What started out as a dream after viewing some pictures of Mt Rinjani in Flickr by a friend a year ago finally came into a reality.
Mt Rinjani – 3726m, rains, lava, hot springs, craters, two toned lake, it’s really awesome. Second highest mountain in Indonesia, which makes me fear what climbing the highest will be like! However, I am game for it!
It was a dramatic trip.
First day – we lost some of our teammates during the climb due to foggy mist and bad weather. Four of them managed to find the base camp in the dark and one could not make it and has to camp over night at one of the hut. Training is required prior to the climb. Don’t play play.
The night was absolutely freezing considering we were so close to the equator. He he… I was treated a spectacular display of “Macallan” which I bought from the airport duty free.
Bed early for a few hours of shivering! There were dogs fighting at night in the mountain beside my camp and I felt like hitting them with the Lekki.
It was still raining on the second day and we could not continue the climb. We were so disappointed. We requested or rather negotiated with the guides to continue the trip the moment the rain stopped.
Thus we continued the 1,600m descents to the lake or bottom of the crater so that we could ascend to the peak.
Mt Baru, the child of Rinjani, erupted a few times on our second day climb.
He roared!
The scene was awesome and I witnessed the lava flow at night. That’s the most beautiful fire works that I have seen in my life.
Third day, ascending to the peak and subsequently descending to the base camp at Sembalun because we were behind the schedule. You need to trek continuously for 13 hours if you wanna do so. Thus, some of us decided to ascend to the Sembalun Crater Rim and descend to the base camp because it was very foggy at peak . That also took us 8 hours!! Some of them go ahead to the peak and they made it. They are the first team who conquered Mt Rinjani in the afternoon. According to the guide, no one ever conquered the Mt Rinjani in the evening because the weather makes the mission impossible.
13 hours hike.... Oh, you need to pay a price to be on top of the world.
13 hours hike.... Oh, you need to pay a price to be on top of the world.
We were camping on a bridge on day 3.
Derek and Wayne decided to sleep under millions of stars. It was a nice weather but I decided to sleep in the tent.
Derek and Wayne decided to sleep under millions of stars. It was a nice weather but I decided to sleep in the tent.
Day 4 was a three hours trek through beautiful grasslands.
Anyway, we finished. Bla bla bla…….
The sights, stories and friendship forged on Mt Rinjani will remain imprinted on my mind in years to come. Guys, I love you guys long time.
Now that the pain of climbing the mountain has subsided, maybe I might make another trip up the mountain again and make it to the summit this time.
登山很辛苦,但喜爱登山的人却不觉得苦,登山的过程虽坎坷,却令人感到步步踏实.
P/s : You may want to contact Lombok Trekking, Sunny (http://www.lomboktrekking.com/) if you are interested to climb Mt Rinjani. Their service is really excellent.
Ivory n Gold
Singapore
P/s : You may want to contact Lombok Trekking, Sunny (http://www.lomboktrekking.com/) if you are interested to climb Mt Rinjani. Their service is really excellent.
Ivory n Gold
Singapore
