Mount Rinjani Adventure, Lombok, Indonesia

Today my Mt Rinjani adventure begins.

Leaving my love and Gili Air behind I head for the hassle of Bangsal. I arrive early and no driver to be seen. After being asked if I want transport, motorbike, horse, or taxi until I get annoyed my driver arrives, but without a car. So we load up on a motorbike to the main road to wait for his cousin to arrive with the car. Loading up included my very large bag that went between Harvy's (the driver) legs and me on the back holding onto my bag and hat. Certainly gets the pulse going when Harvy is chatting on his mobile and weaving in between the horses and carts against the oncoming traffic.

Car arrived after some time and we headed off towards the mountain village of Senaru. There were some interesting sights along the way. A young man was in the lotus position meditating on top of a moving lorry while the heavens were opening. It has not stopped raining around Mount Rinjani for almost 10 days and the sunshine of the Gili Islands seems far away. Some young children were making the most of the rain by waiting, naked for a car to go past and soak them from the flooded roads. Their faces were that of total excitement and dread.

I arrived at my home stay in Senaru but was not what I was expecting nor is it the place I was told. Apparently the original place was fully booked. The rain has been relentless with thunder that vibrates your very soul. I was informed that 7 groups came down from the mountain today short of the summit as the weather was too severe. It’s been made clear to me that if I feel it is too dangerous then I should tell the guide to turn back as it’s only me climbing tomorrow. I’m happy I’m not going with a group I want to experience the mountain on my own and challenge myself without worrying if the rest of the group is ok. Hope there will be a break in the weather tomorrow morning.

Thunder and lightning came crashing down all night. It’s 6 am and the rain still driving hard, the noise is defining as it thrashes the roof. Driver arrives and he takes me to the starting point at the East side of Rinjani, a village called Sembalun Lawang. The drive was wonderful with the exception of the rain. We were driving through the lush fertile lower foothills of Ringani which yielded crops such as Banana, Mango, Coffee, Tobacco, Cotton, and a plentiful supply of Cashew. All the locals that the driver stopped to talk to thought I was crazy to climb Ringani in the current conditions. It had been raining for 10 nights and 10 days. I later learnt that only 2 days ago part of the mountain came down in a massive landslide caused by the relentless rain.
We arrived at the Rinjani Information Centre in Sembalun Lawang to check-in, compulsory before starting out, only to find that it was closed for the next 2 months yes due to the weather. This just meant some delays while the log book was found. Here I met my guide a young local that did not speak much English called Boxym or Ym (Im) as he was fondly called. Ym was also part of the mountain rescue, more on this later. We also met the two porters nearby who spoke no English wore only shorts, sarong, and flip-flops, and I hasten to add carried stupidly heavy loads. Still raining the five of us headed up the track, we picked up a chicken along the way.

Remarkably the rain stopped just as we had left the village behind us and was walking through the farmland. Praise the lord! We were still walking through thick cloud and I could only see about 50 meters or so that meant no view of the mountain. I was leading our party along the well trodden track, so much so that in some places it was like walking in a trench. It was a quiet walk out of the farmland and into the forest saves for our new friend that was not too pleased that she had just been stuffed into a sack and slung over the shoulder of Ym. Apparently the porters were not too keen to carry any more weight, this being said they were happy packing the tomato ketchup. The forest was lively with birds and black monkeys but ended quickly into the grassland which was the rolling foothills of Rinjani. Being grasslands with long wet grass from all the rain I was happy that I packed my gaiters, I would have been even happier if I put them on before my feet were sodden. The walk through the foothills was fast and fresh, I had been training for the last few weeks for this climb and I was feeling the benefit. In fact I left the porters well behind by the time I reached the crater rim some 8hr later.

We stopped for our first break at Pos 1 Pemantauan (1,300m) after a couple of hours, where the first whispers of mutiny were heard. Apparently the guide and porters were not too happy going in such conditions and were gently letting me know that we were all going to be coming back down in the morning and one porter simply said that he would not stay any longer, and he didn't. Ym said that we would try the summit but would defiantly not be able to get down the crater rim to the lake and hot springs as it was far too dangerous when wet, he had a worried look in his eye so I did not press him anymore. The next stop followed quicker than I expected at the start of 'disappointment hill'. We had a very hearty lunch of noodle soup with potatoes and rice, lots of carbs, and fresh vegetables. The hill was named as such because, as Ym put it, "it’s disappointing to come down and disappointing to keep going". It’s a relentlessly steep climb that I thought was never going to end, this was not helped by the cloud obscuring my view of the Summit. It took the best part of 4hrs to get to the top. The weather was still holding out and occasionally the clouds would break and allow me to see some of my enchanting surroundings. Before reaching the top we walked through a sparse forest of slow growing pine-like Casuarinas.

The view at the top of the Sembalun Crater rim (2,639m) was, if not already stolen by the climb, enough to take your breath away. Even though the clouds were still teasing me and only gave me a glimpse. The porters arrived about 15 minutes later apparently they stopped to chop some wood and have a snooze. So much for me thinking I was walking fast. We setup camp on the crater rim and dinner was prepared. That reduced the party to 4 the chick had to go, far too much moaning. She was quite tough though, but tasted better the next day.

The sun had long since disappeared by the time dinner had been served. It was windy and very cold I had quickly changed into all my mountain gear and was still a little chilly. Ym and the porters were however, huddled around the cooking fire and all shivering, still clad in shorts, sandals and sarong. This made me a little worried, apparently death on Rinjani is very common and nearly always due to exposure. To make things worse the 'boss' had forgotten to pack the sleeping bags, save mine, so the three of them had to huddle together through the night. He had also forgotten to pack the emergency satellite phone that would be used to call for help if needed. To my amusement it also turned out that we were the only ones on the mountain, this did turn out to be a blessing in the end. It got down to about 2c but with the wind chill factor it felt more like -8c. Ym woke me at 2am to see what I thought of attempting the summit. I did not get any sleep due to the cold and wind, but was keen to get to the summit and reach my goal. As I got out of the tent the true conditions were apparent, it was blowing a gale and the tent that my companions were in had collapsed and was offering no protection so they stayed huddled by the embers of the fire. Ym was wearing his donated walking shoes but had no socks, after the walk the previous day his shoes were sodden. He
was saying that the wind was far too strong and it would be too cold on the summit (3,726m). There was real concern in his eyes and I truly believed that he feared for his life. He seemed to be in the early stages of hypothermia and could not stop his violent shivers as he was telling me that the wind was too strong to attempt the summit. It gets as low as 0c on the summit excluding the wind factor. I swallowed my pride and eased his concerns by telling him that it’s ok and that we didn’t have to go to the summit. After all climbing should be about 'self sacrifice' and 'the good of the team', well so said the Adventures’ Handbook that I had been reading. It also made me inwardly angry as if the 'team' was better equipped we could have at least made an attempted.

He was much relieved and shivered with a mug of tea in his hand. We went back to bed and were up again for sun rise. The weather had turned for our favour with the winds easing and the clouds starting to clear.

When I said that the view of the Crater Lake was breathtaking I did not give it justices. It was ore inspiring, it made me marvel at Gods creations and weep.

After several cups of kopi and two banana pancakes it was all agreed that the weather was good enough to climb down into the crater and see, close to hand, what had captured my emotion. We started the decent after saying our farewells to porter number 2, true to his word the change of weather had not changed his mind and he was off back down to Sembalun Lawang.

As soon as we started the 700 meter or so decent I realised what all the fuss was about. We climbed down for 3 hours nonstop and my legs were screaming in revolt and burning like fire. The decent was averaging at a 45 degree angle and every step was onto slippery rocks with nothing to hold onto or stopping you from falling into the oblivion. If it was a track at all it was a mountain goat track. It took a huge amount of effort in concentrating 100% into every step because one false move would mean certain death, with your legs like jelly and not responding correctly this is no easy task. In fact Ym later told me that only 2 months ago a 22 year old Aussie girl travelling with her boyfriend became dizzy and slipped. Ym was one of the 4 who recovered her body, a painfully slow 2/3 day process.

I made it to the bottom. The views all the way down were spectacular, I made sure I would only look when I stopped, but to see the lake and volcano steaming next to it was overwhelming. I stripped off, the reason why I was happy no other soul was on the mountain save my team of now three who were busy fishing, and plunged into the aqua marine, frigid waters of the lake and laughed out loud with youthful joy.

The fishing that Ym was partaking in was not that most anglers would agree upon but the team did little that environmentalists would agree with. Ym was making the most of the recent, two months ago, volcanic activity that had made the carp very docile. The amount of fish in the lake was such that you could imagine any 6km lake, 2000m high, and hardly ever fished would be like, teaming. So Ym was fishing with his Parang. In the matter of minutes he had 4 large carp strung together with some grass and was heading back to the shelter to cook on the fire, made with part of the shelter that the porter smashed up. When I finished my swim that was blissfully relieving my aching legs, the porter took me to the hot springs while Ym was preparing lunch. From the frigid lake into the steaming springs felt like I was in Gods spa. A dozen or so unlucky carp has swam into the jet stream of one of the hot springs and poached. Gray monkeys seemed to rule the springs and were seen all around.

If I could build a house any place on earth and live for eternity it would be here.

After fish for lunch, as well as the normal noodles and rice, we headed up the other side of the crater. Ym warned me that it would be hard but after the decent we had just made surely it couldn't get any harder. I remember climbing a 20 meter cliff section on a 200 meter peak in the Blue Mountains and thinking I had achieved something. This was like that 20 meter section but went on for 700 meters. It took 4 gruelling hours to get to the top and then we were only 3 hours away from camp. Again views were unbelievable but I wished I was having a week on the mountain rather than a few days to let my legs recover a little. When at the top my legs were not functioning correctly and I had sprained my ankle which I strapped with tape, very smart. We started to descend again to our camp at the start of the forest that we could see in the distance. This did nothing for my moral. The terrain was of loose volcanic sandy stone that was very slippery with the occasional clump of grass, rock, and chasms. Putting one foot in front of the other going downhill should not be hard at all, but like I said my legs were not functioning.

My subconscious started to try and protected my battered and cramped legs by every now and then, more often than I liked, locking my knee or hip this would result in me going ass over tit much to the concern of Ym. Hence this was when he was telling me of all the deaths on Rinjani. Apparently most of the deaths are from Indonesians and Malaysians that go for the shorter 2 day trek to the lake and die of exposure due to inadequate clothing. Last time a party of 7 all died save the guide and porter. I suppose it has to be like that, something that is this beautiful has to be respected else it kills you.

The forest eventually appeared and I collapse when we got to camp, actually I collapsed a couple of times on the approach but I got there in the end. There were a German couple and an Aussie couple at the ‘Pos’ we were to camp on that were on their way to the lake, the German guy was carrying a full 70 -80 litre pack. I wished him luck but I think he will be paying the porter or throwing it away before he gets out alive.
We setup camp. I tended to my ankle by taking off the strapping tape. I now have a greater appreciation to the pain tolerance of women. Put it this way, my lower leg is very smooth now. My legs started to cramp up even though I had been stretching and was getting concerned as the next day was the longest trek of all through the rain forest, 7hrs. Ym said we would have a big fire as there is lots of wood in the forest. Let me remind you Rinjani is in a National Park and is protected therefore collection of wood is forbidden. I was wondering why the porter was lugging a big axe. So Ym chops down a tree, no shit a whole tree, and we have one hell of a big fire.

Ym and the porter were up well before sunrise. It started to rain around 2am and they wanted to protect our monster of a fire. I stayed in bed, not that I wanted to lie-in but my legs would not work. I was having breakfast at 6am and much to the annoyance of the team was still sorting out my shit by 6.30. I knew today would be hard, every other day was so why should today be any different, it wasn't technically difficult like the previous day but it took a lot of endurance. My ankle was still giving me a little pain and with my legs all cramped up I was going to struggle. We headed off into the forest. Not before too long I was starting to wonder how I was going to get off this mountain. The terrain was, as you expect in the rainforest, muddy and steep with lots of lianas and exposed roots trying to trip you. Ym cut down a sapling and trimmed it off into a staff to help with my foot. Without this I don't think I would have made it. It was such a lush rainforest full of gray monkeys and beautiful butterflies that seemed to follow me along the trail. But all my effort and concentration was on getting out. It’s was very frustrating as this is type of forest I love the most and wanted to explore and take note of the different plants and creatures that were heard everywhere but not seen. I kept plodding along and only stopped if I fell and at the ‘Pos’ along the way, there were three in the rainforest, after what seemed an eternity we reached the entrance to Rinjani National Park on the Senaru side. We stopped here for lunch as it was another hour walk through the farms yielding Coffee, Cotton, and Banana. I was feeling utterly drained both mentally and physically. Sitting down on a bamboo platform a young and health little ginger cat jumped onto my lap and purred away as I caressed it, each time I stopped she cried until I resumed the stroking, it was as if she knew all I was capable of and needed was a little love.

Much to the annoyance of the little cat we left and headed through the coffee trees and there my Rinjani adventure ended.