Rinjani-"place where the child was born"

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1992………..2MTHS-1st CYCLING TRIP-1300kms ACROSS INDONESIA
8/7/92 Mataram, Lombok 21.46km
The over-night bus ride through Sumbawa was long, with not a lot of sleep but it was compensated by the pleasant 1½ hr boat trip to Lombok. I realize now how undeveloped Flores was. Lombok has good wide roads and a lot of traffic, 4x drives, bicycles, bemos and ‘Ben Hurs’ - horse drawn carriages. People are more reserved and just stare with a few hellos. It is a relief to get some personal space.

9/7/92 Kuta, Lombok 58km 978.15 km total
I spent a few days cycling through Lombok and lazing on beaches. This morning I had my thinking challenged by a German girl who I talked with last night about Flores. She is a lace bobbin maker and previously a garden designer. She was having breakfast and doing a painting while she ate. She has bought oils, and watercolours with a variety of paper. She has been painting for 20 yrs and is self-taught. What was challenging was her attitude of tranquillity, a view that each person gets a different perspective of their travels, and the notion of not bringing a camera and instead recording your visual experience through art. She does about 3 paintings a day, fairly small, some more detailed, all well executed.

11/7/92 Lendangnangka 70.5 km 1062 km total
I arrived at the smallish traditional sasak village of Lendangnangka at lunchtime. I’m staying at Radiah’s Homestay - the only accommodation here. Radiah is the local headmaster and appears to have made his home over to tourists not just to make money but because he want to promote tourism generally, assist in educating tourists and assist the village with bringing in income.
After a sleep I went for a walk and sat on the edge of a paddi field where I was joined by a couple of boys which quickly grew to 20 or so when we started swapping English/ Indonesian words with much clapping and laughter and some boys dancing around with flowers behind their ears and up nostrils. Radiah’s house is right in the village with no sign and has paddi fields siding it. ($6.60 including all meals). After a meal of rice, noodles and salad, omelette, and vegetable, Radiah got us all (some 13 tourists) to come inside for a question and answer time. The poor man is on holiday from school and can’t help himself! He told us of the traditional courting procedure before a couple can marry and of two women’s organizations, which give information on diet and family planning and child care/ health.

12/7/92 Lendangnangka 18.8 km 1080.8 km total
After a rice breakfast of fried banana and fresh pineapple I joined Liz, an English girl for what turned out to be a fairly long walk to the nearby waterfall and to Pringgasela, a local weaving village. We watched a woman in the village doing the fine intricate weaving typical of this area using a back strap loom. Commercial cotton from Mataram is locally dyed using mostly commercial dyes. A self-appointed guide took us to see other weavers and to the ‘shop’ of the co-operative of 300 women in the village.
Back to the home stay to sit at the table overlooking the paddi fields only metres away.
From where I am sitting writing this, I can see a man walking along the terrace of the field with a mattock over his shoulder. He has a bright yellow T-shirt, which contrasts with the vibrant green of the rice and complements the yellow of the older rice, which a woman is starting to cut. A teenager is taking mandi with the overflow from the terrace. A Dokar is going past on the road, bells ringing on the horse, the carriage painted in blue, yellow and red. A man is walking along the road with a pole across his shoulders. Each end has several large ceramic pots in reds and browns, locally fired, taking them some where for sale. A man is pushing a bright blue a red ice cream cart along the road, ringing a bell. A woman with a sarong on walks past, a large basket balanced on her head. People are friendly here and there are not so many of the stares as in Southern Lombok and not so overwhelming as Flores- more gentle in their approach.

12/7/92 Lendangnangka
I woke early to the sound of the mosque, roosters, cowbells, singing and talking. I set off with 7 others from the homestay and Pak Radiah’s cousin’s son as our unpaid guide. He is 12 years old, very wise, and spoke good English. We negotiated a small truck and went up to Dason Pao where we walked for about 45 minutes through a canopy of coffee and banana trees to the beginnings of a natural forest where we saw black monkeys high in the trees. We climbed the small Gunung Kukus, which gave us views over Southern Lombok and the immediate maize fields. We waited in the village with many staring curious faces for a truck to arrive. One came shortly and was quickly filled with people, corn storks, and bags of something. At least we thought it was full until we stopped down the road a bit and put on more people and 2 cows!
Four of us then went on to the weekly cattle market in 2 horse drawn dokars.

14/7/92 Ampenan (64km, 1145km Total)

15/7/92 - 19/7/92 Mt Rinjani Climb
Liz and I decided that we would join up together to climb Mt Rinjani. We hired a tent, sleeping bags and army style paraffin stove from the losman. Not having a pack, we had to put everything into Liz’s 70lt. Pack, which added up being 14-16kg with 6 litres of water.
We caught a bus to Senaru- the top losman where you sign in for the walk. It is run by a charming old man with betal nut stained teeth. There is no power and the veranda overlooks the old village. I felt ‘oomy ‘ in the stomach again today and didn’t sleep well last night and so much of the bus trip I dozed and spent the rest of the day sleeping soundly while Liz walked to the nearby powerful waterfall. I got up mid afternoon and wandered down a nearby path and felt exhausted again and so returned for another sleep. I wasn’t feeling like someone about to climb some 3,200 m.
Being a full moon, it was quite light when we got up before sunrise and so we didn’t need torches. The initial walk took us gently up hill past another losman, bamboo huts of local farmers and into the tropical forest with its 3 tiers of growth, leaf litter, birds and black monkeys which looked inquisitively down at us as we walked. The pack was extremely heavy and weighed strongly on my leg muscles. Liz took the first turn of 1hr which we quickly realized was too long and we henceforth cut back to ½ hr.

The day was clear and hot although the canopy above protected us. Purple flowered bushes gave a thick scent to the walk. A brief rest and we set off again to tackle the next more difficult section to the rim. The 4 hrs so far had been very tiring and people coming down were telling us that this was the easy bit, which didn’t help! The next section to the rim, while being steeper, was for only about 2 hrs and formed a change as we left the forest behind and had spectacular views above the clouds with distant Mt Agung in Bali towering above them. The view from the rim was startling, showing the enormity of the crater with Rinjani souring high to one side. The blue lake Segara Anak (child of the sea) lays some 650m below with the newly formed volcano arising out of it. Rinjani is the 3rd highest mountain in Indonesia (2nd highest outside Irian Jaya). Its name comes from an old Chinese word meaning “place where the child was born”. The volcanos, which make up the complex, are considered quite young. G. Bariyani in the caldera has risen during the last century or two. It still smokes but its last eruptions were in 1884 and 1901. In 1951 thundering noise and thick smoke was emitted from Rinjani.

We started our descent into the crater. The first part was tricky and I felt I was being pushed off by the pack against the rock face and so took it off and passed it to Liz. This may well have been the spot where the daughter of a Belgian Minister died last year. We reached the lake by early afternoon, the water, lovely and clear, is blue but undrinkable because of the sulphur. Groups of Indonesians were camped along the bank fishing with fixed lines attached to bamboo poles. Fish have been recently introduced to the lake and, despite some lying on the waters edge dead; they were obviously thriving and easy to catch. A ½ hour walk along the lakes edge and we came to a valley and, with directions from locals, we made our way to the nearby hot springs. These were the best I’ve seen anywhere with steep mountains either side, a view into the distance down the valley, monkeys scrambling around, many pools, some deep enough to swim in a bit, a river of fairly hot water which acted like a spa. Several groups of Indonesians had set up semi-permanent camps, perhaps just for the full moon period. They were friendly and accommodating and showed us the best pools and the close crystal clear water source where we filled our bottles. The hot water was just wonderful on our aching muscles. We found a fantastic camp among the grasses, overlooking the lake, Rinjani and Barajari. By late afternoon we were enveloped by a thick shroud of mist, which quickly drifted up the valley and across and into the crater. It got dark after six pm with a sunset lighting up the clouds hovering above the lake. Soon the sky was ablaze with a thickness of stars, which I watched for some time. By late afternoon damp air had surrounded us and things quickly got wet. Having a tent and sleeping bags is essential for this walk. Liz and I talked for a long time of her exploits as part of a health team in the Amazon, working with Leprosy and of the walks that she has done in Bolivia, Sudan and Chile.
We decided to climb up to the 2nd rim to begin our ascent from there at 3 am rather than do 6 hrs hard walking starting from the lake at midnight as some people do so as to catch sunrise from the summit. We set off late morning and had lunch on the path on the way at about 2,600m. We arrived at our camp spot for the night by early afternoon, engulfed by cloud. This was a beautiful walk, initially gently through hills not unlike Switzerland with views across the lake which gradually got further and further below us. The path took us behind Rinjani initially and at stages went down hill again to avoid deep ravines in the mountainside. At one stage we thought it was about to set in raining only to discover that it was only raining under the trees, which acted as collection sites for the wet mist. An hour of very steep climbing in swirling mist was partly aided by railing. Having put up the tent, I had a sleep. Liz woke me at 5-ish for tea before it got dark. As we ate the cloud lifted to expose a stunning view of G. Senkerang Jaya (2,900m) right in front of us and to the left a view into the crater and the lake. A 2-minute walk to the top of the saddle between G. Plawangan and G. Rinjani afforded clear views of the prospective climb to be done next morning to the top of Rinjani. It didn’t look too difficult but I was to discover that it was much greater in distance, size and difficulty that I expected.
We went off to bed after sunset in readiness for our 3 am start, as the cold drifted in and it became dark. I didn’t sleep well as my muscles hurt lying on them, sliding downwards in the tent, the cold, the anticipation of getting up early and thinking over a proposal to the Tourist Commission for a clean up of tourist spots in Indonesia using Duke of Ed participants and local student bodies.
It was quite light with the full moon when we got up to do the final ascent and torches weren’t necessary. The 3 hr walk was demanding at that altitude and was incredibly hard work towards the end and I began to wonder what I was doing it for. The last hour consisted of loose scoria, quite deep on a steep slope. One step up and sliding 2/3 of a step back. It would have been very hairy if there had been any wind as you climb on a very narrow ridge with enormous drops each side. The last steps across to the highest point are also quite scary, one step width and falling away to nothing. We shared the peak with a sole German, his friend sick back in the tent with dehydration/ altitude sickness? We made it just in time for sunrise, which was beyond description with clear views across to Bali and the Gilli Islands to the East and to Sumbawa to the West, with views into the caldera and with the G Barujari volcano dwarfed below. It was quite cold and I appreciated the mittens and my Flores sarong I brought up with me. Coming down was so much easier as going along the scoria was like skiing and quite good fun. After a wonderful cup of coffee at the tent we set off back to the springs for another relax and then up to a plateau some 1/3 of the way up to the rim so as to shorten our distance for the next day. I spent some time sitting on the edge overlooking the lake and Rinjani, contemplating the day. A deer ran past me careering down the hill. We sat around a fire struggling to keep it alight until it became too damp and cold.

It was a cold night and I had to put my parka coat on as well as the 2 T-shirts, Long sleeve shirt and my thermal longs and long pants inside the silk inner liner, Flores sarong and sleeping bag. In the morning there was ice on the tent and on our water bottles. We got going shortly after sunrise to beat the heat of the day and get back in time to get a bus back to Ampenan. It was a nice change to we walking easily down hill from the rim, watching people struggle up, and freely giving out ‘expert’ advice. Liz and I were looking forward to our rewarded rest on Gili Trewanganthe next day.

20/7 - 23/7 Gili Trewanganthe
I have just spent 4 days here on this small island off Lombok’s coast staying in a bungalow at Makmur’s, which I am sharing with Liz. The island has clear water with coral and a staggering array of tropical fish. At one point snorkelling, a thick cloud of small fish in a school surrounded me. Lazy days were spent here snorkelling, lying on the beach reading (Nick Danziger’s Travels) walking round the island, afternoon sleeps, gazing across the waters to Meno Island and then Lombok with G Rinjani proudly standing out clearly in the morning and then later often above the clouds. I thought of the people scrambling up to the top before sunrise. Food was good on the island with a mixture of Indonesian/ Chinese and Western food. I caught the 7.30 am boat back to the mainland, giving Liz a farewell hug. We had shared a lot. The wooden boat with stabilisers sticking out each side plied easily through the water, not wetting me this time as it did on the way out. I left Liz looking forward to being/ travelling alone again after 10 days together.
I collected my bike and set off with others in the minibus from the losman to catch the ferry to Padangbai, Bali. I was dreading this 3-5 hr journey as I had heard how crowded it was and can be rough. In fact one of the boats/ ferries capsized only a week or so ago with 40 people killed. As it turned out it wasn’t crowded or rough and was quite a pleasant 4 hr journey.
Padangbai is a great little town set on a small bay with traditional fishing boats, all well maintained and brightly painted. Other than the Ferries coming and going every now and then, it is fairly quiet and the Balinese get on with their daily life- filing up to the temple on the hill to make their daily offerings. My bungalow has a verandah overlooking the beach and with a breakfast of coffee, pancake and fruit-salad at $3.50 a night, it’s great value.

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Photos

Mt Rinjani- 1st day
Liz on the way up to the Rim

Hot Springs
Relaxing those muscles before the final ascent

Lake Anak
looking back from ascent to Mt Rinjani

Sunrise fromMt Rinjani
Mt Rinjani is the shadow looking east to Lombok

Liz on top of Mt Rinjani
Unbelievably cold at sunrise at 3726m

Pedallingpete-sunrise Mt Rinjani
The sarong from Moni was appreciated

The descent
Skiing down the volcanic scree