Our Field Trip to Gunung Pancar

On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, grade five went to Gunung Pancar nearby our school. We went there to learn about fragile environments. First we took the school bus until we reached the front of Gunung Pancar, for the rest of the road was too small for the bus to fit in. So, we walked the rest of the way.

We walked and walked until it passed a hour and a half! We were all so tired, yet we still had a little more to walk. When we finally arrived, most of us couldn't wait to go into the fresh water from the waterfall! We jumped right in with our PE clothes on. Even though the water was very cold, it felt so good. Our body temperature cooled down right away. All of us were told to bring change beforehand, so it was alright to swim with our PE clothes. 

After we were done swimming, we all had lunch near the waterfall in a little shelter. The food felt so yummy in our tummy because we were so tired and hungry after the long walk and swimming. Once we finished eating, we interviewed the guides who helped us get to the waterfall. Their names were Pak Elbas, Pak Hendra, and Pak Oding.

Pak Oding  has been working in Gunung Pancar for 12 years, and Pak Hendra has been working in Gunung Pancar for 10 years. Pak Oding's job is to clean the waterfall area, while Pak Elbas and Pak Hendra work as farmers. From this interview I learned that the waterfall we saw hasn't changed since the first time they saw it. 

This waterfall never gets dirty. The interesting part is that when it rains, the rocks don't get chipped off. The width of the waterfall is 5m, while the length is 150m, and the depth is 2,5 m. We heard rumors that the local government wants to make the area around the waterfall into a parking lot. I hope this is not true, because the nature there is breathtaking. A parking lot will take away part of the nature and ruin the scenery.

A long time ago, this place used to be a big forest, where there used to be 100 eagles, and many other animals such as monkeys and wild pigs. But then, many people cut the trees down to make houses. After the trees were cut down, the animals lost their habitat and couldn't survive. Now we only could see one eagle! Also, since the are not too many trees like it used to before, the mountain cannot contain the water too much anymore when it rains, causing the water to flood the city much lower than this area, like Jakarta. 

We took another path to get back to the bus. This path was less steep, but it took us longer. We took a few stops to rest and then we had to walk again. We were relieved when we saw to bus. When we got in the bus, we all hurried to get a seat.

While we were seated, my class mate Jesslyn told me that the bus ran out of fuel so they had to buy some fuel first. When the fuel tank was full, we started heading back for school. Then another problem happened.... the air conditioner didn't work! It was broken! After walking a long way and feeling very hot, we didn't even have any air conditioner. So all in a hurry, we all opened as many windows as we could. Even though the windows were open, it was still hot because the windows in the bus were so small and not all the windows could open. We all had to bear it as we went back to school. When we arrived back at school, we all took a rest since we all were tired.

Even though the trips to the waterfall and back were tiring, we all had so much fun and learned a lot about nature. It made me appreciate more about God's creation.