The Rinjani Hike, Indonesia

Well, there was another thing on my bucket list:

Reach the summit of the Rinjani volcano

We pre-booked the expedition with ANDREAS EXPEDITION. The website was in German, and we had quite a good feeling. If he is European, he knows for sure what we need and have the best equipment. And again we hoped for western prices and western quality. It turned out that Andreas was a normal Indonesian. But married to an Austrian girl (who made the website quite appealing)

In the evening we were invited to a local house for dinner. we also met the two other couples who will join our hike to the second biggest volcano of indonesia. The food was amazing. However we expexted a bit a better explanation what is expecting us up there. Nevermind. In the morning we were about to start in the early morning at 7 AM. The driver and the two guides brought us the to the Entrance of the Rinjani Area (1 hour drive) the first day we hike about 7 hours and most of the time it just went up. The lunch was at a place, where everybody else made a stop. Sleeping Chinese tourists, active French people, lazy Swiss people and of course a lot of Indonesian guides and porters. I think a lot of other hikers were quite jaelous of our fresh fruit juice. Our porters brought a little engine in order to start the mixer for our fruit juice 😉 The food itself was amazing, but it just took quite a while. The first day, was kind of okay… but of course we were so relesased when we reached the Camping Site for the first night. Unfortunately, 3 out of our 7 porters, climbed the mountain for the first time Additionally, they had to carry roughly 50kg on the first day. You can imagine, that these poor guys had some troubles climbing up with their Flip Flops (!). For this reason we had to wait until we have our sleeping bags, tents, and again our dinner and beer. It already got dark and most of the people were already sleeping on the campsite. At around 11 we were ready to sleep as well. The night was quite cold and not really relaxing. Few hours later, there was already time to get up again. At around 3 AM we started the big challenge of reaching the summit of Volcano Rinjani. With our torch on the head and our walking sticks we made our way up to the top. During the way, we met many people who gave up. Also our two guides suddenly disappeared. And yes- it was tough! It was a mix of the very dry season, wearing this mask, the missing sleep, muscle ache from last day, the freezing morning and the height. Especially the last 300m were very exhausting, because you see the top, but you don’t get any forward. Two steps up and you fall one step down. I read it on several blogs, but it is indeed a tough part there. We did not make it for sunrise – but thats okay. I was so happy that we made it all. What an experience. The way down was for few people fun, because it was similar to sliding with ski-shoes on a mountain with sticks. I was a bit more careful because of my knees. Also the way down took us probably 2 hours. Back in the campside we had some  nice breakfast and asked about the plan for the rest of the day. another 5,6 hours with 1000m down and 1000m up? Damn!!! we did not expect that. And yes, again it was quite hard and I felt sorry again for the porters. They were very slow… and everything got delayed. During lunch time we also had a stop at the hot springs. Ohhhh this was probably the only relaxing part of these three days. It felt so good to have some water again. You cannot imagine how dirty everything was. Anyway, the second night we spent on top of the other side of the crater. Dinner was quite late, and we also did not get our promised bonfire 🙁 The Indonesian spirit was also okay, which was called BRMMM or something like that 😉

3rd, and last day it was “just” 1700m down.. expected time 5,6 hours. Okay… we managed it as well (of course), probably with the perspective of being back in civilization very soon. and YES we made it!!!

Summary and Tips:
– Andreas Expedition was okay – but do not expect anything on Western quality.
– Take also Rudys Trekker as a consideration – it looked quite good on the campside.
– Good hiking shoes, hiking sticks, a warm jacket, beanie is a Must! Otherwise you will not survive.
– 3D/2N absolutely recommended.
– Book yourself a very good hotel, once you finish your trekking. You will be so thankful.