Lombok - Mount Rinjani

Lift from the airport - got some fish satay courtesy of my driver which was so good. Stayed the night in their new Homestay of which I took pics of for them to use on booking.com. Woke up next morning at 630 to leave at 7am after banana pancakes. Our Guides name was Opan, hiked with Till, Amanda, heiß, Michel and another girl I couldn’t remember name of. Opan was a machine - he carried up his 25kg bag and Michel’s bag as he could not do it all the way. Hike was actually very ok up until checkpoint 3, then it started getting interesting and the sticks really came into their own. Lunch was incredible for a portable lunch. Idk how the porters can walk with 45kg on a bamboo pole and still be ahead and able to do everything for us, and they’re in flip flops! It’s incredible. Saw the most amazing night sky and took my first ever picture of the Milky Way before bed which was special, even more so that it was so cloudy you couldn’t see 5 metres in front of your face 20 mins before

Woke up at 2am to start the trek, it was split into 3 sections, the first of which was fairly difficult but doable, second bit was flatter but oh my god, the last bit was mental. Deep ash and sand meant you sank into the mountain of about a 45 degree gradient, this was a total slog. I made it up to the top with Till only just before sunrise and it was a feeling like no other, we had beaten it and in time! There were only about 30/40 people at the top when we were there and many didn’t make it. Our whole group eventually made it about 1.5 hours later as well! We enjoyed a well deserved beer at the top before heading ALL THE WAY down. This bit was honestly worse than going up. The feeling of getting back to the truck at 4pm was indescribable. Speaker usage was critical, and when I was going up the mountain I felt like I was in a movie blasting out electronic tunes above the clouds. Opan invited me back to do it in 1 day for free and to stay with him and do more trekking, such a nice guy. I NEEDED to wash after finishing so ‘swam’ in a 15 cm high stream which was ridiculous, felt like a beached whale, didn’t even work to get me clean. Got a lift to Kuta Lombok with Till and said goodbye on the way. Overall, probably a highlight of my life so far.Read more