Mount Rinjani, Lombok

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Week 8 – Lombok – Mt. Rinjani
Day 53, December 4th, surfed Seger in morning. We packed up and headed to Tetebatu. We arrived at Sunset. We looked at nearly every hotel in town before selecting the Green Orry since it had hot water, very clean and very nice people. We asked around and were able to secure a last minute tour to trek Mt. Rinjani, the highest Volcano in Indonesia. That night we had yummy Gado-Gado and cold Bintang.

Day 54, December 5th, woke up at 4am to the call for prayer from the nearby Mosque. It was very loud. Had to wake for 6am departure for Mt. Rinjani. Green Orry made us an early breakfast of banana pancakes. We were picked up in a van and driven down a bumpy road to a small village at the base of Rinjani. We were greeted and stared at by what had to be all the inhabitants of the village. We were sitting in the van and people kept looking in to see us. Then we jumped We stopped for about 20 minutes to organize trekking team and have the men of the village say a prayer for our safe travels. Crew was 4 young guys late teens – early 20s plus a wise looking man in his 50s. They were all in t-shirts, shorts and rubber flip flops. Our head guide and coordinator was Jaya, a mid 20s simley small man. Hiked for 6 hours – stopped for lunch. Under a Bali. Poared Rain for an hour. Cleared and we hiked 2 and ½ hours until we arrived at the lower rim. We arrived at the bali just before it started poaring again. Our porters weren’t so lucky. They arrived completely soaked. We opened our backpack and started handing out John’s dry clothes. The rain and fog made it a very cold night. The sleeping bags got wet. The porters collected mushrooms and forest vegetables along the way that they made into a lovely rice dinner with an omelet on the side. We were very cold and wet. The weather cleared in time to enjoy the end of sunset. We had planned to trek for 3 days total but due to the bad weather decided to fit it into two days with a longer trek tomorrow to reach the top and just head all the way down the mountain. Our sleep in the tent was very cold and many rocks.

Day 55, December 6th, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and hot ginger tea. The weather was cold but clear. We started our trek up to the upper rim of Mt. Rinjani. It took us about 2 ½ hours to reach the top. We had an amazing view of Gunung Baru (the new volcano which last erupted in 1994). The volcano is still active and smoking. The peak is surrounded by a beautiful green and gold lake. On one side the water is cold, in the middle it is warm and on the other side it is hot springs. We enjoyed the view before the fog rolled in. Then we headed back down to our base camp to collect the rest of the crew which took about 1 and 1/2 hours. Just as we were leaving it started to rain again. The trail was already very lichen (slippery) so the rain didn’t help matters. Also there were many linta (leeches) that kept attached to our shoes. We had to go slowly so the decent ended up taking about 5-6 hours. When we finally arrived back at the village all the people were in the streets to greet us and we had coffee and cookies. We arrived back at the Green Orry for a wonderful hot shower. Our guide came to visit us at dinner with some friends and we talked with them. They have an environmental trade organization they had started so it was interesting to talk with them. We had a great night’s sleep.

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