Jun 15, 2020
Indonesian Mountain Magic
Flying up and Gliding down Mt. Rinjani
Bangsal — Lombok Harbour
Meet Wayan. Get taxi with Apar (crazy) who bombs it in one hour to Kuta. We stay at Ikes hostel (our gloriously camp receptionist Rocky is a little over friendly but harmless). Manage to get in a solid workout & chill with some fellow travellers. Link up with South African mate Devon. We scooter to surfers inn (lost my lava bracelet en route dammit), we meet Moona + friends — a Finnish girl who agrees to join us for dinner. Hit the Internet cafe en route, thirty mins to surf five pages! End up booking a trek with Adi, hopefully this is a good deal — who knows! Have dinner at reggae place and get sneakily mugged by these kids selling trinkets. Here’s the game: play rock, paper, scissors. If you win, sad face, you buy the trinkets. If you lose, hey you gambled and you lost, you buy the trinkets. Win-Win for them. Lose Lose for you. Cheeky. Another lava bracelet woohoo. We Eat delicious peanut based veggie local sizzler: Gado Gado. Woof. Absolutely delicious until Devon’s stomach begins to roar and pop. Great company. We sleep by 1am. 330am we are up & out. Jump in a car with a Dutch group that also booked our deal.
The Mountain
6am registration at Sembalum village (1100m), we meet Jai (our guide) & hike with porter Aagbah — which means red. He is carrying a ridiculously enormous load balanced on either ends of a bamboo stick alongside the tops of his shoulders: in flip flops! Absolute nutter. All he seems to says is “Tida Masala” — no worries. We have Carolina and her partner, on their honeymoon. They have “loads of previous mountain hiking experience”.
Set Off. Gentle pace to start. We wait at one of the peaks on the route up to the top [POS II — 1500m] as the other half of the group is late arriving. An outrageously hearty meal (noodles) is prepared. Smiles wash across Indonesian faces easier than light emanates from the sun. Endless questions ‘where you from’ (despite having the Kenyan top on! Not a popular or renowned flag apparently). They are dazzled by black skin.
Smash the hike up with Devon to the crater rim (2800m). We push the pace to ensure we see an epic sunset at the top. Chill with some French chicks who share their food, tents and tea till our squad arrives later. Adventurer arrivals on the rim include grandmas, women and children — elated. This journey is a core part of the community spiritual experience at Mt Rinjani.
Glistening stars paint the night sky, more than I’ve ever seen: buckets of shooting stars. Small poo’s litter the mountain’s surface, watch your step! Late food at 11pm, sleep by midnight. Up & out for the summit by 2am.
Summit
Out the tent, crackers for a quick brekkie then we shoot. Traffic & queues already as it’s single file up some slippery inclines caked in morning dew. Slow start. 100 people attempting to hike up. No porters. Steep patches gets steeper & more arduous. Dust, gravel, soot — we skip ahead of the slow pokes to get clear. We burn out slightly from the exertion. Like traipsing through quicksand it’s two steps forward, one step back, as the ground is so unstable underfoot. There’s barley any purchase for your shoes to grip onto. Hiking boots would have been wise. Super difficult. There are people passed out at various intervals under small rocks, underbrush, and jagged outcrops. Utter Madness as there are epic falls either side of the ridge line we are climbing. Passed out! Our field of vision is punctuated by an endless stream of headlamps ahead and behind. Long way down folks, hope you don’t wiggle in your sleep. Pre-Estimated official trek time: 3hours. Devon has altitude sickness after 2 hours or so. People are turning back left, right and centre with dizziness and blurry vision, we persevere (though it’s super hard). Take lots of breaks. We eventually get up near the top by 535am!
FULL ON Snooze just under the summit in sleeping bags. So tired & hungry,. Our guide stayed back to help the slowest and feed them our rations to help them get up. Sunrise views make it all worth it.
About 50 people made it (3800m). It is Freezing cold. There are Epic panoramic views of volcano, lake, sea, clouds, mountains, sun. Huge cheers reverberate through the Mountains as the sun breaks the horizon. Lots of pictures, hugs, hearty congratulations, bring on the beers! After thirty mins we head down in what has to be the craziest sand dune sliding challenge possible. Steep inclines, sooty underfoot, and beer filled altitude vision filling us with heady glee as gravity does its dirty work. In the back of my head i’m worried for my ankle can’t stop me now! 2 hours slippin and sliding pretty much. Back to camp for 9am.
Trek
Snooze, stretch, breakfast, wash & clean dust off, set off at 11am for the Lake. Set off with our guide Jai and the girls. We leave them to speed up with Leo and the German (tries walking in flip flops due to blister from summit — big mistake). Unbelievable balance and speed from porters (leaping across sheer cliff faces with huge weight on their backs, tiny people, and some are so young — ours is 17). Down to the lake by 2pm. Hot springs & waterfall JUJU. Meet Robbie and his Indonesian crew who sing the national anthem. The mud acts as a sediment face cream. “BANDAKAR” (freedom). Great conversation, pics, laughs, lunch. Big argument, tired heads, should we go up or stay and trek longer tomorrow. We decide to set off for the rim at 4pm (the slowest will hike in darkness). The main point of contention is if we will be able to find a campsite space after the Estimated 3 hour climb. It may be too busy and we may have to trek from much longer till we find one. Challenge accepted.
We bolt and leave others to make sure we get that camping space. We get up in 45mins. Short, hard, fast, tiring. Feel responsible for driving the decision to keep going. Search for ages (meet the New Zealand crew) and eventually find a campsite, Devon gets up just before sunset (1.5 hours), Leo & the Germans in 2 hours and girls in 3 hours approx. Go find phone signal (make some calls to London, my event is going well — great). Back to camp to snooze & have a decent dinner. 11pm, Deep deep sleep.
Descent — Race for Bansal
7am wake up. Tea. Running late for our boat off the island. Cooking legend Aagbah is meant to have a bad knee but shows no signs of it. He agrees to whisk me down the mountain. With customary 50kg shoulder load on a stick on his shoulders he hurtles down in slippers across rocks and wildly steep jumps. He knows the angles and slippery spots like the back of his saucepan. We struggle to keep up. Devons knee goes. Break for water & painkillers — we cannot afford breaks, clock is ticking! I take his bag to carry down, like a trooper he cracks on. I hit my knee on a log (bleeding). Vines & roots make mad insidious grabs for our ankles. Don’t fall here kids, it wont be pretty.
Long lunges, high impact, constant motion, its a game. The jungle down invites us down it’s ancient paths, carved into the mountain by countless adventurers. Further we dive — deeper into its leafy web. We smash past other incredulous groups heading down at a safe pace. Flashing a grin and a wink — we bundle through, whistling in the wind. Endlessly downwards. Slopes, monkeys, frogs, spiders snakes — stay true to the path. Stay true to speed. The last ferry to Bali will leave with or without us. Aagbah requests only one water break for a cigarette (?!). He is looking forward to his rest before the next expedition (tomorrow — what a badman). We Reach Sanur at 950am. The others won’t make it down till 2pm. The adrenaline will be pumping till next week. Mental fun, so fast, so wild. Mission complete.
130pm boat to Padangbai — Tida Masala!
