Dream team’s dream trip

We made it to Rinjani summit!!! It was such a challenging hike but so cool to have done it with my favorite friend in Jakarta.

We call this group of 3 dream team because we really like each other, we work very well together, and we are good friends. They are my favorite people in Jakarta and this trip has been a blast so far!!! Love love love traveling with this bunch.

The idea of the hike came when I was anticipating post-marathon blue. I didn’t factor in how exhausted I’d be… so going to the hike, I was quite concerned, especially as I was having some lower back pain since the marathon so hiking up 3700 meters. Rinjani is the second highest volcano in Indonesia, and the hardest hike for non-professional hikers. Everywhere I read says it’s a very challenging hike, which made it attractive. It’s okay if we don’t summit but I wanted to try. I “recruited” my dream team to join me. I told one of them, who is not Indonesian, not to google it, hahaha. The other friend is Indonesian, she knows about the hike yet was up for it. So, our decision for this trip was done fairly quickly.

we arrived Lombok 5pm, the ride from airport to our overnight stay in Senaru, near starting point was quite long, 2+ hrs so we arrived at our hotel 8pm, pretty tired and not very inviting room but okay for one night.

we were picked up by 7:20am, got to the office of the trip company, stored our luggage, went to a health check up place to make sure we are fit for the hike (that was a joke), and we started our hike around 9am.

From start to pos 1 was fairly easy walk at a savanna, the challenge was walking under the sun but it was okay. We stopped as pos 2 for lunch. Fresh fruit was so nice after 2 hrs of walking

and the main dish, a typical indonesia meal

from pos 2 to 3 the path became steeper but still manageable. We got to post 4 by 2pm still quite fresh and happy, at least for me, not so much for my female friend.

I was enjoying this warm up a lot as you can see. A lot of chat happened during the walk, which is the best part of doing this with friends. Topics seem never ending.

we got to the camp site around 4:30pm, just before the sunset. The tent was set up and we rested there for few hours before dinner. By the time we got there, D (the girl) has decided not to join us for the summit. She was super anxious about the hike since last weekend, after the hike to the camp site (2500 meters), which was relatively easy, she felt she was not ready for more difficult hike. That turned out to be the right decision.

the view from our camp

our toilet 😀

dinner was served 7pm which was delicious, vegetable tofu and boiled egg in a coconut-based soup, served with rice. It was quite cold by evening so this was really good.

we went to sleep right after dinner because we had to get up at 2am. I didn’t sleep very well and was awake since midnight.

We departed 2:40am. There are 3 sections of the hike to the summit. First part was hilly and sandy which felt challenging already. Second part was less hilly but still steep and sandy so that was a good relief for a while. We were walking in the dark, I could feel the open path which got me anxious and concerned. I am not afraid of length, steepness, nor sandy path, but the narrow open path, as I feel like if I make one mistake and I’ll fall off the cliff. So, when we were part 2 which was quite challenging, I was wondering if I can overcome my fear. Negative thoughts kept coming and I knew they will lead me to somewhere I didn’t want to go. So, I shut them off and started to count my steps, from one to 500 or whenever we stop to catch our breath, and start the count again. That really helped. When we arrived at start of part 3, the most challenging part, the wind was blowing hard, I could see the path in front, which was super steep (45 degrees or more), sandy with rocks, and open. I told my friend K that I’m not sure I can do it, I was so scared of the open path. He was empathetic and encouraging and gave me enough pep talk to give it a try. So we went.

This is the path, black sand (as it is a volcano) with rocks. For every step we take, we slide down half step while trying not to fall. It was physically challenging and mentally defeating as it felt we were not progressing. After we started for like forever, we stopped to take a breath and asked our guide if we did 20% or 40%. He said: mmmmm… maybe 5%? We were devastated!!!

But my fear of open path was gone because although it is open, it’s wide and not a cliff. So I said, I can do it if it’s physically demanding. We kept pushing and pushing, stopping every 10-15 min, focusing on where to step. By around 1 hr into this part, my friend K felt defeated and wondered if we should give up as the thought of keeping doing this was painful. At that point, I was no longer scared, my energy level was high, and I didn’t feel any particular pain/soreness, so I told him that we should give it a try but if he says he wants to turn back, I’ll go with him, but I am confident that we can make it, so let’s try to do another 5%.

So we kept pushing and pushing… eventually we got past halfway point, mentally encouraging.

we asked people coming from the top how much left, and the answered ranged from 15 min to 90 min, hilarious!!!

We made it to the top 7:45, 5 hrs after we started, exhilarated.

we started our descend, something that I feared a lot before. But not this time, magically. Going down was like skating, sliding down due to the sandy path. Oh…. the volcano mountain meant we had to breath a lot of sand. I had covered my face for a while but combined with high altitude made breathing so hard, so I just breathed through the sandy air.

3 hrs later, we got back to the base camp, full of joy and satisfaction.

our original itinerary was to do another hike in the day and camp another night. Because we got back to the camp site later than 10am, we didn’t have time to do the hike, we decided to go down all the way to finish the hike one day earlier. We were all craving a hot shower, the dust is everywhere, and a good night sleep. We came down by 5pm, another 5 hrs of hike down for me and K. It was exhausting but so glad we made the decision.

Elevation change for the day: 5100 meters

Hours hiking: 13

It was probably one of my favorite trips so far. Conquering a physical challenge with a friend might be my favorite thing to do in life! 😆

we booked the hotel that my family and I will stay, so we have a chill day by the beach to recover and recount the stories of our adventure.