I had never seen a waterfall, so when I was told that there were many around in East Java, I was very exited about it! I looked around some tourism books about waterfalls and researched them in the internet and, as suggested by my host, we decided that we would visit Coban Sumber Pitu (seven waterfalls) and Coban Pelangi (rainbow waterfall).

village on Malang

Going from Malang, we arrived in a little village, around one hour away. We were very welcomed, with a lot of attention as usual for any bule. We had prepared ourselves with food and water enough to survive: we had no idea of how the path through the forest would be. None of us had ever seen the seven waterfall, so we were walking into the unknown, but obvously we were prepared.

finding seven waterfall

The village was very simple, very typical and very cute. The people smiled a lot. As we started our road, I immediately took my camera off my bag because I knew I would need it: the dirt road through the forest itself was beautiful. As we got even more into the wild,  we started seeing big plantation fields looking over the mountains - my camera started shooting everything, as I did not want to forget the view.

green sign...upss... Yellow sign

The nature in Indonesia has a life of its own, it grows everywhere it wants and the way it wants, truly wild! As we go down the dirt road, we see a sign point towards the right saying "Sumber Pitu". We look to the right and there are two ways to choose from: which one is the right one?? Of course, as I was accompanied by indonesians, it was very easy to find out the way, simply by asking the field workers.

We decided to ask a lady who was coming from the opposite way carrying KUNIR, which is a root very similar to ginger, but with a yellowish colour. This very nice and beautiful lady dropped everything she was doing and went back from where she just had come from to lead us to the right way. We thanked her and my host gave her some money that she didn't want to accept, but ended up accepting after he insisted.

shoes & sandals

As we continued our way, the dirt road starts to be a bit slipery, so we needed to be careful. I was going to hold on a tree as I was going down, but I was very urgently advised not to and then I understood why: the tree was full of spikes! Passing through other workers and crop fields, we kept going down the hill as they were carrying heavy loads of wood and plants on their backs up from where we came from. Everyone was very nice, smiley and helpful. The view was amazing as we were approaching a valley.

The road started to get easier and we stoped next to a big rock with some words writen on it. There, on the ground, there were some tools and wood already packet and ready to be carried up the hill. I put one of the loads on my shoulders - yup, that's heavy!

my host and the woods. the woods for make firewood. I was try to carry and yes its so heavy

A few minutes later we could hear the water and suddenly, there it was: my first waterfall! Beautiful, strong, I was mesmerized. And we were the only ones there. My camera was going crazy at the time - there is no way I am losing this opportunity for pictures!

me and my friends

I dont want lose the moment

It is a very calming experience to be next to a waterfall like that, isolated and beautiful, just for you. After a good 20 minutes of photo session and just enjoying the moment, it was time to question myself - there were seven waterfalls, right? Ok, let's discover them!

another sign go to seven waterfall

Facing the major waterfall, on the leftside there is a path going up to a little woden house. As I got to the woden house, my question was answered: there they were, the little 7 waterfalls in a wall of green amazing nature. The only thing ruining the moment was a building right in the middle of the landscape - they are constructing an irrigation system for the crops. It's a great idea, I just wished they could've done it without ruining the beauty of the place.

Still, I went down to get closer to the waterfalls, and when you get there you forget about the building. It's a kind of heavenish place. Gorgeous and it cannot be described with words! The waterfalls are small, but I counted about 8 of them! The sound, the smell, the colours... I will never forget it.

my friend: Anton

practice my kung fu

look her foot, the water is cold but so fresh !!!

i was in there

my self with lili

even closer, we must becarefull because slippery.

We went back to the woden house, where you can see both the waterfalls - the major one and the smaller ones - and we had our lunch. Getting there was not very hard if you are in a reasonable good shape, maybe 20 minutes would be enough, 30 if you want to be extra careful and not fall on the dirt road slopes. But we were going down, this time, we are going up.

our lunch and some property

We ate and set back on our way to the forest's exit. Again, it should not be very hard if you are in good shape, and you can always rest in the woden houses all over the forest. As we were going up, we met these 2 workers that were also going up - one carrying a big pile of what it looked like very heavy plants, and the other carrying a big long bamboo stick.

Two old man and they are so stronger

They were about 60 years old, if not older (I can never guess their ages!). I followed them very closely all the time until they decided to take a break really close to the exit. There, I asked for a photo and they told me I was very healthy! One of them, the one with the plants, was very chatty, even though I couldn't understand it, and always with a big honest and lovely smile, even though he had, in total, 2 teeth in his mouth. I really liked him! As I was positioning myself to take a good picture, the guy with the bamboo stick, which was now layed on the floor, yelling something and moved the bamboo stick away from me: it is a superstition that women should not cross over a bamboo stick, it could be bad for their health, especially when the bamboo use for tools carry basket. Their shoulders will hurt. Believe or not is must respect. I thanked him for that.

And then I asked if I could help to carry the plants the rest of the way, but they said no because I was too pretty to carry it and it would hurt my back. In the end, they carried it, we said goodbye and relaxed for a while, getting prepared to go to our next destination. 

#sumberpitu#waterfall#trekking

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