Sunday 8 September 2013

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.
Treacherous!
Down at the lake with our guide, Hahn.
Hot springs
Tommy enjoying lunch by the lake
Enterprising guy selling beer for $10 on the crater rim
Jacquie, Bas, and Tommy having dinner on night 2.  A really nice chicken curry soup.
Sweaty again dip uring the ore-dawn hike to the Summit, Tammy is in the dark behind me.

Sunrise from near the summit... I didn't quite beat the sun
Summit!!!  It was cold and windy up there!
Tiny hikers working their way to the summit
On the way back, we could see the trail we hiked in the dark...eep!

View of camp from summit trail
View back to the summit from camp (left to right; Johanna, Tommy, Bas, Jacquie, Thomas, me, Tammy, Jacob, Hahn in front)

Filthy trecker Tommy
Hahn
Home stretch
Victory coke... Look how dirty I am!
The ride home






























2 comments:

  1. WOW!
    Very impressive.
    Congrats, that is a pretty amazing trek!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow! the pictures are amazing. thanks for visit our Mount Rinjani

    Regards
    HaLoMi Trekker

    ReplyDelete