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The only reason we came to Berastagi was to climb an active volcano which is pretty famous in the area called Sibayak. There are 2 volcanoes, both active, so much so that we heard one of them was closed as it's due to blow anytime soon!!! Obviously we didn't climb that one!
From Bukit Lawang we caught the local bus back to Medan and then from there another two buses to Beristagi - I might add at this point that travelling on the roads in Sumatra are the worst roads in the world!! I can't describe how bad they are, the pot holes in the roads are like craters, so from Bukit Lawang to Beristagi by bus took nearly all day being thrown around... it was hell. Beristagi is a small town way up in the mountains so it's cooler temperatures were a welcome rest from the tropical heat of the jungle that we had just come from. As we arrived our first job as usual was to find a room, which in a town that only has 3 guest houses wasn't too hard, we actually got a nice room with two double beds in for all four of us for about £8. A thunder storm started just as we got there and you've never heard thunder like it - it was so, so loud - Finchy thiught it was one of the volcanoe's going off and we were gonna die!!! At our guest house a small room next door to ours was being used as a classroom to teach the local children English, so as we weren't going anywhere I popped my head in and asked if I could help, the next thing I know, the teacher had left the room and I was their teacher for the next hour! It was a really good experience talking to them all and seeing how interested they all were in me, and at the end they all wanted photo's with me (I don't blame them really). That night we didn't leave the guest house as it was raining so we grabbed something to eat there (the food was great might I add!) and went to bed as we were planning on being up early to start our trek up the volcano. It was then, when were all laying in bed, we could here scratching in the ceiling, and it got louder and louder... yes we had rats in the roof, but not just one, by the sounds of it there was a whole family of them! When we told the lady the next morning she just nodded as if to say 'I know'. Anyway, after breakfast we brought some packed lunch and water from the shops and headed off for our trek up the volcano, we eventually got going around 11am and it was a good two hours of uphill walking and whinging (guess who from!) before we got to the top. At the top of the volcano we could see and hear 4 or 5 big geizers spilling out hot steam and sulphur which turned the surrounding rocks a bright neon yellow colour, and the smell was like eggs! They sounded really aggressive too like they were gonna blow! Plus we were the only people up there so Laura was convinced the rest of the village knew something we didn't and we were going to die... but as usual we didn't! After a few photo's and a picnic at the top, we plotted our decent, only the path down wasn't as clear or as beaten as the one up, infact we kinda had to guess half the time which way to go and almost abseil down parts of it! It took us a good three hours to get to the bottom and it wasn't easy, so we were glad that a short walk away from the base was a group of natural hot springs! At the springs there were 4 or 5 different pools varying in temperatures from boling to unbearable, so we spent the next hour or so soaking our aching feet before catching the local bus back all stinking of eggs from the sulphur water! The following morning it was up and out after breakfast as we were catching another hellish bus to our next destination, Lake Toba.
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