Mount Rinjani Volcano Trekking at Indonesia, Lombok

I am gonna write about my first volcano experience in Indonesia,Lombok at Mount Rinjani.

Spontaneously my old travel buddy and me been to Bali at the same time at thought about to go for some adventure, so we was asking me to climb a volcano with his local friend Cari. We both met up in Bali and drove together with his scooter to the port were we took the ferry then and continued to Mataram,Lombok. Next morning we woke up at 5 am and drove with the Scooter 2 hours to Senaru to meet our porter Ba En and cari ( we took one porter for all 3. 99% of all people we met had a porter each and 2 we met had none, so it all depends on your physical fitness once you have to carry then around 13 kilo. In that case it is cheaper of course.Ba en welcomed us with tea and some Pancake and after a short talk we drove to Sembalum were. Once we reached there we had to pay 300.000 idr for the ( ruffly 20$) national entrance fee and we started walking from 1100 m easily to the first stop at 1700 were we ate our lunch.

Ba En prepared a very delicious lunch for us and we took a rest for about 1,5 hours.

With new energy we continued for a very very hard trekk for about 3,5 hours where we reached the base camp on 2600m.

Basecamp with probably 80 tents.

At this day we trekked in total 1500m altitude with about 10 km in 6 hours, other people walked easily 10 hours and reached way later on the camp like we did.

Ba En preparing a nice dinner for us.

After a super tiring first day we slept around 8 pm and woke up the next morning at 2 am to the make it by sunrise to the peak ( many people didn't made it and gave up). So after 3 very exhausting hours of climbing and fighting with myself I reached the peak with 3726 meters, with every step I made I slided a half step back because of the vulanco stones and sand.

Jorge and me at the peak.

Some people even started at midnight to reach it in time and still didn't made it, so be prepared for a very ruff and tiring trek. The wind was strong and the temperate maybe 4 degrees, so once we reached the peak to early we have been freezing like hell.On the way back, which took us approximately 2 hours because we took a little nap we have seen the best views from the trek so far ( even better then from the peak.

Jorge and me been on of the first people which reached the peak by starting 2:20 and our friend cari we left behind because every one needs to find his own rhythm of walking when it comes to that. So he and Ba En waited us in the base camp with breakfast and after that we slept for around 2 more hours. Then we continued our way to the lake which was on 2000 m above the sea level.

The porters said it takes about 2 hours and on the map was written 3. Again Jorge and me walked and even run sometimes and made it with a 5 minute break in 2:20 h. The normal tour is to continue on that day again up to 2600 meter to have an easy trek down on the last day but we decided to stay and sleep at the beach once the scenery has been absolutely amazing. Close to the lake is a fresh water spring for water and a very very hot spring. Also a swim in the lake we didn't skip.




The views from our camping site which we just shared with a group of guides.

The last day we been able to sleep long and woke up at 5:30, ba en prepared a good breakfast as usual and then we started trekking and a little climbing from the lake (2000m) up to the rim (2600m) which took us about 3 hours.

Surprisingly our legs been quite ok and we just walked and kept going! After lots of pictures on the way up and enjoying this impressive views we took a rest on the rim with the most beautiful view.

We started to run down the other side in 3,5 instead of 6 hours ( 2000 meter altitude). Personally the last day has been the most beautiful park because we decided to spend the half day at the lake instead of lobbing up to the rim which people do sometimes even in the dark with torches and would have missed those views.the peak was nice but wasn't the best view! It was more the challenge to get up there.

All made it safe but exhausted down.

Map of the trekking path.

A little update and for the costs:
20$national park entrance
48$ divided by 3 for the porter,cook and guide Ba En
10$ for transportation to the start point and back to Ba Ens house were we parked the bikes !
This is 46$ a person for a 2n/3D tour, we had 8 meals with fruits etc. absolut special price once the agency's sell the tours for around 80$ which is still more
Then worth it !