Gunung Rinjani adventures!

So, as mentioned, Gunung Rinjani lies on the mainland of Lombok.  She's a bit of a beast, we saw the sun rise from behind her all the way back over on Gunung Butur in Bali, and she's not just a simple volcano either.

Below her summit of 3726m there is an 8km wide caldera containing a 200m deep lake.  Rising out of the centre of this lake is an island with the volcano's smoking active peak.  Add to these geological and visual spectacles  some serious hiking, 2 nights camping and some hot springs and you should be in for a treat.  We were not disappointed.

In indonesia, however, there are always some hiccups along the way...

We were on the mainland good and early in the morning at around 7:30.  We waited for our fellow travellers to arrive before the shuttle bus took us to the mountains but, after some unexplained confusion, we headed off with only one other person.  When the rest of our party finally arrived in the mountains at around10:30, it turned out even they weren't the source of our ire.  Indeed, they had been delayed as long as us, but their delay was back at port where they had to wait for two hungover French girls to arrive late... who weren't even on our trip!!!! (the tour company were simply transporting them up the the mountains for a bit of extra cash...sigh)

Anyway, the result was that we set off very late in the morning, were driven hard all afternoon and had to setup camp shy of our proposed campground.  We were supposed to have viewed the lake from the caldera's edge by sunset, instead we were camped on its very windy outside.  To be honest this was no real hardship, we were glad the trip was more or less on track and should proceed then on in as planned... the guide had suggested amended routes and plans earlier in the day.

The views on the first day's walk were not to be scoffed at, but the views from the caldera's edge the next morning after breakfast were something else!  I've never seen anything quite like it and i'm not sure i will again, incredible.

Soon after, we were all of on the trail again.  We had a great group and were busy exchanging stories, travel advice and plenty of banter.  The day was far more full than the first also.  We descended down to, and swam in, the lake, larked about in hot springs and then trekked hard up to the ridgeline below the summit.

The views from the camp were otherworldly as the clouds drew in and the sun set:

It was chilly, but not too cold, (the night before was windy and freezing) and soon we were all tucked up in our tents to sleep before a 2am wake up; the summit attempt was to be early to see the sunrise.

The 2am wake up did not arrive.

In fact it was lucky that safety dad (that's me) had set his own alarm; thus it was that we woke the guide ourserlves.  Annoyingly this meant we were well behind schedule and it would be a rush to reach the summit for sunrise as planned.  In fact it was worse than that, the actual ascent was hellish in its own right.

Our group quickly splintered as we tried to pass other slow groups and individuals and, more vitally to Bex and I, reach the summit before sunrise.  The inexperienced and ill equipped were also very soon found out; climbing at night and also on relentless loose dirt meant many would not make it up before the sun rose (if at all).

Bex and I strode on.  With us we dragged along a young guy called Adam who was still dressed for Gili Trawangan beach... Bex and I had windproof jackets, trousers, hats and gloves etc. Adam matched an extra T-shirt and hoody with his Bermuda shorts to complete his ensemble!

We were going great guns with a few hundred metres to go when the altitude took its toll on Bex.  She was having issues (like most) with her feet slipping back on the loose dirt with every other step, now a lack of altitude acclimatization meant she was permanently short of breath until we descended again.  If you've met Bex then you'll know we weren't descending until we'd conquered the summit.  Somehow she pushed on and the three of us summited right on sunrise!  We were in an elite group of about 15 who did so, but I'm pretty sure no one started as late as we did!!

We quickly took all the obligatory photos, caught up with old acquaintance from Mulu (who was only there due to flight issues in Nepal... Which meant he missed the fatal avalanches out there!!!) and then rushed down to a lower altitude so Bex could breath again.

All that was eventful enough for one day, we ate breakfast and spent the rest of the day hiking back out of the mountains.  The drive back took an age.  It was then dark by then and we had missed the last public ferry back to Gili Air... We didn't let the unavoidable extortion of getting over to the island get us down, it had been a proper adventure and Gili Air wasn't such a bad place to go home to either...

[Some more photos from along the way...loved it!]

Gili Air... Part 1

Our extended stay in Ubud gave us plenty of time to hone our bartering skills.  Now that it was time to leave, we did so with transport booked all the way to Gili Air at well below half what was being asked (and without a street fight with any taxi drivers).

The Gilis are a string of 3 small islands lying of the coast of Lombok (the next major Indonesian island to the East of Bali).  Our choice of travel was the mid-price option; shuttle bus to the coast (2 hours) and the "fast" boat over to Gili Air... "Fast" should be and hour and a half but loading and unloading, especially at the more party centric Gili Trawangan, somewhat negates the fast element and drags the boat trip out to over 3 hours!  Still we knew this in advance slept most of the way and arrived late afternoon.

The Gilis are classic white beached paradise isles but, if you go about it right, they can be cheap as chips too.  We bartered our accommodation down to ~£7.50 a night for a private beach side bungalow with breakfast included.

For 3 days we mooched about the beaches, snorkled and ate and drank our fill, its not hard to see how people get stuck here, I met one guy from Yorkshire who has been marooned 17 years; he rents on the island for £7.50... a week!!!

We, of course, wouldn't be hanging around.  I had plans to drag Bex up more mountains and Indonesia is pretty great in that regard.  Gunung Rinjani, over on Lombok proper, is the second highest active volcano in Indonesia and you need to jump on a 3 day guided and portered trip to summit it.  We spent a LOT of time negotiating the best deal we could (including full transit from and back to Gili Air) and on the forth morning we were off adventuring again! Huzzah!!!

[Hellish...]

Gunung Butur & cycling shenanigans

So, we'd not been overly impressed with Bali thus far, but they must have mountains to climb, right?  Right!  What's that, active volcanoes?  Even better!!

We chose to climb Gunung Agung, the highest point in Bali, then we quickly found out a religious festival had blocked all routes... No problem, Gunung Batur instead! (1717m http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Batur)

You have to book up in advance due the locals dwelling by the mountain carrying on the Balinese tradition of blatant extortion (there is a theme here you may realise), but that was cool as it was over an hours drive away and we wanted to so the sunrise summit, descent and then do half a days guided cycling too; got to keep busy right?

It was a 2am bus pickup and, once we'd navigated the aforementioned Mafia, the hike itself was pretty straight forward...by our ever changing standards that is; so it was seriously steep and killing casual walkers, but we were up in 2 hours, enjoyed great views from the top [including that of Gunung Rinjani all the way over in Lombok which we intended to climb later in the trip] and we were back down for breakfast by 8am!!!

Admittedly, we looked and sounded insane to the rest of the cycling party; they had just arrived fresh whereas we had tales from the dust spewing behemoth viewed from the terrace from which they were enjoying tea and toast.  In fact we were covered in volcanic ash and felt like heroes.  Win.

[Breakfast view]

The bike ride was easy but great.  All downhill and amongst the paddies which engulf nearly all of rural Bali.  Our guide stopped us at various sites of cultural interest (we drank coffee made with beans that had "been through a cat") and before you knew it we had lunch and were back in Ubud ready to pack and move on... Bali had some highlights, today had loads, but for the most part we were more than ready to move on. [for now, we'd be back]