gunung rinjani (finally)
i arrived in senaru, at the foot of rinjani, early on tuesday morning, and immediately went to the trek centre to see how possible it was to get up the volcano. the guys kept bleating on about the rainy season and slippery paths, and looked aghast when i suggested going up to the rim without a guide, an idea they pretty much forbade. as it was, i had to go around and look for a trek to join.i was the only traveller in all of senaru: this sounds blissful, and at times it can be, but when you're trying to arrange something it leads to mounting costs. i thought that i'd have the power, being the sole customer available to the myriad agencies, but these guys have worked out a system. you can get them down to a certain price, but below that they will refuse to go... it's such a small place they all know each other, so if you lie and say you got a certain offer somewhere they'll check and look disapprovingly at your lying little face (a touch embarassing). even if you talk to the guides on the street they get really edgy when you start trying to discuss prices with them, even though they'd get more if booked directly, and insist on taking you to some agency. i was getting increasingly frustrated, as the price for the two day trek was prohibitively high, when i received an intriguing suggestion that might work for the 'energy rich, money poor'... start at midnight to reach the rim for sunrise that morning.
i'm probably more energy comfortable then rich, and this seemed like a pretty foolhardy plan. most people trek the 5-6 hours to pos 3 over the course of a day, sleep there, then do the final 2 hour scramble up to the rim in the morning. this involved doing all of that in about 5 hours, with minimal rest stops. silly, but half the price, so i signed myself up.
i was thinking of going for a bit of wander around senaru itself after lunch, but it started raining. and kept going. for nine hours. as i sat disconsolately in the terrace of my guesthouse the guide started to seem like a good investment. still it wasn't all bad, as one of the guys started singing sasak folk songs in a quiet voice, which for some reason was complemented perfectly by the drizzle. at one point he burst into, no doubt popular, hindi songs: i think my hastily uttered words of praise undid the damage that my initially blank face caused (has anyone seen kuch kuch hota hai? it must have done roaring trade here, because as soon as i tell anyone i'm indian, or even totally randomly, people shout it down the street at me).
for some reason it's much less daunting getting up at midnight then 2-3am, so i was relatively chipper when i met my guide, awan. we set off at 12.30, awan striding off into the distance with me in close proximity. the first hour to pos 1 was ok, but it was on the way up to pos 2 that i really started to feel the pain. the trail was slippery, filled with tree roots waiting to trip you up, and incredibly steep pretty much all the way... flat areas, or even shallow slopes, were rare and mercilessly brief. when we stopped i was a wreck, but our breaks consisted of the time it took awan to have a marlboro, as my lungs and i looked on in utter disbelief, before we set off again.
the trek to pos 3 was hard, but doable, but by this stage i was running a real energy deficit. the last stage, to the rim, was an absolute nightmare: incredibly steep, and over loose ground. awan kept marching on, until i slipped and fell, partly because of a treacherous bit of shale, partly, or maybe mainly, from sheer fatigue. he rushed back to help me, glanced at his watch, and suddenly was a new man. from then on the pace slowed, and i got to take numerous, welcome, mini minute breaks. it seems awan was a conscientious fellow: his remit was to get me there by sunrise, no matter how much i suffered. but we had managed to get comfortably ahead of the rigorous schedule he'd set, so i could now reap some rewards for my previous exertions.
we got to the rim, a slightly higher part then the usual rim camp, at just before 5.30, as the clouds in the distance began to glow red. the view is amazing... a huge green lake with a smaller, smoking, cone growing out of it, walled by the immense crater of rinjani: and we were totally alone. i think the more arduous the journey there, the more glorious a sunrise feels: this, coupled with the amazing panorama, meant it was a truly amazing experience, one of the real stand outs of all my time so far.
the journey down was nowhere near as tiring, but having to watch every step to stop yourself tumbling down is mentally exhausting, and i did go over on both my ankles a few times. we got back at about 11, and i was dying but so, so happy. i think awan was probably worth the money... the trail is quite clear, but would have been a nightmare in the dark and the wet. more than that, i would never have gone so hard, for so long, on my own: i'm fairly self motivated, but i was pushed to limits i didn't even know i had.
that's it: no more volcanoes for me. my ankles can't move from side to side, and my right knee won't bend: i think my body has finally had enough. fortunately, i intend to spend my last ten days in indonesia lazing on beaches, and going on gentle walks, so all is well. i went straight from senaru to gili trawangan, a tiny island off the lombok coast, slept for thirteen hours straight, and am now ready to do very little.
posted by bicrom @ 1:37 am
