Gunung Gede Pangrango

The Gunung Gede Pangrango national park is one of the five national parks in Indonesia. It was announced first time by Indonesian government during 1980. The nature situation in Gunung Gede is typical and unique, making the National Park of Gunung Gede-Pangrango become one of interesting nature laboratories that draw researchers' interest since long before.

The first person who climbed Mt. Gede was C.G.C. Reinwardt during 1819, followed by F.W. Junghuhn (1839-1861), J.E. Teysmann (1839), A.R. Wallace (1861), S.H. Koorders (1890), M. Treub (1891), W.M. van Leeuen (1911) and C.G.G.J. van Steenis (1920-1952). Van Steenis made his plants collection as the foundation of his compilation titled “THE MOUNTAIN FLORA OF JAVA”, published in 1972.

The Gunung Gede Pangrango national park has the diversity of ecosystem, consist of the ecosystem of sub-Montana, Montana, sub-alpin, the lake, swamp, and savannah.

The sub-Montana ecosystem is characterised by the number of big and tall trees as jamuju (Dacrycarpus imbricatus) and the flora (Schima walliichii). Whereas sub-alphin ecosystem is characterised by the existence of plateau overgrown by isachne pangerangensis grass, eidelweis flower (Anaphalis javanica), violet (the Viola pilosa), and cantigi (Vaccinium varingiaefolium).

The Gede-Pangrango mountain is the most-often mountain climbed in Indonesia, which is approximately 50,000 climbers a year. Perhaps it is because of its location that is adjacent to two cities in Indonesia, Jakarta and Bandung.

To conserve the environment of the mountain, every year in August and in December to March, Gunung Gede Pangrango is closed for the public. Besides that, several climb routes are made. One of them, the most popular one, is the route through Cibodas.

The panorama at Gunung Gede (Gede mountain) and Pangrango is extraordinary beautiful and amazing. We can visit some of them such as: - the Biru Lake, - the Cibeureum Waterfall, - Hot Water Spring, - Surya Kencana - and still many others places like Situ Gunung and Bedogol.

Weather Condition
The Gunung Gede Pangrango has the most rainfall than any other places in Jawa, which has rate 3000 to 4200 mm a year. Therefore the best time for climbing is June and July, where at that time the rainfall descends below 100 mm. The temperature is generally varied. In Cibodas the temperature is 18 C, whereas at the peak and Pangrango, the temperature is 10 C. The temperature can reach below 5 C at night. So it is suggested for climber to bring thick jacket. Besides, they must be careful because trees are easy to fall..

if you are interested in climbing the mountain, you have to prepare your physical condition so that you can enjoy fully the beautiful panorama there. The more you are climbing, the more you will find different plants and environment.