LOMBOK-RINJANI - Indonesia |
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Lombok - Rinjani Volcano Trek |
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Air Asia has a flight from Singapore, departing at 9pm to Bali-Denpasar arriving at 11:30pm. From the Airport, it is a drive of 1h30 to Padang Bai Harbour (Taxi should cost less than 200 000IDR). At Padang Bai, there are Ferry running 24/24h, 7/7d. Cost is very minimal and the crossing takes 4 hours with a good weather. The Ferry is large and relatively confortable with drinks & food to purchase onboard. The Ferry's destination is the Harbour of Lembar. Lembar has nothing to do with Padang Bai, which is a nice town with restaurants and home stays. The main harbour on Lombok has next to nothing but harassers. Transport from Lembar to Seneru (start of the Rinjani Trek) takes 3 hours through a beautiful road next to the sea. Concerning our trip, we left Bali-Denpasar Airport at 11:30 PM on a friday night, reached Padang Bai at 1:30am, reached Lembar at 5:30am, and arrived at Seneru to start the trek at 9am on saturday morning! All in all, a relatively confortable trip allowing a few hours sleep.
The Rinjani trek is a beautidul trek, but don't be fooled, it is a difficult trek. Most people do it in 3 days, with 2 nights under the tent.
Rinjani Day 1:
The first day's hike to the crater Rim is a hike through humid and damp jungle during 7-8 hours. There are regular stops along the way (POS) and the porters (who carry tents, sleeping bags and food) prepare lunch at POS II. Altough the hike itself is not perticulariliy hard, it is an entire day of hike from 600m elevation to 2600m! As you walk your way up, vegetation changes quite a bit, and at a certain point, mist / clouds get on the way. The last portion is the hardest because the steepest and most slippery. Once at the rim, the porters prepare tents & food so all there is left to do is basically enjoy the view of Lombok, Gili islands and gunung Agung on Bali. To see Rinjani's caldera, more efforts are necessary to reach the Rim of the volcano. When we reached (end of April) it was very cloudy and we couldn't see much for the sunset. Depending on the season and meteorological conditions, it can get really cold upthere. It is highly recommended to come with MANY layers of clothing, to be able to change clothes when wet and add on layers against the cold. In April, it was not cold up there. In August, it was freezing with a very strong wind...
Rinjani Day 2:
Waking up at 7am at the call of the guide to enjoy warm tea & legendary pineapple pancakes, we first made our way up to the crater Rim to see Rinjani's crater and Lake. This time, the trip wouldn't stop there (I have put pictures of the Rinjani 2 Days trip where the trip stops at the rim, when its time to go back down by the same path. Pictures available in the Bali-Lombok Destination). After a few minutes enjoying the view, we started going down to the Lake. The way down is truly very enjoyable. The view is amazing as we can enjoy the seen of the volcano & lake at all time. Some parts are a little bit tricky but all in all, it is an easy way down (2 hours). Once at the lake, the swim is chilly but very much welcome to wash away the 1day and a half sweat off! We stopped there for a while to enjoy lunch before starting a new trek all the way back up to the rim on the opposite side of the caldera. Doing this portion in the afternoon when the clouds come in makes it a difficult and terribly wet climb. I'll give a very personal recomendation to wear only shorts and t-shirt, as altough the cold and dampness of the climb is harly enjoyable, having dry clothes to change into once at the top would have been a bliss! As would have been flip flops as well, to be able to remove the drenched shoes. The view from Plawangan 2 is very different as the volcano is not as clear. The sunset however is really beautiful because it sets behind the volcano, allowing amazing views on the opposite mounts! Here again, it was a hardly cold night, no wind, clear sky with a clear visibility of the stars.
Rinjani Day 3:
Wake-Up call: 2:30am. Surprisingly, the waking up was not too difficult! Partly because of the excitement of the hike to come, and mostly because we were all asleep a couple of minutes after the sunset. Now, THIS part of the trek, from Plawangan 2 Crater Rim (see map) to the summit 1000m higher up, is a very tiring hike. Done under complete darkness with headlights, there were many parts where crawling our way up was necessary. Almost always a steep climb, the hike is made difficult by the unsteady footholds due to the ash/sand soils. Every stride up was sanctioned by half a stride slide back down. We made it in 2:30 to the top but there is no question as to the difficulty of this climb, one of the hardest in south east asia. Unfortunatly, some hikers did not make it up to the top. The advancement is slow, made mainly of a couple of energetic strides up, followed by a break.Reaching the top gave one of those rare sensation of satisfaction, made even stronger by the cold and the wind! At first light, the full scenery is revealed. It is possible to see all adjacent islands, the full extent of Rinjani volcano, the vast planes of Lombok Island, the beautiful coast, the steep slopes and the majestic volcano in the center of the Lake, a mere 2000m lower! The summit is actually quite small and the slopes bordering it are rather frightning! All these hours of trek up and down, under the sun or in the middle of the clouds, in dense jungle or down rocky slopes is completly worth the while. The view up the summit, crowned by the sensation of achievement is truly rewarding!
This pictures gives a good feel of the gradient to climb! The surface is very brittle ash, and you don't get to appreciate the gradient while climbin in the dark at night. However, the feeling you get in the early morning when it is time to come down, is the feeling of skiing on dark snow!
