It’s been halfway through of the Photoweek, and everyone agrees that the highlight so far is that morning on the hills of Kompleks Candi Gedung Songo.

We woke up at 3.30 am from Semarang and picked ourselves up to the bus and go straight to Complex which is around an hour away from the city. We were planning for those red and violet skies backdropping the temple silhouettes.

It turns out that the temples are stretched along a steep line up the hill, and when we got to the entrence (the very bottom), the sky was already glowing with the faint blue glow.

We went to the first temple, but then we know if we had to climb a steep hill to the next one with our un-gym-ed, un-cardio-ed asses, we’re not going to make it. The freezing cold strong wind and our thin shirts were not helping either.

So instead we scrambled to the wild grasses and off the designated path, going towards the orange glow behind a hill.

Then it broke.

The sky filled with the glorious beams of the first rays of the sun, falling on our skin and faces like a paint of gold. In the distance, the sun moved slowly, from the shy lady it was before to the proud stud it is now. The field was covered with these golden haze, while the blue wildflower beds danced violently with the strokes of the wind.

It was probably one of the best sights I’ve ever seen in my life.

We were shooting like crazy, everyone was waist deep in high-grass, moving about, changing lens and positions because we know that this light will be over in a few minutes. Everyone was shouting aloud since the strong winds carried our voices away.

We know that we probably won’t have a lot of these kind of opportunities in our lives, so we soaked it in, cherising the moment, a lot of times we just stood there bracing the chill while looking towards the majestic views before our eyes.

It was indeed a morning that we will never forget.

 

 

Live images from the road – click here for the gallery