Bahasa Indonesia Narrative

26-Jun-2004 -- After four years in Balikpapan, my colleague and friend Riswandi was transferred a few months ago to Cirebon, his home town in West Java. There are several confluences in this area, which have not yet been visited. Riswandi had invited me to visit him whenever I had a chance, so that we could go confluence hunting together.

I arrived Friday evening by train from Jakarta. Riswandi met me at the station and we drove on to Brebes, about 50 kilometers to the east of Cirebon, where we spent the night. Our first first target, 7S 109E is about 15 kilometers south of Brebes.

We left the hotel at 7:30 and headed south. We soon reached the small town of Jatibarang and from that point we had to navigate by following the arrow on the GPS receiver. The only map we had is at a large scale and does not show much detail. In addition, as I have already found out, it is rather inaccurate. This area, on the north coast of Java, is quite flat and rather densely populated. The main cultures appear to be rice and sugar cane. We were often driving along or crossing narrow-gauge tracks, and we occasionally saw sugar cane being loaded on the small railroad cars that are used to take it to the processing plants. We soon reached the small village of Songgom, about one kilometer south of our destination and from there had to continue on foot.

On the outskirts of the village we crossed a small creek on a precarious bridge made up of three or four bamboo sticks laid down side-by-side. We then went through rice paddies, walking on the narrow dikes that separate them, sometimes due north, sometimes east, sometimes west, to avoid stepping in the muddy fields. We promptly reached the end of the rice fields and were faced with a solid wall of sugar cane, with still a few hundred meters to go. We went west until we reached a river and then followed the river in a northerly direction.

As we got near the goal, we found a lane that allowed us to walk back into the sugar cane field, and took us very close to the confluence. We were determined to reach the goal, and walked between the stalks until we got all zeroes on the display. We took only one photo at that spot, that shows a closeup of the sugar cane that was all around us. There was no point in taking more pictures there, as they would all have looked exactly alike. We walked back to a T-junction in the lane, about 40 meters from the confluence, and took the four pictures in the cardinal directions, as well as a photo of that area.

We walked back to the car, following the river all the way back to the village. There is a pretty waterfall about 200 meters from the confluence. Many jackfruit (nangka) trees grow along the river. We were back in less than one hour and headed back towards Cirebon and further west towards our second objective, confluence point 108 degrees East, 7 degrees South. On the way, Riswandi bought salted eggs (telor asin), a local delicacy, from a stand by the road, to have a small gift to bring back to his family.

Recommendations for future visits:

From Sanggam, the easiest way to reach the confluence is to follow the river on its right bank (east side). This will take you to less than 100 meters from the confluence. It would be best to go there after the harvest, in order to reach the point more easily and also to get more representative pictures of the area.

LM

Bahasa Indonesia Narrative

Lokasi:

Desa Kalen Pandan

Kabupaten Brebes

Propinsi Jawa Tengah

Lokasi titik koordinat terletak di desa Kalen Pandan kecamatan Songgom kabupaten Brebes Jawa Tengah. Perjalanan menuju lokasi dicapai melalui kabupaten Brebes ke arah Selatan. Perjalanan menuju lokasi dicapai melalui kota Cirebon yang berjarak kurang lebih 1/2 jam perjalanan dari Kota Udang. Berangkat pukul 18:00 dari Cirebon, tiba di kota Brebes 19:30. Suasana kota ini cukup sunyi pada malam hari, kami bertiga Riswandi, Laurent Moinard dan Jajang (driver) menginap di Hotel Dedy Jaya untuk sekedar bermalam melepas lelah terutama Pak Laurent yang telah melakukan perjalanan yang cukup panjang dari Balikpapan - Jakarta - Cirebon - Brebes. Tak lupa sebelum istirahat malam, kita sempat menyantap masakan Padang. Ternyata ... cukup sulit juga mencari restaurant di kota Brebes pada malam hari. Sebelum tidur, Pak Laurent dan Saya sempat membaca peta yang lebih detail yang terpampang di dinding koridor hotel. Kita mendapat petunjuk yang sungguh berarti yaitu suatu daerah Songgom yang tidak tercatat di peta regional Jawa.

Keesokan harinya, setelah menyantap nasi goreng yang disediakan di hotel, kita berangkat menuju tempat "hunting" yang pertama yang terletak di Kecamatan Songgom desa Kalen Pandan. Desa Kalen Pandan merupakan desa yang cukup mempesonakan, hamparan sawah yang sebagian telah panen dan sebagian lagi masih menghijau, sungguh merupakan pemandangan yang sangat indah dilihat, juga diselingi pohon nyiur yang melambai-lambai.

Lokasi titik tersebut terletak di perkebunan tebu milik PT PGN yang luasnya hektaran. Jarak dari tempat pemberhentian mobil ke lokasi +/- 1 km. Jarak yang tidak terlalu jauh dijangkau. Perjalanan dimulai dari sebuah gang di desa Kalen Pandan melawati sawah +/- 500 m. Kondisi sawah dalam keadaan yang cukup kering walaupun ada beberapa bagian yang harus dihindari karena berlumpur.

Setelah melewati jalan setapak, air terjun, sungai, singkapan batuan sedimen di sepanjang sungai yang merupakan pemandangan yang mempesonakan menuju lokasi akhirnya Saya dan Pak Laurent harus melewati jalan yang tersulit yaitu perkebunan tebu. Tanpa terlalu sulit lokasi koordinat didapatkan. Tak lupa kita mengambil foto GPS, foto arah Utara, Selatan, Barat dan Timur.

Dengan melalui jalan yang sama kita kembali ke mobil menyusuri Sungai, sempat singgah sebentar di sungai untuk mengambil foto air terjun. Berjalan menuju Desa ditemani anak-anak pedesaan yang sedang mengunyah tebu, berfoto-foto sawah, pohon nangka dll.

Kurang lebih pukul 10:00, setelah meneguk air, kami berangkat menuju kota Cirebon untuk selanjutnya hunting koordinat yang kedua.

Ris