How to get there:
The trailhead is in a small village named Gurabunga. To get there, one
takes a speedboat from Tenare across to the island of Tidore, the an ojek
(or any motorcycle that offers a ride at a reasonbale price) up the steep
road to Gurabunga.
The road was steep enough that I had to get off and walk
about 50 meter. One may as well walk from the first sideroad that forks right.
In principle, one could find the correct access road and drive (motor bike only)
until the concrete paved part in the beginning ends. However, this may take
more time to organize than just doing the walk from town. The trailhead
location is N00.67399, E127.42112, elev. about 630m.
A quick overview of peaks climbed on this Indonesia trip.
Route description:
First, walk between and around a couple of residental buildings in order to
find the narrow, concrete road that heads steeply uphill. Walk until the concrete
ends, then a short bit more, fork left. Continue the natural (wide) trail as it
heads uphill. Staircases with bamboo steps are a good signs that you follow the correct route.
Higher up, you will see what looks like a shelter directy up in front. A key fork is to follow a
rather small trail left about 50 meter before you reach the structure above.
This trail will lead to a (pretty dry) creek with rocks. The trail crosses while ascending a little.
It is imortant to find the trail a bit higher on the far side. Much higher, there is another
confusing area where the trail runs horizontally to climbers right. Make certain you follow the track
if without any guide. You will reach Pos 5, just before the trail breaks out of the forest. The rest
of the way, the path runs in high grass, but it
is easy to follow on this upper section.
A big concrete pillar marks the summit.
A track is posted on Peakbagger.
Comments:
I had arrived in Ternate and checked in on Emerald hotel for 5 nights. I had 3 peaks
to do locaated on 3 different islands. I figured that the peak across on the big
island of Halmahera might tale 2 days, due to a longer access to the trailhead.
I had no prior planning, but figured that I could do the local organizing best after arrival.
Thus, it seemed smart to do the peak that looked most straightforward on my first day. I got myself
a Grab motorcycle taxi to the place where one could get
a boat across the short passage between Ternate
and the island of Tidore. Easy enough and having arrived on the correct island, I quickly agrees with some
local motorcycle (looking for work) to drive me up to Gurabunga. I was there about one hour after leaving my
hotel, at 0815.
I had a track, but I should soon learn that this track was indeed highly inaccurate. First, I followed the
concrete, narrow road uphill until it ended. Checking my track there, I was told that I should have forked
left much before this location. (This turned out to be wrong, see route description above.) I turned back
and descended, then followed minor tracks uphill. This eventually got me onto what certainly looked like
the proper trail to the mountain. I continued uphill and got to the first shelter, this looked all good, except
there was no obvious trail that continued uphill. Again, giving my track a close look, I continued uphill slightly
right. This seemed to lead nowhere, but I felt confident that by traversing in a way that would intersect the track,
I would recover the proper trail. Easier said than done, I soon found myself in steepish, loose terrain with
5 star jungle bushwack characteristics. No trail, just thorns and trouble. Time moved quickly while my progress
slowed down to being almost stationary. Bad, bad, bad. I cursed myself
for the miserable situation. Spending more
time looking around for the trail would have paid off. I came to realize that the track I had was highly
inaccurate. Eventually, I finally crossed and therfore found the proper trail going uphill. Good, this was definitely
the proper summit trail.
I continued uphill on the correct trail, but it sort of forked in multiple directions
with no clear winner. There were many fallen trees adding to a rather unclear picture.
My track did not really help. I finally decided to follow a trail that headed uphill, this
turned out to be a mistake. Some several people had clearly walked here before. As I got
higher, this trail also faded out, but by now I was close to the top. I entered high gras
and followed minor trails
uphill until I again intersected the correct trail.
From here, easy going to the summit. No views, mostly cloudy.
I did not spend much time on top, but now wanted to followthe correct
trail all the way back down. Much easier than going uphill, in particular, I discovered that I should
have forked left onto a rather small trail about 50 meter before reaching the shelter.
The descent had taken me 1:50, I next walked around the small town to find a ride back
down to the boat. This succeeded after about 10 minutes. My driver took me down to the sea in the
opposite direction, then drove quite some distance along ths coast in order to connect with the
boat service.
