Gunung Rinjani; our first trek

Waterfall in Senaru
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Gunung Rinjani:  Our first trek was to be up a 3,750 meter high mountain, with an interior crater, freshwater lake, volcano, and hot springs.  We began in Senaru, a small mountain village in northern Lombok.  We took a bemo ride from Bangsol (port town to get to the Gili islands) to Senaru and got debriefed on our next 3 days.  Of course, Jess being afraid of heights, was sure to ask about the "scary" parts of the trek, to which the man said there were some but don't obsess about it.  To anyone who shares her fears, you know that it is not possible.  So we stayed overnight at a small cottage on the mountain side, and took a 30 minute walk to some amazing waterfalls nearby.  There is  pretty big spring in the mountain that exposes itself and falls into a mountain pool, and then drops again into a mountain river.  It produced a cool breeze, cold water splatter, and a great place to get wet!  Then it was off to bed to prepare ourselves for the next few days.

Our Porter
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The next morning we had banana pancakes and hot tea for breakfast (the standard at every breakfast) and waited for someone to come and take us away to the mountain.  We were sure that it was 7am we were to leave, and when 7am came and past, then 7:30 came and went, we were beginning to think we were scammed again.  How could that be, everyone seemed so kind and honest? But we had paid our dues the night before, not gotten a receipt, did not know the name of the man we paid, etc etc. We began to think about everything we did "wrong", and by 8am we were both sure we were stuck in this little village with no way out.  But alas, at 8:10 two men on a scooter arrived - thank goodness!  They brought boots for us to try on (we only brought sandals on our travels).  We had to each take scooter rides down the mountain to a little place to get the right sizes to work (boots were donated from previous tourist trekkers).  Found the right pair, and headed up to meet our guide and porter for the next few days.  Alam was our guide, a 57 year old man (looked much younger!) that had been a porter for 16 years and a guide for 3.  He had been up the mountain hundreds of times.  And our porter (forget his name), was 39 and only wore flip flops the whole time!  The porters are amazing, they carry the tent, sleeping bags, and all of the food, pots, water, etc for the whole journey for me, Eli, the guide, and themselves.  Absolutely amazing to watch them hike up and down the mountain in flip flops over jutting rocks, sliding dirt paths, carrying lots of weight loaded on a bamboo stick!

Alam, our Guide
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The first day we hiked uphill through the jungle (through coffee trees that produce the famous Lombok coffee, which you'd buy for a bundle in the organic section of the store).  This is the coffee we drink everyday here, and it is wonderful!  Uphill for about 6 hours to our campsite for the first night, just below the rim of the mountain.  We had a beautiful view of the sunset over Lombok, and toward Gunung Agung in Bali.  A hot fire produced hot tea, nasi goreng (fried rice), and vegetables, and of course freshly peeled pineapple (with every meal!).  Once the sun set, it became very very cold up so high, and we proceeded to put on all of our cloths and curl up on the little bamboo platform outside for a local tale of the mountain from our guide Alam.  AFter a nights sleep, more banana pancake and hot tea, we began a 30 minute hike up very steep terrain to the first rim of the mountain, where we could look over Lombok in one direction, and into the mountain crater in the other.  The crater is beautiful, with a volcano and lake sunk in the middle of it.  Breathtaking view.  The an 2.5 hours very steep climb down into the crater made Jess face her fear of heights, at one time holding onto a rope to get down the mountain! Lunch at the lake, and a quick dip in the nearby hot springs to treat our sore thighs was just what we needed to get ourselves ready for the next half of the day - climbing up the other side of the crater to the the next rim!  Another 3 hours up very steep rocky mountain side, and we were at our campsite for the next night.  Another stunning sunset over the mountain crater.  It is really something to be exhausted from two days of climbing to see something so beautiful - like you really had to work hard and put everything you had into getting to this lovely place to see this lovely view.  Off to bed, with the knowledge that we'd awake at 2am and make the last push to climb the summit of Gunung Rinjani.  It would be a 3 hour hike up volcanic rock to see the sunrise over Lombok, the Gili Islands, and Sumbawa (island east of Lombok).  We had one headlamp and one dull flashlight to share between Eli, me and our guide through the dark skies.  After about 1.5 hours of exhausting climbing, we decided that we had gone far enough for the time being, and so Alam collected dry shrubbery (scarce on this volcanic mountainside), and built us a fire on the side of the mountain, at 4:30 am.  We sat by the fire for the next 2 hours and watched the skyline turn brilliant colors of red, orange, pink, yellows, until the sun peaked over the ocean and islands to create a splendid view.  Alam told stories while the sun rose, and when it was entirely up we headed back down to camp (much easier, as we mostly slid down the volcanic rock!).  The rest of the day we hiked down the mountain for about 5 hours to get to Sembalun, the endpoint on our journey.  We could see the town in the distance from the top of the mountain, so our goal was always in sight.  Sometimes it seemed like we would never get there, but of course we did.  Our feet could go no more, surely the bottoms of our feet were one big blister by now!

Sunset on day one of trek up Gunung Rinjani
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Our journey ended with a van ride to Sengiggi, where we splurged on a comfortable bed, hot water, and phone calls home via skype.  We had an amazing time, but are ready to be done hiking for a week or so!  In this town we met some adventurous travelers by chance, each alone in their travels, who decided to trek the mountain together the next day.  We helped them get a good price, which made us feel good because we could finally help someone else!  It felt good to be clean and not exhausted (althgouth we didn't sleep at all because of Ramadan they play mosque music through horribly bad speaker systems from 6pm until 2am, and then again from 4:30am until who knows when!).  We actually left our hotel at 11pm to have a drink and just get away from the sound...

Top of Rim One, into mountain crater lake and volcano (morning of 2nd day)
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For the next week we will be in Bali learning about the culture here.  We are now in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, and last night we attended a traditional dance at the Ubud Palace, very amazing.  Tonight we hope to go to a shadow puppet play.  It is so beautiful on Bali, very tropical and lush with colorful banana leave and flower offerings at every doorstep for good luck in business.  For now, sampai jumpa!