Gunung Rinjani (Lombok)

On Gili Air I met a Spanish couple (Mira and Carlos) and Dec from the UK. Together we planned to hike Gunung Rinjani on Lombok. With its 3726m it is the 2nd highest volcano in Indonesia and its a 3-days hike to the peak.

As a picture usually tells more than 1000 words I give my very best to show more pics of our adventure than writing boring descriptions. I know that most of you will appreciate that, as I am not really a Shakespeare when it comes to writing articles about my trip around the world... :-)
Ok, here we go:

Our hiking group, among them one of the finest guys I had the pleasure to hike with.
From the left to the right:
Will (Phl), Raph (Aut), Mira & Carlos (Esp), Dec (UK), Annetta & Casper (Pol), Romy (Ger), Charly & Sophie (UK), Julia (Ger), Jürgen (Ger)

Lots of ascending on day1, first through the tropical jungle, which clears in the afternoon to wide open plains with single trees

Further up the stunning landscape while the clouds underneath are covering the jungle...

After 8 hours hiking finally at the rim of Gunung Rinjani, where we set up our camp.
The view in the late afternoon sun, simple breathtaking!!
On the other side of the rim we could see our final target, the peak of Rinjani.

 A few sunset pics of the sunset on day1 from our camp side. Without words... :-)

In the morning of day2 we started descending the steep path down the rim to the crater lake of Rinjani. The diameter of Rinjani's giant crater rim is about 7km, which is pretty amazing!!

 

Finally at the crater lake. Close to the lake there are some hot springs where we went for a swim and
relaxed our tired legs in the warm water. Afterwards Dec and me also jumped into the pretty cold crater lake.
Things to do before you die: Swim in a crater lake of a volcano; check!! :-)

 

After lunch we hiked up the rim on the other side of the lake for 3 hours in the heat of the day.
Was pretty tough. But I think you can not complain, when I took a look to our porters.
They were carrying our food, water and the tents, which was much more heavier. And the best is that they hiked the mountain just in Flip-Flops!! They were as fast or even faster than our group, doing an amazing job!
The view from camp2 down the rim an lake was again amazing!
At sunset we could even see the majestic Gunung Agnung, the greatest volcano on Bali.

At 2:30am on day3 we started hiking up the peak of Rinjani to be there just in time when the sun rises. I would say this was the toughest part of the three days. As it is partly very hard and especially the last few 100 meters are the worst. It is very steep and just gravel stones. An awful combination, two steps forward means at least one step sliding down again...
However, Dec, Charly, Sophie and me made it to the top way to early and had to wait there for more than an hour until the sun rises. It was freezing cold but luckily Charly brought some sleeping bag, which the four of us shared as a blanket while waiting and telling jokes to kill time... ;-)

But it was worth waiting and we had an amazing sunrise!
Not everybody made it to the top at that time but I am proud about our group as finally everybody managed to get there!!
(According to our guide "D", just 30% of all hikers really make it to the top of Rinjani, the rest give up earlier...)

View from the top of Rinjani. In the background the crater lake. Where a new volcano, Gunung Baru, emerged a few hundred years ago. A volcano in the crater of another volcano. And Baru is smoking the whole time at it is still very active. Sometimes during the year, the hikes up Rinjani are cancelled due to much activity of Baru...

One more view of the lake, Baru and Rinjani's giant rim.
While descending it was essential to wear a scarf. Because it was super dusty walking down. Some parts I could even slide down because it was so steep!
Skiing down a volcano on gravel stones, how very cool!! :-)

Down at the camp side we had breakfast and one last time the beautiful view of Rinjanis crater.
I turned around and looked up to the peak, where we have been a few hours before...
Slowly I realised how crazy Dec, Charly, Soph and me were. We almost ran up to the peak in two hours... :-)
Finally we hiked down all the way to a small town, where we were picked up and had to say goodbye to each other. What an awesome trip, thank you Rinjani!!
And many thanks especially to Dec, Charly, Sophi, Mira, Carlos and Jürgen. It was a pleasure to meet and hike with you guys!! :-)