Mt Rinjani July 2017

Warning: long post with loads of (big) pictures

From 6th of July until yesterday ( 9th of July 2017 ), me and two friends were trekking at Mt Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia.

The initial plan was to go to Vietnam but couldn’t make it. So, we chose to go to Mt.Rinja instead.

From Wikipedia:

Mount Rinjani or Gunung Rinjani is an active volcano in Indonesia on the island of Lombok.

We booked the trekking tour with John’s Adventure. They are responsive and informative about all the questions we had. They have different plans and can adjust the plan according to your needs. We chose to do 4 days 3 nights ( Summit + Lake + Hot Spring + Rim 2 + Senaru Village ) . It was USD 250 per person. You can either pay in USD or Indonesian Rupiah ( you’ll need to check with them how much you are supposed to pay if you are paying in Rupiah because the currency rate might be slightly different from time to time ).

The rate includes the following -

• Transfer In Out (Follow The Itinerary On Day 0)
• A Night at Senaru Villa
• Mountain Guide (15 to 20 Experienced)
• Local Porters (20 to 25 Years Experienced)
• Camping Equipment
• 3 X Meals a Day
• Fruits (Pineapple, Banana, Apple, Orange)
• Cakes (Biscuit)
• Mineral Water
• Cooking Gears
• Trek Insurance
• Trek Certificates

There are no direct flights between Lombok and Singapore. We took the flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, then to Lombok on 5th of July. We arrived at Lombok by night. Immigration was smooth and fast. There was already someone from the tour waiting for us. He informed us it is three hours drive from the Airport to the Senaru Villa. We arrive at the villa by night. We paid for the tour, went to the room, clean up and called it a day.

Day 1 #

Next morning, we woke up to this sunrise.

We went down for breakfast and met our (awesome) guide. He explained about the route and the plan. The lodge also has equipment like gloves, walking sticks, jackets and other accessories you can borrow cheaply. We were not sure whether we could bring the trekking pole to the flight so we decided to rent them instead. The weather at the lodge was normal.
More pictures!

You can see the summit from the lodge.

Banana pancake and tea breakfast.

This is the route.

We pick our bags and take one hour ride to the Sembalun Lawang, register ourselves in Rinjani Information Center (RIC). It is already at 1,156 m in Sembalun.

We start walking towards POS (position) 1 and eventually to POS 2. The route was not that difficult. The weather was hot though.

Off we go
The mountain is calling …
Our guide, Jovim and Andy.

Porters.

I was already sweating a lot, had to drink up and stop sometimes. As early as this point, I realized this is going to be difficult for me :P

We reach at POS 2 by noon and stopped for lunch.

Pos 2 : there were a lot of other people doing the same trek as well. I also realized there are some people coming down as we go up.
The weather was nice.

After lunch, we walked from POS 2 to POS 3 and eventually to Sembalun crater rim (2,639 m), the place where we are going to spend the night before going up to the summit the next time. The route from POS 2 to POS 3 was not difficult but the ending towards Crater Rim was a bit difficult. And as I expected, I struggled, needed to stop sometimes to take a break.

View of summit from Crater Rim.

Crater Rim - Yeah. That was the phone signal tower on the top of the mountain!

Tents

We washed up a bit with wet tissues, change clothes and wait for dinner. The wind was cold up there. Meanwhile, our porters prepared and cooked dinner.

Our potter cooking food for all of us.

Clouds are beautiful!

Segara Anak Lake.

We were supposed to wake up next day at 2 AM to go up to the summit. It’s necessary to wake up that early to catch the sunrise. Again, more photos =D

The clouds are even beneath us!

The sun is going down.

Day 2 #

We woke up around 1:30 AM, had breakfast and start preparing to go up. We saw that a lot of people were preparing and some are already starting. and can see the flashlights moving.

We did not need to bring up the backpacks to go up but three of us brought two backpacks with water bottles inside. The moon was really big. The wind and the weather were very cold as well. I am afraid of cold so I put on layers of clothes. There are three parts (part one, two and three) to the summit from where we were. Part one was difficult and my friend helped me took the backpack from me (Thanks, Andy!). Part two was not so difficult.

While we’re resting during part 2.

From the end of part two, we could actually see the summit around the corner . We thought “Hey it’s around the corner” prematurely, lol.

Part 3 of going up the summit was the hardest of all.

But .. we made it to the summit after 5 hours! And of course, all smiles. :D

We didn’t stay long at the summit as we have to go down and continue later.
I would say the going down was also a bit difficult for me. I had absolutely zero energy so I was slow going down as well.

We saw a lot of monkeys <3

When we reach back to where we slept over, we rest for a while, had lunch (or brunch?) and prepare to go down to the lake.

Going down to the lake, the route was steep and had to carefully go down in a controlled manner.

The trekking poles came in handy when going down.

Before we reach the lake, there was going up involved a little bit. Otherwise, it was not very difficult.

the surroundingis foggy.

As usual, the dinner was delicious.

We also did manage to go to the Hot Spring, which is about 5 minutes walk from the lake. It was refreshing after a long day of going up and down. The weather was chilling and Like the day before, we went to bed early.

Day 3 #

The early morning view was spectacular.

We are to leave the lake and climb for two and half hours up to Plawangan 1 senaru Crater Rim (2,461 m). We had breakfast around 7:30 AM and leave about 8 from the lake. The route was beautiful.

View walking beside the lake before going up.

And.. going up was okay. Not so difficult and steep but not that easy as well.

View while going up.

We decided to go down until POS 1 so we took a break at Senaru Crater Rim.

Flowers <3

Jovim sitting on the edge. Thanks buddy for swapping the backpack.

We had lunch at POS 2. And continued to POS 1. Can you believe we had delicious spaghetti for lunch! (forgot to take photo as we were too hungry lol). When we left POS 2, it was drizzling. We felt going down was pretty fast (duh).

Finally, we reached POS 1 and settled down. Our knees and legs were really tired. As usual, we had delicious dinner and went to bed early.

Day 4 #

Day 4 was actually pretty short because we had to catch a flight in the evening. It was about only one hour going down. The route is almost flat.

We reached the end of the trail and there was already a car waiting for us to bring back to the lodge. When we reached the lodge, we washed up, sort out all of clothes, items and said good bye to our awesome guide and porters.

Same as we came, we took three hours ride back to Lombok.

Afterthoughts #

I did a 2D1N hike in Kalaw, Myanmar before. But this is a totally different route. It was challenging, difficult, exhausting, rewarding and fun! I definitely was not up to the fitness level. With the help of my friends and their encouragements, I’ve made it somehow. It was overall an awesome experience that I can learn a lot and prepare better for the next one, maybe.

If you are thinking about doing it yourself, this is the list the guide provided us.

• Torch or Flashlight.
• 1 pair Champ Trekking Shoes/Boots
• Toiletries.
• Personal Medications
• Sun Block/Lotion
• Hat/Cap,
• Sun Glasses.
• Spray For Muscle/Balm
• Tiger Balm
• Insect Repellent.
• Camera
• Towel
• 2 pcs. of T-Shirts
• 2 pcs. of Shorts.
• Long Trek Pants/Wind Proof.
• Rain Coat
• Wind Proof Jacket.
• Warmest Jacket
• Trek Stick/Leaky (optional).
• Sandals (optional).
• Swim Wear (optional)
• Binocular (optional).
• Extra Trail Snack (optional)
• Garbage Plastic Can (optional).

We decided not to buy any SIM card at the airport. So, throughout the trek, we were totally disconnected. And it was great! We went to bed early (we were really tired at the end of the day as well) and read books ( we had one paperback book and one Kindle with us).

The feelings of reaching to the summit was really thrilling and unbelievable. If you have asked me if I am going to the 3,726 m mountain few years back, I will definitely say no way. Starting from picking up rock climbing and doing this made me really happy as I slowly trying to push back my fears and make progress. NO REGRETS.

Thanks to my friends and everyone from the tour!

PS. The photos are taken with Fujifilm X100T by all three of us (hence, the watermark, JAY). I also edited here and there with Lightroom.