Gunung Rinjani

Remember my posting about my ultimate 10 trans Indonesia in which Mount Rinjani was on number one? Now I can proudly say that I'VE CONQUERED THAT THING! It was truly one of my best travelling experience and now i'm gonna tell you my story :-)

We left Malang straight for Mataram, Lombok, by bus. It was a 23hours ride, with couple of roadbumps and mogok for couple of hours somewhere in Bali. Indeed it was very tiring so once we arrived in Lombok we decided to take a rest for one night in Senggigi before hiking Mount Rinjani. Oh and I think it was the night when Germany defeated England by 4-1 in WorldCup 2010. Muaha! The weird thing about our hotel was that they have this huge transparant glass window from the bedroom to the bathroom... Hmm.

We were picked up in the morning by our guide and went straight to the Sembalun, a small village on the base of Mount Rinjani, it was there where we started our trek. Actually there are two options if you wanna trek Rinjani, you can either start in Sembalun or Senaru, both have their own advantage and disadvantages. Trekking from Sembalun, the sun was REALLY burning us, and we trekked ups and downs through these hills which looked like those hills in Telletubies. I didnt count but Mas Amed told me there were at least 7 hills to go to get up to the crater. Since my mom kept on stopping like in every 5 steps, the guide told me and Aby to go first and follow the porters. The trek wasnt hard cause we didnt cross this huge jungle or anything, basically if you start from Sembalun all you're gonna go through will be this vast open prairies and the sun burning on top of you, you will go inside a forest but only for a couple of minutes and then you'll get out again into what people call i t as "BUKIT PENYESALAN" (Hill of Regret?). The trek wasnt THAT ascending, sometimes you go up but then you go down, and then up and up and up, and down.... and up again times seven hahaha.  If it wasnt because of Aby who kept on PUSHING me to go up I could've given up and decided to open the tent wherever I was stopping, but everytime I looked back, the field where I started the trek had become such small dot and it motivated me that I could go this far from that point.

But along the way, I saw these sceneries I woudnt have seen anywhere else, on top of that mountain, it was so peaceful, so tranquil, you can just sit back and relax as you see the horizon in front of you. There was nobody else except the trees, the birds, the sound of wind breezing, while the cloud was coming down at you. And yes I did touch the cloud!!! So happy at that time i could actually touch the cloud.

After hiking up and down for aroudn 9 hours, fell for couple of times, tired as dead, finally, I saw this magnificent view, the crater of Mount Rinjani. I instantly shed tears!!! Really, the feeling when you got to that point was just unexplainable. It was too beautiful to describe, and yet I felt so content after all the efforts I've made to get there. From where I was standing at that time, I could see the Segara Anakan lake and the new Mount Barujari. Gosh.... the view was out of this world, the best one I've ever seen in my whole entire life.

foto terakhir kece beradh sob

After sheding couple of tears and taking a rest for some minutes, we continue to trek to our campsite called Pelawangan, it is the fourth and last post of the trek. Night came, the sky got darker and darker, and voila! I saw this vibrant colours on the sky, and in an hour it got even darker and gazillions of star started to appear. I had never seen that many stars before, it really wow-ed us! Dark is always affiliated with cold, yes it was FREEZING. Even colder than Bromo. I mean, i wore 2 layered jackets, gloves, and I was still chilling inside a sleepingbag, imagine that! The cold pretty much was a pain in the ass.... I couldnt wake up to go to the peak of Rinjani, Aby did though and he told me he could see the 3Gili's, Bali, and Mount Tambora from up there *gigit jari aja deh

Satu2nya gambar agak beres yang diambil Aby dari puncak Rinjani, Mount Barujari

The next morning we went down, back to that "Bukit Penyesalan". and stayed one night in one of the post. On those prairies, we just opened our mat and lay down under the stary stary night~ contemplating about anything we could talk about, counting the shooting stars we caught on our eyes. I could just lay down there forever. But it was getting even colder outside so we went back to our tent and slept.

The next morning, i looked out and the sky was really clear and bright, Mount Rinjani was just so great and glorious under the ray of the sun. We took some great photos at that time and it was so perfect it looked like in a photo studio -_-

  

After taking some pics, we packed our bags and tent and walked down down down back to where we started this trek. Wow, i finally did hike the second highest volcano in Indonesia, and my mom has fulfilled one of her to-do-list-before-she-dies hahaha. Thank you for all who have helped us during the hike, mas Amet, and all the porters! We couldnt have made it without you guys! :')

Stay cool,

Tami

P.S. If you decide to start the trek from Senaru, they told me that the trek was rather difficult than Sembalun. From Senaru, it is pretty ascending so it'll be more tiring, BUT it isnt gonna be as hot as in Sembalun cause you're gonna go through the jungle. But the view of Segara Anakan is better if you take it from Senaru, you'll get to see Gunung Barujari much clearer than from Sembalun.