Since we wanted to make it in time for sunrise, we left our houses at 2 a.m. rather reluctantly and stared climbing at 4.30, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed.
The climb in itself, wasn't all that interesting, since it involved lots of huffing and puffing and pit stops on my part not to mention it was too dark to take any pics. The night sky was sprinkled with frosted diamond stars and spotlighted by a beautiful sickle moon.
To cut the long story short, a huff and a puff later, we reach the first summit and low behold, heaven's gate lay chest-to-chest with us. Creamy, cotton clouds lined the summit of the mountains opposite and the sun burst through skyline like a ball of fury then exploded yellow, buttery rays all over. Needless to say, my fingers clicked the camera relentlessly.
The volcano crater's depth dived for a good 300 meters, it was nothing but an empty hole with smoke rising from a hole in the side. Our guide told us gory stories of people who fell while we faked pushing each other in. A few camera clicks later, we started heading down the mountain. This proved a trifle harder than getting up because we kept slipping on the smooth stones on the way down.
The sunlight gave definition to the scenery and i tried my guide's patience while i took numerous pictures of seemingly ordinary panorama. He soon gave up, ran ahead and sat on the road, waiting for us to catch up.
After saying goodbye to our excellent guides who truly,truly helped us up and down, we sat said goodbye to the mountain, goodbye to the freezing cold, and goodbye to a beauty that can't be replicated anywhere else. Oh, and I took an acorn for a souvenir.
