This is the starting off point, very cool and lush.

Long agoI had heard about  a volcano called Rinjani, and for the past 2 years have been trying to organize a trip their. Before climbing Kilimanjaro, I was told “go to Rinjani it is a prefect training mountain”, Why? because of the scree? Now you might ask “what is scree?” the political equivalent would be to pass a Health care bill in the U.S., you know ?take 2 steps up , slide one step back.   I was planning to go last fall, but than Rinjani did what all volcanoes do, started  erupting! not enough to cause evacuations but enough for the authorities to shut the mountain down. Than , a couple of months ago , I received  an E-mail flier from Java Lava , for folks that don’t know who these folks are? it is a loosely bound club formed in the 60′s by a few young western  drug importers, and like everything over time they have become respectable to the point where they have a web page, as well as a lady ( Jenny D.)  who is in charge of the organization. They are based out of Jakarta, where most of the participants come from? well they really are ex-pats from U.S. Ireland, Germany, Australia, Quebec, and even some Indonesians that live in Jakarta. These folks work in Jakarta, and like to get out for hikes on a regular basis , but don’t have a lot of time to organize , the flights, Losman or hotels, guides, porters, and all of the other bits and pieces that needs to be done when you are hiking in a country with 300 volcanoes   spread over  15, ooo islands  which are also spread over 3,000 miles.

I asked Kahlid if he wanted to go, as he is in pretty good shape for a youngster. Kahlid  goes to Yoga 12 times a week as well as hikes Singapore mountains every week, so I figured i would not have to wait for him and would probably have a hard time keeping up with him.  This is a 3 day hike, so we would need sleeping bags, tents, but not food as the trekking service provides porters and guides, The porters carry food and any bags you don’t want to carry. Don’t ask! The porters also cook all of the meals, including a stop for lunch, which they cook over an open fire. The greatest value they bring is the water that they carry for everyone. wonder how much  water 15 people go through in the tropics over three days?

WEll the first adventure or disaster we had, was when we  arrived in Mataram on Lombok,  and realized that  ”They Lost The Luggage!!!!!!! MY shoes, hiking clothes, tent poles, trekking poles, ear plugs, and contacts. I did have my pack, a warm hat, sleeping bag, and my tent without poles. So we were off to mataram to find boots?? well maybe running shoes along with all of the other clothes. Just a note to myself ” X-large is not American X-large, and they don’t sell XX-large .

This next picture is a few minutes out.

Actually the first day was walking through high grass, luckily it was over cast, otherwise it would have been a little warm. My big worry was leaches, but none showed up. We had 2 sons and a dad with us? I am guessing they were in the 10 year old category, they were very comfortable with the group and hiked up front as much as possible. It was fun hiking with kids, reminded me of mine ;-(

There are two ways to carry a load in Indonesia, one is with a pack the other is with a bamboo pole with a load on either end. The porters carried fresh eggs ( 10 dozens) . All the vegetables were fresh with roots and all, The benefit of the bamboo pole is that you can rotate the bamboo on to either shoulder with little effort? for them anyways!

This was the scene whever we were having lunch or dinner? or as the Australians say “Tea” which means Lunch or Dinner? always on an open fire, they have been their so many times they know where standing dead wood is. They bring and Ax, start chopping down tops of standing dead trees, about 2′ long, than split it 10 times into little sticks, and presto, dinner is around the corner

This guy is about 20′ up the side of the tree.

Now dinner or Tea is being prepared, while the wood is being cut, another few folks are peeling and chopping up vegetables.

And dinner is served, similar to ramen , except everything is fresh.

Oh yes the Egg in the middle is a nice touch of protein .

Of course I had to try out this Porter carrying arrangement, so during one of the breaks I tried it out! Not to bad actually, well I think I grabbed the lighter  loads.

This is the last push before we top out on the ridge where we camped. The high grass, with all of the views was very different for me, could have been extremely hot, but with the cloud cover , quite nice.

This picture is of the  ridge before the tents were put up, very idylic

The view to the right was of the Caldera, which has filled in with water , and is now called., “Child of the Sea” The mountains surrounding the lake are actually the edge of the crater? I think this blew around the 1300? but it has been a long time.

Because Kahlid is now advancing light years ahead of me in the cosmic Yoga universe, he is able to do head stands where ever and when ever he chooses. Of course planing your head on the side of an active volcano, enables you to commune more efficiently  with mother volcano. The goal being to get some inside information ;-) , sure she is not going to blow her top in the next 3 days

That evening we decided NOT to leave at 1 Am , and forgo the sunrise  from the summit? Instead we started around 6Am? Of course some of us never slept, seemed like their are Water Buffalo’s wandering  in our campsite, funny how they breath, very loud! Almost like sleeping at the end of Changi airport with 747′s jets landing every 5 min. And of course my ear plugs were  with my lost luggage.

We woke up before sun rise to a great banana pancake breakfast, and started off  with head lamps.  About an hour latter we were treated  to a  fantastic sunrise. Actually I think this was the sunset? oops

And about 1/2 hour latter we were treated to a volcanic Blast!  It looked just like an explosion? well duhh. One was cool, was that it kept rising and rising. I should explain that the Original Volcano blew it lid in the 1300, subsequently the crater has filled in with water to form a beautiful lake. On the side of the lake a cone  has been building up over the years, which is where this explosion came from. We were about 2000′ above it and maybe 1/2 mile off to the side.

This is the blast cloud getting higher , now into the sun.

How could anything be better than that? A beautiful sunrise, fantastic explosions! Well it di d get better ;-) Now we got to  enjoy the scree, yumm and I particularly enjoyed it, for I did not have my hiking poles with me , as they were on that darn plane.  This is the picture looking down slope to a couple  from Australia. 

To get an idea of how far we had gone , you can see our tents in this picture , and we  were still awhile from the top. The tents are just below the second bump on the ridge.

Almost at the Top now . looking at the ridge line we had just come up, nice silhouette.

Well finally on the summit! yeah. This was definitely a hard hike, heck this was just the beginning of the hard! we still had to hike back to the tent, than drop another few thousand feet to the lake. Than the following day hike  up and over the ridge line, a couple of more thousand feet back up, than down, and down and more down. It was hard but definitely worth it.

Looking down from the summit , you can see the  lake and cone. I can see why this is the most beautiful volcano in Indonesia.

Now, we got to have some fun, glissade down a scree slope, which is really a lot of fun. ;-)  Of course Jungle Jane  had no need for shoes!

Next stop the lake. Not much for views but still, with the fog  it was very peaceful,

 

The Fog  seemed to come and go,  but we did get some views as they appeared 

The next day we had another great breakfast, and started climbing immediately, but first Rinjani had  to have another blast, and this one was even more magnificent.

The climb up out over the ridge took a few hours, the next picture  is of some of the smiling folks . The sides of this trail dropped at least 45 degrees, their were some places were we stopped , I had to look away.

This next picture is Kahlid with Eric and the guide, naturally they are in front. ;-)

We eventually reached the ridge than hiked down the other side , had another great lunch ( It was raining at this point) Than another hour or two and we were out. Thankfully they had our new found luggage waiting for us. So after 3 days in the same clothes I was finally able to  change.

This was the entrance or exit  depending which directions, although at this point I think the direction we went was perfect.

This was a great hike, and I would definitely do it again! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!  as much as I have.

Take Care

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