Cibeureum Falls (Cibodas)
Three neighbouring falls at about 1,675 m.
Abduhwily — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Louie Bunbun — CC BY-SA 4.0 · sussexbirder — CC BY 2.0 · Toni Wöhrl — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Abduhwily — CC BY-SA 4.0
Gede Pangrango National Park in West Java protects the rainforest-clad twin volcanoes Gede (2,958 m), still active, and Pangrango (3,019 m). One of Indonesia's first five national parks (1980), it is the core of UNESCO's Cibodas Biosphere Reserve (1977). From the Cibodas gate, a 2.8 km walk leads to Cibeureum, three neighbouring waterfalls at about 1,675 m. In 1889 the Dutch colonial government made 240 hectares of forest above the Cibodas garden the country's first nature reserve, adding the forest around the falls in 1919. Alfred Russel Wallace, climbing this route in 1861, wrote of a picturesque waterfall beside a travellers' hut and of 300 fern species on this one mountain. The park holds over 1,000 plant and 251 bird species, plus Javan gibbons. The stony trail climbs steadily through tall forest, passing Telaga Biru, a small lake tinted blue-green by algae, after about half an hour, then crossing the Rawa Gayonggong swamp on a raised walkway. At a junction the summit trail turns left; the falls lie fifteen minutes to the right, where the broad main fall has the taller, slimmer Cidendeng beside it and Cikundul tucked high in a cleft. The gate lies about 500 m from Cibodas Botanical Garden's main entrance, some 100 km by road from Jakarta: two to three hours' drive without traffic, often longer. Allow half a day and start early: this is one of Java's wettest corners (3,000 to 4,200 mm of rain a year), and afternoons often bring rain and mist. Telaga Warna lies about 6 km north as the crow flies.
Three neighbouring falls at about 1,675 m.
A small blue-green lake on the trail.
A raised walkway over a mountain swamp.
Cibodas park gate, near Cibodas Botanical Garden, Cipanas, Cianjur
Yes, when climbing is open: beyond the waterfall junction the Cibodas trail continues to the Kandang Badak saddle at about 2,400 m and on to both peaks, usually over two days with a night on the mountain. Climbs must be booked online with the park in advance, and the park suspends climbing for weeks or months at a time, usually in the peak rainy season (around January to March) for weather and ecosystem recovery, and at other times for fire risk or trail works, so check its official channels before planning.
In Sundanese, the language of West Java, ci means water and beureum means red; the usual explanation is the reddish moss on the cliff, which can tint the falling water in sunlight. A local legend adds that the large boulder in the fall is a hermit who meditated there so long that he turned to stone.