Flores : Hiking Gunung Egon Indenpendently

Gunung Egon is an active volcano located about an hour far from Maumere. It is 1,708m high (but attempting to go higher that the rim would be truly hazardous). The volcano last eruption was in 2008 so it’s adamant that you check with the locals if it’s safe or not to climb.

Do I need a guide to climb it ?

The path is clearly marked with small cairns up to the rim. As long as you pay attention to it, there is no reason to get lost.

I nonetheless managed to do so because like a dumbass I decided it was ‘clever’ to take a shortcut through the forest. After 1 hour struggling and given I was unable to find back the path, I decided it was safer to get back to the summit from which it would be easy to find back the path. Took me additional 2 hours to do so.

As a general rule, if you don’t encounter cairns every 5 minutes, you’re likely to go the wrong way. Go back.

A very good idea is to load up the GPS track uploaded by Gunung Bagging on your phone before going.

If you don’t feel confident about this, it’s possible to find a guide. Just ask around.

The hike

You have to go first to Blidit village (about 1 hour drive from Maumere). Pass the village and follow the road for about 10 minutes. Check my general maps of Flores if you are struggling to find the way.

From there, it is really straightfoward, just follow the well worn path. You will go first through an open-woodland area, then into a forest.

I took me about 1h15 to reach the sismic station.

From there, it’s another 30 minutes to reach the rim. Make sure you stay on the path because there is a actual risk of falling if you get off it.

Staying on the rim is pretty impressive. Smoke is coming out of the volcano and you can hear the underground rumble.

As you can see on the pictures, I wasn’t really lucky for the weather on the summit.

Descending should take you also less than 2 hours.

Hence you should need 4 hours to hike to and back from the summit. Add 30 minutes at least on top and the travel time to your accomodation. It shall keep you busy for a day.

Packing up a lunch is a pretty good idea. 3 liters of waters should be more than enough unless you drink a lot.