Trek Day 3

"Trekking on Rinjani is not for the frail or unfit... The summit of Gunung Rinjani is reached by relatively few Trekkers..." (rough guide to Bali & Lombok) In our guide book it tells us that very few Trekkers reach the summit of Rinjani because of the extreme difficulty of the hike and the conditions that the summit hike must be completed in: the DARK to make it by sunrise before the views cloud over as well as very cold and windy weather conditions.

Day 3... Where to begin... Well let's start with the 3am wake up call in the 10 degree celcus weather followed by wet shoes, socks, leggins, and semi wet rain coats. It's pitch black and we've been half asleep on a rocky surface. We drink a cup of hot tea, put on our head lamps and begin the hardest part of our trek, hiking in the freezing, pitch black middle of the night to the summit of Rinjani, a 3-4 hour hike from crater rim 2 up another 1000+ meters. We're off... 1 hour into trekking up the mountain of volcanic sand (literally like an enormous sand dune) we are huffing and puffing, lips chapped, noses red toes numb, bodies shocked, we try to continue. Each step we are sliding in the sand so really each step is about half a step, it was by far the hardest and because of our completely innappropriate gear (everyone BUT us had on thermals, gloves, caps, thick socks etc.) the most miserable part of our jouney. Almost another hour goes by and our porter (he led us because our guide had no dry apporiate clothing) tells us at least another 2 hours to the summit! It's 5:20am and starting to rain, we decide that with our numb fingers, toes, and faces that we physically can't and should not continue, we weren't going to make it for the sunrise and there was a good chance it'd still be raining at the top.



So we stop at another peak and watch the volcano bubble out little bits of red lava and watch the sky change from black to blue to all colors of the rainbow. We continue watching these beautiful colors change the face of the sky on our way back down to crater rim 2, our camp site. Regradless of not reaching the summit we are very proud of ourselves and learned our lesson that appropriate gear is a MUST! We captured AMAZING
views of Bali in the distance, the lake, the volcano, the other neighboring island Sumbawa,


and then after breakfast... Monkeys! There were at least 2 dozen or so right in front of our tent, they were picking up scraps, eating and playing. We even saw a mommy monkey carrying a baby on her back and two monkeys going at it all from the comfort (haha) of our tent!


After breakfast we began our desent down Rinjani for what seemed to be the never ending hike... Thank goodness it was downhill! We literally went in a matter of 6+ hours (including lunch) from freezing weather on top of a mountain down through extremly rocky terrain, through the hillsides, over hillsides and rivers, through 2 forests, over the country side, through a cow pasture, banana trees, rice paddies, a vegtable farm, a FINALLY to the village where our driver picked us up. We began the day in 2 layers of clothing with wet shoes and ended the day with tank tops and a sunburn. Quite a crazy way to end our amazing 3 day trek.

It might a while before we do a 3 day trek like that again, but we know it's something that we will both do again in the future just next time we will definitley make sure to have a few pairs of shoes, some pants heavier than leggins, gloves, and possibly even a puffer jacket (we saw a few people in them). Lesson learned, appropriate gear is a must!

Currently we're headed back to Bali for 3 days of waves, rays, and parties :)





Xoxo,
Jenny and Nichole

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