Rawa Pening is a swampy area situated near the city of Salatiga, Central Java. It is actually a lake but because of the slowly sedimentation it became shallower by the day. It is also densely populated by water hyacinth, in fact most of the surface is invaded by this plant.
Many people depend their life on this lake from fishing, fish farming and also gathering water hyacinth stalks to be dried and made into handmade souvenirs. I did not go to the workshops so I would not have any picture of souvenirs made of dried water hyacinth stalks here.
Last year around midyear was the first time I went to Rawa Pening with a group of friends from Semarang. It took us around two hours drive to get there. It was a normal scorching hot afternoon in drought season. The sun was shining full force with very little cloud on the sky.
We went to the area to the far side of the lake where locals were busy collecting water hyacinth stalks using wheel carts, while some were busy tying those stalks into bunches and putting the bunches on the ground to dry. Meanwhile some men worked together unloading the stalks from jukung (small traditional boat used by the locals to go around the lake) then wheeled them away to shore. The stalks were mostly harvested on deeper part of the lake so they needed jukung to bring them ashore.
We were there for quite sometime photographing the activities of the locals and also walking around a bit to get more interesting views. I did not take enough pictures that day because of my troubled pocket camera. It apparently had problem with the motor so it failed to focus and just went blank and died. Well, it’s broken in the end of the journey just right before capturing the sunset. So the pictures I share here, some were captured by cellphone camera.
Well, here are the pictures I took that day. Enjoy! 😀
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My friends and I walk by the rice fields. One friend of mine -who lives nearby- says that some of these rice fields can only be seen on drought season because when the water raises due to the huge amount of rainfall in rainy season, some of dried land will once again be submerged under water.
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A simple small hut by the rice fields is usually used by the farmers to guard their ripening rice stalks from the attack of a large groups of small birds feed on the rice grains.
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An old man is washing his hands after a long day work on the dried up part of the swamp. Here you can see the bunches of water hyacinth stalks that are being sun-dried.
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A man paddling on his jukung (small traditional boat). This is also the man who helps me up when I accidentally do split between two jukungs while I am trying to capture the beauty of Rawa Pening with the mountain on the background. I lose my footing and end up having one foot on each jukung. My friends laugh hysterically seeing me make a total fool of myself. They even take series of pictures from the beginning to the end of that silly moment. Haha!
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I don’t really know what the concrete construction is for. I stand on the other side of it, on a similar construction when I take this picture with my cellphone. I wonder if I can call them “a bridge” because they look like one but they are not connected to each other. I don’t know 😀
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This rice fields are going to be submerged under water once the rainy season comes.
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I capture this ray of light right before the sun sets, another picture I take with my cellphone.
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A beautiful orange butterfly. Actually I see so many different kinds of butterflies but they are too swift and this butterfly is the only one that sits long enough on a plant so I can take a picture of it.
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Lilac flowers of water hyacinth. I see some water hyacinth flowers with darker shade of color but do not manage to picture any because their position is hard to reach 😀
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I shoot this spider right before my pocket camera dies on me 😦
misscurious83 