Hiking is becoming one with nature and closing the door to the crazy bustling world and that is exactly what I needed after traveling in Bali and a couple days partying on the Gili Islands. I decided it was time to see a different face of Indonesia and signed up to climb the tallest peak in Lombok: Mount Rinjani. As they promote it everywhere around Bali and the Gili Islands I assumed it would be an easy thing to do, but be prepared…
The first day starts pretty easy with inclining paths through the open fields until you reach a steeper section. From here it is at least about 2 hours climbing a steep path until you reach the crater rim. Luckily I had a porter and a guide and by the time I reached the crater rim, my tent was already set up. The views from the crater rim were incredible but this was nothing to what was coming. There was not much time to hang out as it was getting dark and temperatures were dropping.
In the middle of the night I got up for the summit trek, which took about 5 hours. These 5 hours were the hardest of the trek as the air up to the top was getting thinner. To me it was more the pebbled path that was a nightmare to hike up and with two steps up and one sliding down it became a moral fight. All good end good the views were to die for! I had never seen an actual crater lake and on top of that there was an active volcano inside the lake. Simply unbelievable!
In the middle of the night I got up for the summit trek, which took about 5 hours. These 5 hours were the hardest of the trek as the air up to the top was getting thinner. To me it was more the pebbled path that was a nightmare to hike up and with two steps up and one sliding down it became a moral fight. All good end good the views were to die for! I had never seen an actual crater lake and on top of that there was an active volcano inside the lake. Simply unbelievable!
That same day we had to climb up again from the crater lake to reach the crater rim on the other side were would camp that night. It took a little longer because my legs were getting sore after almost 10 hours hiking but the reward on the other side of the crater rim was awesome. Views again to die for with on one side Mount Rinjani and the active volcano and on the other side you could look all the way to Bali seeing the perfect silhouette of Mount Agung.
