Lawean Waterfall in Mount Wilis
Lawean Waterfall in Mount Wilis .
Untuk versi bahasa kunjungi Air Terjun Lawean di Gunung Wilis.
This place brings back my childhood memories big time. I used to be a scout from when I was in primary school, continuing through out high school and by that time I was teaching scout to my junior scouts. We camped nearly every school holiday as we had only few other distractions no holidays overseas, skiing, movies or other things but a very quiet little village offering beautiful nature to explore. One of my favorite activities being a scout was hiking and Lawean waterfall was often used as one of scout hiking destination, it took all day to walk there and back as the track was difficult and could be slippery. These days it may take only 5 hours to go there and back. My first trip to this waterfall was when I was around 8 years old. There are two waterfalls near my hometown, one North and one South of my village (I’m sure there are few more on the other side of the mountain).
I went to the south Lawean waterfall recently (January 2014), and everything still stays the same, the only difference was the top part of Penampean village, just before we entered the rain forest to the waterfall has now become a fresh vegetables producer rather than a tea garden like it used to be. But I still can see the remaining parts of the tea gardens. Such a shame that the tea garden is slowly gone. The tea garden was an inheritance from Dutch together with two big tea factories located in Penampean village and Sumberpandan village (the entrance to north side waterfall). When I was little the factory was still operating but now the place doesn’t exist anymore, only ruins from the old colonial building as a proof that it was there. We parked the car at one of the villagers house and then continued on foot. As you can see in the picture, everything is so green and beautiful.
Before we entered the rain forest to get to the waterfall, we stopped at the Penampihan temple (Candi Penampihan). For me, this place is amazing. The name “Penampihan” was taken from word of “Tampik” means rejection in english. One of many stories that lay within this temple is about someone very important from Ponorogo region who had his love rejected by a princess from Kediri called Kilisuci who then decided not to came back to Ponorogo as he cannot bare the shame of being rejected. He then build this temple for himself to pray, while he was still in love with the princess.
The other name given to this temple is Candi Asmara Bangun meaning love temple. Ever since, this temple has been used for praying by the old Mataram, Kediri, Singosari and Majapahit kingdom (Hindus). I’ve got goose bums just thinking about how awesome this temple would of been ages ago. Oh dear princess Kilisuci….you have broke someone’s heart!
After doing little bit of sight seeing around the temple we continued our journey to the waterfall. Looking at the clouds, I’m hoping it’s not raining by the time we get there.
Less than two hours later (roughly) we arrived at the water fall…..aaahhhhh the fresh air through my lungs feels great, just what my body needed after that walk.
We played in the water for a while, the water was freezing cold so I had to find a place to sit down. And there is a big boulder right near the waterfall I can sit on. While I’m sitting on the rock I look up and I’m feeling extremely happy. I’m so happy that this kind of place exists in my hometown, and even happier that I’m part of it. ~feeling grateful~
My cousins Vicky and Rafi both are our guides for this trip (thank you so much for taking us) and by the looks of if we are ready for heading home.
The way home was more challenging compared with the way up. The ground was very slippery after the drizzling of rain and a few of us fell down because of that, not really serious as every time it happened everyone kind of laugh. Mind you that most of us wearing thongs (sandals to you non Aussies) 🙂
This track is a little bit easier compared with the other waterfall 😉
Oh….and now we already out of the rain forest and my brother is already calling for us. And by the way, one of us got bitten by a leech but I can tell you it wasn’t me otherwise we may still be in the forest as I would have fainted hahahhahaa….
See you next time, Lawean Penampihan. It was a great hike as usual and a little bit of adventure, thank you 🙂