Roving Gnome Travel Blog: Top of the World! Trekking Mount Rinjani

I just returned... sore, dirty, tired...but triumphantly, from a three day, two night trek on Mount Rinjani, on the island of Lombok, Indonesia. There were 5 of us from Blue Marlin Dive that did the treck together; Tommy, Johanna, Bas, Jacquie and I.

Mount Rinjani (Gunung Rinjani) is the second highest volcano in Indonesia with the summit at 3,726 metres (12,224 ft). At 2000 m (6,600 feet) there is a crater lake called Segara Anak (Child of the Sea) which sits inside the caldera of the volcano, about 600m below the caldera rim. The caldera is massive (6km x 8.5km). A post-caldera cone called Gunung Barujari rises up from the crater lake. This volcanic cone was active as recently as May 2010 and while hiking we could see white smoke rising from the cone.

Summit of Rinjani at the left, Gunung Barujari cone in the center, and Segara Anak Lake. This was the view from our camping site the first night of the treck.

We began the treck at Senaru, hiked 2000m elevation gain the first day to camp on the crater rim overlooking the lake and the crater lake and the ocean to the west. On day 2 we hiked down 600m to take a swim in the Lake and then in some amazing hot springs below a waterfall which were a soothing 40 degrees C. After lunch and a short nap we hiked back up 600m to the crater rim nearer the summit where we camped overnight. We were woken at 2:30 am, in the pitch black to climb the remaining 1000m (3 hrs) up to the summit to watch the sunrise. After sunrise, we hiked back down to camp (2 hrs) had breakfast, then hiked 5 hours down to the village of Sembalun where we were picked up and taken back to Gili Trawangan. The overall distance was only around 25km but with the elevation gains this was the hardest hike I've ever done!

The trip started off with a flat tire and tire change (left to right; Thomas, Tommy, Johanna, Jacquie, Bas)

On the road to Rinjani

Need any last minute trecking supplies? "Store" on the trail

Tammy (a fellow Calgarian) and Jacob were also trecking with us. Entrance to the park.

Beautiful shady jungle walk at first

Lunch stop. Note the porter is carrying supplies (up to 40kg) on two ends of a bamboo pole over one shoulder. Nearly all rhe porters wear flip flops or go barefoot and get paid $10/day. Two of our porters hiked 5 hours down with our group, then got new supplies and hiked back up with a different group immediately!

SWEATY!

Hiking up into the clouds

Savannah

First view of camp on the crater rim

Our camp...it was cold up there... Close to 0C

View to the west of Gunung Alung on Bali (big volcano on the horizon), the three Gili islands in the mid right of the photo (Gili Air closest to the coast of Lombok, then Gili Meno, then Gili Trawangan). You can also see the shadow that Mount Rinjani casts.