Lombok

All in all I preferred Lombok to Bali. Less shiny and far fewer tourists.

We did a 3 day 2 night trek up Mount Rinjani which is Indonesia’s 2nd tallest mountain. I think. It was only about 25km, but it was very up and down. The trek involved hiking up to the crater rim (from 1,100m to 2,600m) then camping overnight, before Ant got up at 2am and hiked another 1,000m up a shale ridge to the summit and back down again for breakfast. Then we both headed down to a lake at 2,000m and then along and 600m up a vertical cliff to camp on the other side of the crater rim, before hiking down through rain forest to about 600m on the final day. It was very very hard work, but the views were worth it!

To start with it didn’t look particularly tall/ steep or far. Hmmm perspective. We had porters that carried the food and tents. We had to carry our clothes and water etc. The porters  were amazing and everything was carried in baskets on poles balanced on their (very strong) shoulders. Some of the climb was very steep, scrambling over rocks and I have no idea how they did it balancing the baskets and wearing plastic flip flops.

 

Up in the clouds…

 

I was feeling the effects of moderate poisoning from Bali. So I spent quite some time in the yellow tent. But wow – what a view from a toilet! Up on the crater rim looking down on the lake. Amazing. And quite chilly. Which made a change.

  

As I mentioned Ant was determined to reach the top and so got up at 2am for the 3 hour slog up a shale ridge. 3 steps forward 2 steps  back, and then back again for breakfast and another 6-7 hour hike. Sounded too much for me, especially as I didn’t really sleep (spending too much time enjoying the toilet view). He was beyond exhausted at the end of the day (and his walking boots broke and had to be temporarily fixed with plasters), so I think it was wise not to go up. But I did miss out on the view of the whole crater + mini volcano in the centre.

 

Then it was down to the lake. Although not such hard work on the lungs, the steep steep down hills really were hard on our legs. The photos make it all look so pristine, but there was a huge amount of rubbish everywhere. Plastic sweet wrappers and toilet paper mostly. A real shame.

 

As we hiked up the other side of the crater we had amazing views over the mini volcano in the lake. The photo on the right shows the hike Ant did. Down from the highest point all the way to the lake. Pit stop in hot springs to rest the legs and then back up the other side. Despite the hot springs by this point we were filthy. Clearly no one was going to be lugging water up and down the hills for washing!

 

The final day was 6 hours hiking down down down down through rain forest. Towards the end I was just gritting my teeth and making me feet walk forward. But the end was in sight, as was our transfer to a perfect little tropical island to enjoy hobbling around on our poor legs, massages, rest, fresh fish and snorkeling on the coral reef just off the beach. Lots of pretty fish!