Rinjani in Lombok

I landed in Denpasar when it was almost midnight.I was in a group called orang gunung and our trip was for the purpose of climbing Gunung Rinjani,the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago at 12300 ft and the most beautiful. We were the last arriving passengers and we proceeded to the parking lot to look for the van that would take us to Padang Bai, the embarkation port to Lombok.Before midnight ,we boarded  the ferry,  I  found myself a cozy corner  and was soon fast asleep helped by the cool sea breeze and choppy sea. At sunrise the ferry arrived at Lombok and we took the van to Rinjani base camp which was a three hour journey from the port.

From the van, Lombok appeared to me very rural with activities centering around agriculture, mainly paddy farming. The kampungs that we passed through looked clean and the farm well tendered. The van weavered through the country road passing through winding remote villages, steep slope and deep ravines. We reached Rinjani base station on the eastern side of the island, where all Rinjani hikers must report themselves and the hiking groups were each assigned mountain mountain guides .

We started the climb after lunch, ascending slowly  through meadow of long and soft grasses.The landscape was undulating and was  never boring with features shaped by volcanic activities. As we climbed higher we got a majestic view of the mountain and valley.The scene was beautiful with uninterrupted vista  and the air was fresh and cool.At night fall we reached  the first camping spot  , a deep valley shaped by larva rivers,where we set up tents and  spent the night.

The next day, we resumed our journey . It was not an easy climb this time as the gradient got steeper.There was not much vegetation except clump of coniferous trees and patches of grasses and old dead trunks ravaged by larva flow..Ranjini is an active valcano littered with rocks hurled by explosions and steeped crevices chiselled by larva stream .The topography looked bleak with patches of trees and grasses.But the view was panaromic since there were no tall trees that hide our view.Although the slope was steeper than the day before, our climb was leisurely as we slogged along slowly to the next station. By late afternoon, we reached our second camping site at the edge of the crater called Pelawangan at 9500 ft.

The crater rim where we camped was a narrow ridge plunging to great depth into the crater lake beneath. The view at this height was postcard like with the crater lake Danau Segara before our eye.The crater lake was huge and placid and in its midst is an island with smoking volcano named Gunung Baru, making Gunung baru a volcano within the volcano. On the horizon was the blue Bali Sea and beyond the sea,  Gunong Agong in Bali, the most sacred of the Hindu site, rose majestically in Bali.The night was cold with howling wind that fluttered our canvas sheet and sent shivers to us .In that condition , plus the high altitude rarefied air,it was impossible to light up fire for cooking. That night, we managed to cooked half boiled rice and  I went to bed on empty stomach.

At around 2 am we woke up to begin the final ascent of Gunung Ranjini reaching the peak as the sun rose over the sea..We enjoyed the stunning view for a short while before making our descend.


We continued our way back to the  camping site at Pelawangan , dismantled our camps and made our way down to the crater lake  Segara Anak.At one spot I found traces of old cloth and plastic mats and asked the guide what was that.The guide said seven local climbers encountered bad weather and died of exhaustion and hyperthemia on the spot and local custom forbidded their  belongings from being removed.The crater lake Segara Anak was the most holy site for Bali Hindus second only to Gunung Agung.The Bali Hindus believed that mountains are where their deities reside and made offering to appease their deities to stop catastrophe like volcanic  eruption,  drought season and bad weather .Where we camped there were litters of prayer offerings.The lake was placid and almost surreal .The water was not suitable for drinking as it is highly sulfurous,but there were plenty of fish in the lake.There were hot springs, waterfall and a cave with an ascetic doing meditation, but I didn't visit those places for the lack of time. This was a nice place to be , with an excellant camping site by the lake shore, lots of fish which we grilled over fire and  stunning landscape in its pristine state.

When the sun rose the next morning, I was ready to make my the most arduous task of the expedition, that was climbing the steep rocky alpine slope from Segara Anak to the other side of the crater rim at Senaru Crater rim.After 4 hours of climb, exhausted I reached the crater rim , rewarded with a picturesque view of Segara Anak and Gunong Baru, exactly  the same image on the rupiah note of the Indonesian currency.


The rest of the journey for the next 5 hours, we walked through patchy grass slope, semi alpine forest and lush tropical jungle teeming with birds , butterflies and wild fowls.. We reached the Sasak village of Senaru when it was  almost dark .The traditional village was circular in shape with well built sturdy houses of wood and palm leaves and no nails. The Sasak lived in a well contained community and appeared  to be well organised with their own social structure and a system of belief  I was told that although most Sasak has practiced mainstream muslim religious practice, the Sasak  who lives in villages like Senaru are adherent to wektu telu, a form of Islamic practices that prays only 3 times a day and practising animism at the same time.It was late at night that our bus arrived and took us back to Mataram.,the last Hindu kingdom in the Nusantara.