Bonsai bonanza: Intriguing miniature bonsai trees are for sale within the gardens. JP/Simon Marcus Gower

The most direct route to the Cibodas Botanical Garden is through the hills that rise up to Puncak Pass just south of Jakarta, passing through and down the pass and then on to near the town of Cipanas.

Before reaching Cipanas there is a turning to Cibodas that leads to a seemingly endlessly climbing roadway.

It is evident then that the botanical garden is set at a height but this only hints at the hills and valleys and sweeping vistas and landscaping that are soon to be seen. In a sense the entrance to the garden does little to suggest what lies beyond either.

A relatively modern gateway has been erected, but whilst it is clean and functional, it is not really grandiose and there is little or no information on hand here to guide the visitor. There can, then, be a sense of entering into the unknown when passing through the gates and into the botanical garden.

Initially though, the garden does not look like being anything particularly special. Among the first things to be encountered is a quite extensive collection of bonsai trees. These miniature trees can be purchased but this is nothing unusual; bonsai can be found for sale in many parts of this area.

A sloping grassed area here looks plain and really rather uninteresting; it is evident soon enough that some exploration and so too trekking is going to be necessary in these gardens.

For the less energetic visitor cars may be driven into and around much of the gardens, but this really misses the point and opportunity of walking among and being refreshed by nature.

Walking on, the visitor is soon strolling through avenues of pine trees and viewing intriguingly shaped lakes that are still and so reflect the sky which seems so near at this altitude. These are really the first signs of how land here has been shaped and manicured by researchers and conservationists.

The Cibodas Botanical Garden is made up of over 100 hectares of land which has been described as “Paradise on Earth”.

Various botanical experiments had been happening in this area previously, but it is generally accepted that the garden was established by J.E. Teysmann in 1862. Since its founding, the garden quickly grew into a large and important collection of species, a research center and conservation area.

The garden, which is really quite beautifully situated at the base of the Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, are part of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and for good reason.

The collection is cited as having close to 6,000 living specimens that are derived from over 1,200 species. This incorporates cacti and succulents, conifer and palm trees, rhododendrons and roses and varieties of bamboo and orchids.

Along with all this there is a herbarium, many eucalyptus trees from Australia and quinine from South America. This all amounts to a remarkable and varied collection that is of huge scientific importance.

The park setting that can be seen today was largely laid out by scientists. Dr R.H.C.C. Scheffer was a director of the Bogor Botanical Garden and he was largely responsible for the garden’s design here. The undulating lie of the land here creates much more variety in landscape than the garden in Bogor.

But it is not just the garden that creates such a place of interest here.

In 1889 a decision was made to incorporate the primary forest that lies around and literally above the garden. This is an area of close to 250 hectares and it is in this area that some good trekking may be done and a quite impressive waterfall may be reached.

Thanks to the undulating terrain here, at first some climbing is required heading in the direction of the waterfall. This is followed by a quite sharp and steep drop that can be quite challenging when muddy and so slippery. This then leads on to a rock-strewn stream fed by the waterfall.

The sound of the waterfall begins to be heard and, as the trek to the falling water is through a narrow valley, moisture from the waterfall hangs in the air and creates a damp atmosphere.

This is not a trek of footpaths and handrails but is over stones that may be both slippery and jagged – on this trek alone three people were seen falling heavily on the stones and into the water.

But if the treacherous stones and streams can be negotiated, it is well worth it because the waterfall is quite impressive. The water falls powerfully from a precipice some thirty meters or so up. On its way down the water hits a shelf of rock and this seems to add to the spray that surrounds it.

Close by, the power and velocity of the falling water is immediately obvious, as the drop from the high precipice is sheer. But further away too the waterfall’s presence can be felt as the spray from it tends to linger. The waterfall is, then, a highlight of the park area, but all around there is much to please the eye.

The walk back from the waterfall may be made through a less steep and so less challenging valley. This is where the natural and rather wild beauty of the area can be truly appreciated.

Thick forests blanket the slopes of Mount Gede and Pangrango and occasionally wild monkeys can be seen swiftly but warily leaping between trees.

The more parkland elements of the garden’s area are good for trekking and an appreciation of nature in its more wild states. Back in the more man-made parts of the garden nature is more tamed, trained and trimmed to scientists’ and landscapers’ designs.

In the garden areas waterfalls have been created too so that the mountain water cascade down

the slopes.

Whether natural and wild or more tamed and controlled the falling waters of Cibodas and its

flora and fauna offer a wealth of good sights for the eye and healthy outdoor areas for the body as a whole.  

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