Additional photos by Bleem Sudaryanto
Floating down a river for four hours, your body gets scraped and shivery, but the views are truly amazing.
Vikram
stumbled along, stopping from time to time as if he was unsure whether
to continue or not. He slapped his bare feet onto the floor of Gua
Kalong – the Bat Cave – slimy with a mixture of water,
mud, and bat feces. Kang Mamat, leading the way with a flashlight,
patiently encouraged him to keep walking through this 100-meter cave.
Occasionally he took Vikram's hand to guide him a safe place. Walking behind Vikram, I couldn't help remembering the scene in the Mr. Bean TV show when Bean finds himself stuck behind a slow-moving elderly woman on a narrow staircase.
But this trip into the Bat Cave near the Cijulang River was just a 'bonus' added onto the real trip. As soon as we made it out of the cave, which is big enough for a train to pass through, we put our helmets and life vests on again, because we were going to go body rafting in the river that flows under the cave.
Unlike ordinary rafting, where you ride in a rubber raft, what we were doing was simply floating with our bodies, following the river current. The start is here, and the finish is around six kilometers downstream, at the place where tourists come to appreciate the beauty of Green Canyon. Rafting with rafts is impossible here, because, as trip leader Budi Yakin pointed out, at many points the river is quite shallow and rocky, and occasionally the rapids are so narrow only one person's body can fit through at a time.
"We're going to be body rafting for about four hours, with several rest breaks," said Budi, after we prayed together. "Remember, once you're in the river, there's no turning back! Like it or not, you have to continue to the finish."
I was a bit alarmed, hearing this warning. But really, if I did stop halfway, how could I find a way home? The river is bounded by vertical stone walls 30 meters high, and above that is dense forest. Just to reach this cave, the 17 of us – including six guides – rode around five kilometers from Cijulang bus terminal in an open-back truck along a steep and rocky road, and then trekked through slippery, dense forest for another half hour.
We gingerly made our way along the slippery rocks down to the river.
Immediately we were awed by the green color of the river water below
our feet and the steep stone walls on either side, whose multiple layers
indicate millions of years of geological processes. Birds chirped endlessly,
and at certain places the sunlight penetrated through the canopy of
large trees above us. Before us, the river, about 15 meters wide at
this point, seemed to disappear amidst the large and small rocks. "It's
like returning to the past, the age of dinosaurs!" shouted Benito,
one of the participants.
Kang Mamat and Kang Sarip, our local guides, plunged into the river to check the flow and clear our route of any branches stuck between the rocks. The water level seemed ideal for body rafting, neither too deep nor too shallow. The green water flowed along calmly; only in a few points where we passed by rocks did the current become swifter and stronger.
As soon as Kang Mamat gave us the OK sign, we all jumped in and, one at a time, floated along in the current. Budi and Bleem were around the middle of the group, while Unik and Agus were at the tail end to deal with any problems. Vikram and I, who were near the rear of the group, seemed to be a bit unlucky. Vikram, an expatriate from India who was on this trip with his colleague Himanshu, seemed to need to acclimatize to the temperature of the river water, which was quite cold that morning. Unik immediately rushed over to help him.
As for me, for some reason the rather expensive life vest that I had just bought didn't fully support my body's weight. The water seemed to enter between the gaps in the life vest, causing me to submerge; when I was in a vertical position, the water level was not at my chest, but over my nose. Agus, seeing me struggling, grabbed me and dragged me to the nearest rock. "Maybe you don't have it on tight enough," Agus speculated.
He helped me put it on again, and strapped the lowest strap under my crotch. We hoped this would help me float better. We slipped into the river again, to catch up with the others, who were far ahead by now. Unik was still piloting Vikram, who seemed to be starting to enjoy the trip.
But there was still a problem with my life vest, and water kept getting in my nose. So for several minutes, Agus had to pull me along so I wouldn't sink. Rather than letting me totally not enjoy the trip, once we caught up with the others Bleem offered to switch life vests with me, and sure enough, as soon as he put mine on, Bleem found that it wouldn't support his weight, though this wasn't a problem for him, as he's a good swimmer.
So we continued our journey, and now I was able to enjoy floating down this green river. In the deeper parts, you couldn't see anything below the surface; in the shallower parts, you could see black rocks, and karsts like the rocks you often see at the beach. On and between the rocks, we saw lots of tiny black crabs, which ran away when we came close – the only river creatures we encountered.
The trees alongside the river were not that large, but quite tall,
and in a variety of species, not just teak. Often their root shoots
crossed above the river, but too high for us to reach.
When we came to a calm part of the river, it was most enjoyable to
float along on my back, enjoying the trees and the serene natural atmosphere.
We often found unique rock formations in the river. Some were layered,
indicating repeated processes of sedimentation. Others resembled stalactites,
formed from mineral accretions from dripping water. Though I've lived
on Java since my childhood, this was the first time I realized that
a river in Java could contain rocks with completely different characteristics.
It was like Benito said – like returning to prehistoric times.
Certain segments of the river were sunlit; at these points we would stop and rest, warm our bodies in the sun, drink and nibble on snacks. After floating for around an hour, several of us, including me, started to feel cold. Oddly, Danang and Sondang, who hadn't even gone into the water when we were at the beach the day before, making us think they were afraid of water, seemed not to mind the cold. They were having a great time, as if the river was no more than a warm bath. "Don't stop in one place for too long; that's what will make you cold," Kang Sarip advised when he saw me shivering. "It's better to keep moving."
So we kept going. Occasionally we had to get out and walk on the riverbank rocks because the current was too difficult to handle. At other points, we had to go one at a time, because the current was so swift and there were rocks on both sides, and even straight ahead. Kang Mamat gave us instructions on how to shoot these rapids, while Kang Sarip waited ahead, ready to catch anyone who lost their way and nearly hit a rock. "Use your feet to kick away from that rock on the left!" he ordered me as I passed through some rapids. Unavoidably, because there were so many rocks beneath the surface, after passing through several rapids most of us had a lot of scrapes on our legs.
As we went further downstream, it didn't get any easier; instead, the forest seemed denser and the rocks higher. At one dark bit of the river, water poured from a stone above us, creating a kind of curtain before falling onto a round rock with a large upper surface. We later learned that the local people call this rock Batu Sangga Buana (the rock that supports the earth). It's very difficult to climb, because it's so slippery, but several of our group who were able to climb onto it celebrated by taking photos.
The sun was slipping into the west, and nearly everyone was shivering now. "Come on, it's just a bit further," Kang Mamat cried. Benito, Agus and I, who were in the back row, finally arrived at a part of the river that was like a pond, with no rocks, with steep, multilayered walls on either side. Off in the distance we saw our fellows who had arrived earlier sitting on a stone dam in the middle of the river, shouting to some others who were trying to climb the rock wall but kept falling back in.
I was surprised to find that not only our group was here, but also several boatmen and a lot of people who looked more like ordinary tourists. I only noticed the boats when Unik pulled me up onto the stone dam where people were sitting. Above us, it was dark, with water dripping. We seemed to be in an earthen tunnel about four meters wide, which connected the two sides of the river. It turned out this was the finish point of our body rafting trip, coincidentally also the finish point for tourists who come to Green Canyon by boat from the front entrance, near the bus terminal….
I laughed when Unik told us that when she had arrived from upstream, several tourists who were washing their faces and praying here were frightened and surprised to see our group of people in "strange costumes" suddenly appearing before them. "Maybe they thought we were the gods, hahaha!" Unik giggled. Some people do consider this spot sacred, and come here not only for sightseeing but also for more esoteric purposes.
It was now after 2 PM, meaning we'd been body rafting in the river for four hours. We returned to the bus terminal by boat. On the way back, we saw boats coming from the opposite direction, bringing tourists to enjoy the beauty of the "beginning" part of Green Canyon….
No Ordinary Trip
Green Canyon is located in Cijulang District, around 30 km west of Pangandaran
Beach, Ciamis Regency, West Java, around nine hours by motor vehicle from Jakarta.
Body rafting in the Cijulang is no ordinary trip; you need to be really fit. Swimming ability is not required, but make sure your life vest and helmet work properly. Highly recommended to wear wet shoes. Expect to experience bruises, cuts and scrapes. It's not a race to see who can finish the route the fastest. Make sure your trip operator provides enough guides for your group.
Fun Trip 2 Volcano has conducted several body rafting trips to Green
Canyon. This weekend trip package is combined with a trip to Segara
Anakan, Nusakambangan Island, and Batu Hiu and Batu Karas beaches
at Pangandaran. For trip schedules, contact Budi Yakin (+62 818 790063,
bdyakin@yahoo.com).
