Praying Stone

This is one of the shapes of the stones that I found fascinating at the Stone Garden: A praying stone.

This stone is about 7 or 8 meters high, and -- to me -- it looks like a women wearing an hijab (head scarf) in the sitting positon of salat (Muslim prayer).

This post ends my stories about Bandung Geological History Tour that I have been posting in the past twelve posts (this one is the thirteenth). Tomorrow I'm going to start with another story.

Batu sembahnyang (shalat) di Taman Bebatuan (Stone Garden) di Gunung Masigit, Padalarang, Kabupaten Bandung Barat. Batu ini tingginya sekitar 6 atau 7 meter.

At The Stone Garden of Gunung Masigit

It rained when we got to the Stone Garden at the top of Gunung Masigit, so we had to take a shelter in a makeshift hut that had apparently been left by some previous climbers and waited for the rain to stop.We began exploring the place when the rain finally stopped.

The stone garden is a magnificent place. It's a vast field scattered with stones of different sizes and fascinating shapes. The landscape is 'bizzare'. To me, being there is like being in a far away strange land.

Here are a some more photos I took there. The light is a bit diffused and warm because the sky was cloudy and it was almost sunset time.

Hujan turun ketika kami tiba di Taman Bebatuan (Stone Garden) di puncak Gunung Masigit. Kami harus berteduh sejenak di sebuah gubung yang ditinggalkan oleh pendaki-pendaki sebelumnya untuk menunggu hujan reda sebelum mulai menjelajahi keindahan tempat ini.

Valley of Limestone Factory

This is what we saw at about half-way through our climb. Below in the valley are areas of the Rajamandala mountain range that have been mined for their limestone with a limestone processing factory in the middle. Ugliness is creeping in and destroying Bandung's ancient geological heritage.

Pemandangann yang kami lihat di puncak pertama Gunung Masigit, kira-kira di tengah jalan antara Gua Pawon dan Taman Bebatuan (Stone Gardens). Banyak gunung kapur di daerah ini yang telah hancur ditambang. Beberapa puluh tahun ke depan, mungkin kita tak akan dapat lagi menyaksikan kemegahan karst Rajamandala seperti yang masih bisa kita saksikan sekarang.

Climbing Gunung Masigit

After the Pawon Cave (see previous two posts), our next destination is the Stone Gardens at the top of Gunung Masigit.

Gunung Masigit (literally: Mosque Mountain) is located right at the top of the Pawon Cave. To get to the Stone Gardens, we took this climbing route around the northwestern side of Gunung Masigit which begins at the base of the cave. The climbing route was quite steep, some parts of it could very well have more than 45 degree angle slant, I think. It was quite exhausting especially for those who are not accustomed to climbing or are not fit physically.

Fortunately the track was quite well-prepared. At the more steep parts, we found this assist rope that we can hold on to to help secure ourselves from falling back and give leverage to our climb.

The climb took more than an hour for us because some of us had to rest frequently along the way. But for those who are physically fit, it would normally take only about 45 minutes or less, according to our guides.

Note: I learned later that this was apparently not the only route to the stone garden. There's another route that is less strenuous that we can take from the other side of the mountain. And it was the one we took on our way back.

Pendakian ke Taman Bebatuan (Stone Garden) di Puncak Gunung Masigit dapat dilakukan melalui dua rute. Rute berangkat yang kami lalui, yang berawal dari dasar Gua Pawon, cukup terjal. Rute lain, yang kami lewati dalam perjalanan pulang, cukup landai dan jauh lebih mudah dilalui. Rute kedua ini terletak di sisi selatan Gunung Masigit.