As part of our romantic honeymoon in Indonesia, we decided to go on a 3 day hike up a volcano!  This included two nights camping, a summit hike beginning at 2 am leading to a beautiful sunrise, and all in all an amazing adventure.  While a small mountain at 12,224 ft or 3,726 m, it fueled our passion for mountain adventures.  Gunung Rinjani is the fifth highest mountain in Indonesia and second highest volcano.

We found a tour with the Lombok Network and were extremely pleased with them.  We began at the Sengiggi Sheratan, arriving late at night after taking a flight from Bali.  Kate was in charge of the packing list before we left and having just planned a wedding was a bit occupied.  Not realizing it would be cold and dark on top of a skinny, sometimes 1 foot wide ridge trail, we were underprepared.  Kate had a long-sleeved shirt and Andy had short sleeves.  We went to the closest market we could find near the hotel and found a 3/4 long-sleeved souvenir t-shirt.  This would have to do.  Fortunately, it was a full moon that gave us some light along the way (headlamps would have helped, oh well).  After a somewhat relaxing night in a resort hotel on the beach, our tour picked us up early in the morning to go to the trail head.  Along the way we picked up our guide, Seman.  Once we arrived at the gate, we went to the office to sign in, where we learned of a death that happened the previous day on the mountain.  It was at this point we realized this was serious. We quickly learned the Indonesian word for caution:  Hati-hati.

Day 1 started out a bit intimidating since we did not have much experience with this.  We could see the summit and it appeared deceivingly close.  The morning started out flat through incredibly beautiful, green hills along the side of the volcano.  Our first stop was to eat.  Here we were served a big heaping portion of gado gado!  We also had the pleasure of eating with a group of teenage locals who were hiking the trail.  Speaking different languages didn’t stop us from having fun eating with them!  After lunch, the trail began to ascend, and ascend more in a relentless path for miles.  We climbed through the clouds, finally reaching the rim, and made our way to our first camp.  On arrival Seman and his crew had our tents ready and kindly asked “Tea or coffee?”  We drank our tea with a view of other volcanoes silhouetted by a  beautiful sunset.  In just a few hours, we would be awake ready to summit.

At 12:30, Seman woke us up to have some tea and biscuits before our climb.  We stepped out of the tent to an incredible view of stars and a bright full moon.  Most other groups had flashlights, coats and headlamps.  We stepped off with none of that, only a long-sleeved shirt.  The trail to the summit was along the rim of the volcano. At some points the trail seemed to only be as wide as us and dropped steeply below.  Having only the light of the moon made it very frightening.  We could occasionally see the lava from the newer active volcano rising out of the crater lake below us.  Each step towards the top became more and more difficult as we were fighting our fears and fatigue.  The closer we got, the steeper the trail became with more and more scree, making each step very difficult to make.  Our guide, Seman, was very kind and encouraging and even joked along the way.  When we got to the top it was cold and dark, but the sunrise was going to be worth it all.  A group of French travelers brought a bottle of champagne with them and popped it open to celebrate.  We just huddled together waiting for the sun to rise.  Finally, we saw the amazing views, and even more glorious was the heat from the sun.  We caught glimpses of the neighboring islands, including Bali.  After hanging out at the top, we started our way back down.  Going down was MUCH easier!  Some people even ran down, as the scree cushioned each step.  Unfortunately, Andy fell on the way down with the camera in his pocket,  luckily we had a backup with us.  On our way down we noted how it was probably a good thing we hadn’t see the drastic slopes along the side during the ascent  Back at camp, we had a snack and headed down towards the lake.

The trail down was even more incredible.  Approximately every 12 hours we could feel the ground shaking and could hear the loud rumble of the volcano.  It was normal, we were assured.  We reached the lake and were told there were hot springs nearby that we could explore while they cooked our lunch.  With sore legs already, these were beautiful and welcoming even with a sharp sulfur odor!  A short stay next to the lake and we were back on the trail to climb UP the other side of the volcano.  It was here we saw where the fatal accident had occurred days before when the railing gave out underneath a young girl resting.  Our guide made sure we did not use the handrails and stayed very close to the rocks along the side.  At some points, we were scrambling up rocks, using our hands as grips.  We reached the top, then were told the camp was down the hill.  Going down required use of different muscles that were all sore.  We were amazed at our porters who were hopping around wearing flip-flops smoking clove cigarettes while we were sore and holding onto grass to get us down the hill.

Finally we reached our last camp.  This one was full of monkeys.  Our guide warned us about them and told us they could get aggressive.  Watching Andy trying to fight one of them was entertaining.  They mainly just stayed nearby and waited for us to turn our heads and grab our food, or go through the garbage can.  At night, we were able to see the black monkeys silhouetted in the trees.

The next morning was a short hike out.  They insisted on feeding us one last meal, another delicious yet extremely heavy meal.  Afterwards, we said goodbye to our porters and guide and made our way to quiet Kuta Beach in the south of Lombok.