Bawaknao Lauq

Now I had been a little nervous about the Rinjani trek after reading in some online blogs about how difficult it was, and this wasn’t helped by some people returning the night before we left saying that it was one of the hardest things they had ever done.

But either way we are off at 7:30 am, the next day in the back of a flatbed truck for about one hour before we stopped for a brief medical assessment, continuing down a dirt track to the starting point. (1200m above sea level [asl], started at 0936)

The climb started steadily uphill through green pastures with the mountain rising ahead of us, occasionally getting cat called by the motorbikes who offered to give us a lift to the lunch spot.

After one hour we reached Pos 1 (1400m asl) our first rest points before continuing at a slightly elevated pace for another 25 minutes to our lunch spot (Pos II, 1600m) which we could see from Pos I in the distance across the steadily steepening green slopes.

After our first lunch spent guarding our stuff carefully from the Monkeys, who had seen the opportunity to steal snacks of tourists, we continued upwards. The going got steeper from here as we ascended into the tree line and into the clouds, and after 40 minutes we hit Pos III (2000m asl) for another break.

The going got yet Tougher in the next 35 minutes to Pos IV (2200m asl), and then the last 70 minutes spent climbing the final 400 m to the crater rim were absolutely brutal (2600m, reached at 1530).

I got the tent and collapsed immediately sleeping for an hour and a half, when I woke to dinner, prepared by the porters and a beautiful sunset across the crater lake. We also had a view of the summit, 1100 m higher than us, a daunting reminder of our task tomorrow.

After sunset and a very good curry dinner, we headed to our tents, and I fell immediately back asleep at 7:30 pm, slightly dreading and questioning whether I should attend the summit in the morning.Read more