7/20/1014-7/23/2014

At 5am on Sunday we left for Lombok, Indonesia. We flew Silk air and got entrance to the Virgin Gold lounge which was pretty cool. The flight was very nice. We had nice blankets and pillows and some of the best airplane food that I have ever tasted. I got vanilla pancakes with peaches. We landed in Lombok and had to haggle to get a taxi. I'm very happy Damien was there because I probably would have made a mess of it. We had a 2.5 hour drive up to Senaru, a village at the base of Mt. Rinjani where we were staying. The car was hot, the roads were windy, the driving was questionable so I spent an hour with my head in an aloha bag, then I threw up, then I spent the rest of the ride trying to keep my stomach calm. I hear that we passed some very beautiful places but I missed many of them. When we finally got to the hotel, the driver changed the price and charged us an extra $10. We had lunch at the hotel that I picked at for a while. Then we went to find someone to take us up the mountain. I was confident that we could do it solo but Damien decided to be more reasonable, so we found a guide and porters. We chose green Rinjani, they are a little bit pricy but a great value. After we had organised the hike we had a few hours before dinner so we went to find the waterfalls. We were stopped on the path by someone charging entrance fees so we turned around and found a path around him. The waterfall was beautiful and very refreshing it splashed at least 15 feet into the air. We had dinner with the trekking company and discussed the details of the hike. The noodles they gave us were delicious, little did we know that we would be seeing many more of them.
Mt. Rinjani Day 1: We woke up around 6:30 to pack and eat breakfast before pus bus left at 7am that went to Sembalum a village on the east side of Rinjani(a volcano). We walked for a few hours, then stopped to plant a tree.
We walked a bit further and stopped for lunch. Then I sped ahead and left the guide trailing behind as we reached our camping spot for the night at around 3pm, way before the porters were ready for us. Dinner was absolutely delicious and the views were amazing.

Mt. Rinjani Day 2: We work up at 3am to make the summit by sunrise. It was quite steep and on fine  volcanic ash which slipped under your feet.  Damien found the climb very hard, I found it much easier but when I tried to push myself I got a bit light headed so I kept an even pace.

Once we were at the top he did much better than me. He got all the pictures while I huddled under a space blanket.


The sunrise was amazing and we stayed for a bit before sliding down the hill. You couldn't quite bum slide but it was nice to slide down. Hiking poles made it feel just like skiing. Back at camp we had second breakfast before continuing to crater lake. The trek down was steep and rocky. We made it to the lake and had a relaxing swim in the water which was around 10degrees C.

 When we got out of the water the weather turned cold and I was back under the space blanket as we ate lunch. After lunch we went to the sulphur springs they were a perfect 38 degrees C. We happily stayed for an hour and a half before climbing back up to the top of the crater rim where we camped for the night.
 The day was only 11.5km of hiking but it was definitely tough. At camp we had  dinner, watched the sunset and were asleep by 8pm.
Mt. Rinjani Day 3: They told us that we needed to be on the road by 7am. We were ready by 7:30. luckily we go fast and don't require much rest. I was zipping down the mountain enjoying myself jumping over rocks and zooming around corners. At one point I let the others get a bit ahead of me while I took off an extra layer, knowing that I would catch up quickly. As I was sprinting to catch up I tripped on a root and hurt my shoulder. I thought about calling out for help but I realised that it wasn't too serious and that I was also the best qualified to manage it so I took a minute to collect myself and continued on my way. I whined about my shoulder the rest of the trip but realistically it is healing well and I should be back to normal by next week.


We had a one stop for biscuits and 1 stop for lunch but were back in Senaru by 12pm.

We collect all of our belongings and headed in a SUV out to the harbour where we took a ferry to Gili Trawangon.