June 17 - The Volcano

So as I was sitting on the beach enjoying some space cake and a Bintang (the Indonesian beer) at 9 in the morning, I looked across the water to Lombok and could see a massive volcano in the distance and it hit me…I need to climb it. So the following day, and after a lot of convincing (I told Lungi that there were donkey’s that would bring us up), we left the island and made our way via boat, horse and some form of car to a small village at the base of the volcano called Senaru where we organized our trek to the volcano rim. 

The volcano is called Gunung Rinjani with a peak at 3,726m above sea level and there are certainly no donkey’s available to carry us up. We teamed up with another Canadian couple who we had met on the Gilli islands and the next morning we were up at 6:30 am to start the 2 day trek to the crater rim. We had a guide and 2 porters to carry the equipment and food.

Getting to the rim of the volcano took 9 hours of steep climbing over a total distance of almost 11 km. We trekked through the jungle for the first 6 hours, climbing over big roots and boulders while holding on to branches and tree trunks to avoid slipping. Once we got above the clouds, the forest opened up to rocks, dirt and dry grass, more like a desert terrain. Climbing at this point was especially difficult as we were going up at a 75 degree angle and our muscles were already exhausted. The climb was a lot tougher than we expected and as we got higher Lungi was ready to quit and just sleep on the side of the path. At one point she was moving so slow that the rest of our group decided to just leave us behind – I guess they were tired of waiting. Despite her whining and complaining, she made it.

Once we got to the top, it was all worth it. The view from the rim was awesome; on one side there was a crater with a large volcanic lake, hot springs and a smaller volcano emerging from the middle which apparently last erupted 6 months ago. On the other side there was the view over the island, ocean and surrounding islands. Sleeping on the rim of the crater was another challenge; it was freezing cold, there was some sort of giant volcanic spider trapped in our tent and then there were the dogs that would howl all night long.  

Getting back down was almost as hard as getting up, we must of done half of it on our ass as we slid on the rocks and wet jungle floor. The celebratory beers at the bottom were great though!

The Volcano

The team

The Lungi

Porters

Still going

Almost dead

In the middle of a cloud

Volcanic monkeys

The view

Another view

Making dinner

Volcanic sunset

View from the rim

View into the crater

Finally at the top