
Believe it or not, this is a form of local wisdom that you can find while on Mount Merbabu. Although not entirely understandable through science, the actual mountain will always be a safe and interesting place as long as you intend and speak good words.