A Walk in the Tea Park

On Saturday May 14, 2011 my husband and I went to Karanganyar, a town near Solo. We were going to have a trip at the Kemuning Tea Park. It lies in Ngargoyoso, in the foothills of Mount Lawu off the north-east border of Karanganyar and East Java. 

Before taking the trip to the mountain, we attended a wedding ceremony of my work colleague's daughter in Karanganyar. It's on the same route as our planned trip to the tea park. Anyway it was the first time of us attending wedding party as a married couple :-)

There will always be a first time in anything

That's what my husband and I often say to each other these recent days, like this one on his blog post. We looked upon our every first moment quite 'seriously' including this moment attending a wedding party a.k.a. 'njagong' in Javanese as we had prepared a batik uniform to wear to the party ;-)

Arrived at the wedding venue at 11:30, it's only about 15 minutes before the ceremony finished. Yes, we were super duper late. Not serious enough at this part, eh? ;) Fortunately, we could still manage to get into the venue. 

The quite silly part was when we walked into the building, we were kind of become a bit attention to a number of guests who sat near the entrance door. We were in the party only for less than 15 minutes. A few people greeted my husband and me as they recognized us.

About 30 minutes later we were heading to our main destination towards Kemuning. We changed our 'batik uniform' at my grandparents' house near the wedding venue. My husband and I had intended taking this trip to the Kemuning Tea Agro Park since I got the invitation of the wedding to be held in Karanganyar. We thought that it would be fun to go mountain touring at the same time we went towards east from Solo City to Karanganyar.

In Karanganyar we took the 30 kilometres drive heading east and then north-east. It went through along the way towards Mount Lawu, passed through Karangpandan district, and then via Ngargoyoso. It was a beautiful trip as we saw green lands along the road and of course, the mountain foothills scenery. 

Cloudy, yet sunny day at the mountain foothills

The 5 kilometres between Ngargoyoso and Kemuning provides not only the most scenic part of the trip but also the most challenging drive. The real adventure began shortly after we had passed through the entrance gate towards the Kemuning tourism area.

My husband drove along the uphill road. It was only a few kilometres off the main road, but the drive was pretty challenging and interesting. We went through narrow road with a couple of tight hairpin curves. Somehow we both did enjoy the trip.

We finally arrived at the Tea Agro Park at around 13:00. It was a drive to remember. It might be one of the most memorable drive trip my husband and I have ever had.

Wonderful views of huge green area of the tea park, it was really a treat to the eyes.

It was well-worthed the challenging drive for the refreshing great views at the park and its fresh chilling air.

 

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9