The alert is still raised for Bali’s rumbling Mount Agung, but more and more people seem to be underestimating the threat of the volcano and deciding to have a go at trekking up the mountain.
A pair of Italian tourists were pulled down from the slopes of Mount Agung on Sunday by volunteers from Pasebaya, a community made up of leaders from 28 local villages focusing on Mount Agung mitigation activities.
Although it didn’t seem the tourists were planning on hiking up to the very top of the crater, but instead a smaller peak on the volcano, Pasebaya Chairman I Gede Pawana said now is not the right time to be doing a Mount Agung trek.
“We’ve already being saying it so often, don’t go up, because it’s very dangerous. This sort of reckless action can endanger a lot of people,” Pawana said, probably referring to the volunteers and search & rescue personnel that would have to risk their own necks to evacuate the hikers if anything were to go wrong.
Earlier this month on Jan. 9, a group of six Indonesian hikers trying to climb up the mountain were similarly evacuated from the slopes of Mount Agung, when volunteers spotted light from their flashlights on the side of the mountain at night.
And just a week before that, two Australians were detained for questioning following their descent from Mount Agung.
The two deviant Italian tourists stopped from ascending Agung this time around were identified by a Bali Post report as Emanuale Biodo and Vittorio Pavese. Both were caught by Pasebaya volunteers who were in the midst of delivering fruit to monkeys in the parking area of Pura Pasar Agung Sebudi around 11pm.
Mount Agung remains on the highest alert level, “danger”, where it’s been since Nov. 27, 2017. The alert only refers to the the danger inside the exclusion zone set at a radius of six kilometers from Mount Agung’s crater.
In addition to the risk of hiking an active volcano that erupted four times less than a week ago, current rainy weather conditions also make it dangerous to climb the mountain at the moment, says the chief of East Duda Village. The area is prone to falling trees, which you most certainly wouldn’t want to get caught under.
“You should not go up, even just to Pura Pasar Agung. It’s very risky, not only because of the alert status, but also because of the potential for fallen trees,” he said.
