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Published: August 15th 2009
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….The edge of an active volcano that is!
While in Borneo we got word of a volcano that had recently errupted in Indonesia, and was continuing to spew ash and lava. Even more exciting was knowing that there was an opportunity to hike up the volcano adjacent to it to have a front row seat for the erruptions!
We spent a few days relaxing on the beaches of Kuta, Bali and then met up with Sandro and Lisa-Marie: a couple we had met in Thailand over New Year's who had decided to join us for this last leg of our Asian adventure. Upon greeting these two, we had to do a double take with Sandro as he had taken an unofficial vow not to shave when we parted ways 7 months ago in Thailand, hence the guy with the massive beard that appears along with us in the photos!
We hopped over to the island of Lombok in Indonesia (right beside Bali to the east) and made our way to the small town of Sanur which is where the two day trek to the crater rim begins. Mount Rinjani is the second largest peak in Indonesia,
A Volcano in a Volcano
Mt Baru is front and centre; Mt Rinjani is in the background and we are taking this picture from the other side of a volcanic rim! and also an active volcano. However, the volcano that was currently errupting was Mount Baru which is essentially a smaller volcano inside of a massive crater lake which was formed by the erruption of the much larger Rinjani many, many moons ago. The bottom line is that this made for great scenery and amazing photo ops.
We began our seven hour ascent at 8am, with the temperature already hovering close to the 30 degree mark. Within minutes we had sweat through our clothes! The four of us were accompanied by a guide, and two porters who carried our tents, camping gear and food supplies. As with Mount Fansipan which we climbed in Vietnam, both the porters were wearing plastic flip flops and carrying about 50lbs of additional weight. Of course this wasn't carried in a nice ergonomically designed backpack, but rather two bamboo baskets with a bamboo pole that they carried over the top of one shoulder. One of our porters also looked no more than 16 year old! The hike is all uphill, for a total of about 8km, and really well laid out with break points set out every kilometer or two. We stopped for lunch about
Yet Another Amazing Sunset
This one was unique in the fact that it set opposite a flowing volcano two thirds of the way up, and were greeted by about 20 long tail macque monkeys that were obviously very used to being fed our leftovers.
To this point the hike was difficult in that it was all uphill with some very big rocks to climb over, but the next part proved to be extremely difficult with loose gravely sand covering which made making progress that much harder as every step you took the sand brought you right back to where you started. At this point the trail was also exposed and not shaded by the forest as before so the sun was able to heat things up very quickly. However, we knew that we were very near the top which was enough motivation to keep persevering. Finally, we made it up to the rim of the crater which overlooked Mount Rinjani in the background, and the errupting Mount Baru in the middle of an opaque turquoise-blue lake. It was one of those moments that I will remember for the rest of my life, in that it literally took my breath away. We stood in absolute awe taking in the beauty with which we were surrounded. Mount Baru actually
Mt Baru
A mountain with indigestion errupted on May 11th and blew out the top side of the volcano. At this point almost three months later, you could see the very prominent black harded lava train from the erruption point, as well as seeing white smoke spewing from the side every 5 minutes of so. You would hear a rumbling similar to a plane taking off, and then the volcano would start smoking heavily. It was absolutely amazing!
Our porters got to work setting up our tents right away (nice eh!) and then cooked us an amazing dinner of vegetable fried rice with egg. Our tents were set up so that when you opened your door you got a 180 degree view of the crater lake and volcanos. We've camped in some pretty amazing places before, but this one takes the cake! After dinner we hiked up another small hill behind our tents to watch the sunset. Overlooking the island of Lombok to the west, we could see the highest volcanic peak in Bali, as well as three small Gili islands off the coast which was to be our next destination. It was the perfect top off to the day with one of the most
incredible sunsets I have ever seen. The sun literally turned the sky from yellow to orange to the brightest red I could imagine. It was hard to decide which was to look because as the sunset was providing these amazing colours, the lack of light on the volcano was also allowing us to see the bright orange lava flow from the volcano. Every 5 minutes or so the volcano would rumble and smoke and then you could see new lava forming at the top and beginning its slow landslide down. The darker it got, the more vibrant the orange became. If it wasn't for a wind that threatened to blow us into the crater, I'm sure we could have sat out there all night mesmorized by this natural phenomenon. Instead we were forced into our tents and tried to will ourselves to sleep, which proved to be very difficult as the wind was so loud and powerful that we were sure we would be blown away!
We “woke up” (can you wake up when the wind prevented you from ever getting any sleep?) early to see the sun rise which wasn't as spectacular as the sunset, but still amazing
Our Porters
Those baskets weighed upwards of 50 lbs and they climbed up and down in plastic sandals and bare feet! none the less. After breakfast of banana pancakes we started our descent and said goodbye to what has become one of the top 5 things that we have done/seen/encountered on our travels. We figured that we deserved a few days on the beach to rest our legs and chill out and relax for the final days of our Asian Adventure. Gili Islands, here we come!
Love to all,
MandL
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