Activity Summary
Thursday 10th November - Day 70
Travel to Lombok (Kuta)
Friday 11th November - Day 71
Chill around Kuta
Luke departs for Rinjani
Saturday 12th November - Day 72
Luke:
Sembalun crater rim campsite
Nicola:
Chill in Kuta
Sunday 13th November - Day 73
Luke:
Mt Rinjani summit
Segara Anak Lake & hot springs
Senaru crater rim campsite
Nicola:
Chill in Kuta
Monday 14th November - Day 74
Luke:
Senaru village
Travel to Gili Air
Nicola:
Travel to Gili Air
Summary
Lombok
If not doing something involving Mt Rinjani, there isn’t all that much that’s very exciting to do. The tours are quite expensive (as it takes a long time to get round the island) and this put Nicola off. Kuta is pretty chill but there is only so much time that can be spent here before getting bored as the beaches are much better elsewhere.
[Luke:] Rinjani however is excellent. Loved the challenge, the fact it was quiet (apparently not at all this way in peak season) and was incredibly lucky with the sunshine and no rain. Absolutely recommend doing if fit enough but be prepared and go in knowing there are various let downs that could have made this absolutely epic. But otherwise, I loved it and it has been the best thing I have done so far on our travels.
Accommodation
Kuta Lombok
The Livingroom Hostel - 4 nights - £9/n/p
Overly expensive for a bed but seems to be the way with hostels. We were separating after a night so this was the best option available for Nicola at the time. Building works outside our room the first night meant there was smoke coming in through the aircon which gassed Nicola out and forced a move upstairs which solved the problem. Otherwise the live music stopped at 11pm so little chance of an early night and are always subject to the careful or carefree nature of roomies.
Nicola didn’t sleep much for 4 nights.
Travel
Lombok (Kuta)
Homestay -> [walk] -> Banjar nyuh harbour [speedboat] -> Sanur port -> [grab] -> Padang Bai port -> [ferry] -> Lembar port -> [local taxi] -> Kuta Lombok hostel
Diary
While in Nusa Penida we had done plenty of research about the speedboat companies and crossings made between Bali, Nusa and Lombok. As we looked into this more it began bringing up Nicola’s anxiety pretty severely and in reading the reviews and from our experience it’s not surprising. The health and safety record is pretty poor and some of the reviews make for some pretty horrible stories (more oft than not from bad weather). We religiously were following wind, weather and swell reports to determine how horrible a journey might be and ensure Nicola is as comfortable as possible. The Lombok strait between Nusa and Lombok was a less than desirable stretch of open sea for us on a speedboat so we worked out a far more convoluted, longer but safer and cheaper route. Our plan was to speedboat it back to Bali, taxi up to Padang Bai port and get the public 5 hour ferry across to Lombok. Simple but long AF.
The first leg in our grand plan was the early speedboat (opted for Angel Billabong as it hadn't let us down previously) at about 8am. The tide was out so we had to get a smaller taxi ferry out to the boat which delayed the departure somewhat but it was easy enough, especially as we decided to book our tickets on 12go rather than at the port (simple check in required in the morning). This time Luke wasn’t being pressure cookered by a fat person.
Once at the port we stopped off for breakfast at the cafe we knew before getting a grab to Padang Bai, just over an hour north up the east coast of Bali. The taxi driver was a bit of a legend and we were just chatting the whole way there.
Once at the public ferry we were helped by many a local to get to the right place for tickets, one fruit seller was particularly aggressive in both her sales tactics which involved following us around and not taking no for an answer and also telling us where we should be. Eventually Luke just confirmed everything with the ticket counter lady and after a shortish wait were on the 5hr ferry to Lembar and Lombok.
By this point we were very proud of our progress and that we had managed to get seats right underneath the aircon. An hour in we were less than enthused when it kept turning off and the heat from all the passengers had obliterated what little effect these 4 or 5 units had on the room. Luke made friends with a local musician who was getting married in a few days. Even got an invite but sadly we couldn’t make it that far east in the time we had.
Now pretty tired, we stepped off the ferry with little else knocking around the Lembar port. Luke tried sorting a shuttle bus with a local at the port but barely anyone was a tourist so we had to settle for a private car. We paid over the odds for it (grab drivers do not operate in various ports like this because of the ‘taxi mafia’) and the driver was an absolute nutcase to the point where we thought we might actually die. Fortunately this journey ended after a very long hour. On a funnier note Luke got his first Indonesian heckles of ‘Pique’ (some of his friends believe he looks like Gerard Pique from Barcelona) which was amusing.
We checked into the hostel, grabbed some food from a local restaurant and spent the evening having a short walk around Kuta (there isn’t much) and winding down in our 6 bed dorm. Fortunately for us our roommates were a group of older Germans who despite being absolutely blotto were the quietest people we have ever had. Barely made a sound when they came back at 11pm.
Building works outside our room meant there was smoke coming in through the aircon which gassed Nicola out and therefore she couldn’t sleep past 5am. Luke on the top bunk and likely because of his London tar lungs, was unaffected but as the room had more or less risen by 7am he didn’t get much of a lie in. Hostels are the worst for rest.
Luke found a local cafe for breakfast and then set off by himself to sort laundry out leaving Nicola at the hostel. A few shuttle runs to and from the hostel, getting some cash and buying a proper dry bag in the scorching heat meant we had little energy for much else so found another cafe for the afternoon and sat there doing nothing for a few hours before Luke got picked up by his driver for his Mt Rinjani trekking tour.
From this point onwards Luke will take over the narrative in the first person. A summary of Nicola’s 3 days apart from Luke was eat, chill, yoga session and spend too much time in Kuta as there is little to do. The waterfall tours were extortionate so we’re firmly rejected as an activity. The end.
[Will start with a general overview of my 3 day 2 night Mt Rinjani summit and crater lake experience.
The tour company I opted to go for was Dhyns Rinjani trekking. It was the second best rated on tripadvisor, the green eco one wasn’t leaving that day and I really struggled to find a tour operator in low season (the mountain fully closes from January onwards). It was an expensive endeavour at US$240 for the 3 days but one I desperately wanted to do. I put a lot of research into this (this guide was incredibly helpful https://www.worldbesthikes.com/mount-rinjani-trekking-packages-lombok-indonesia/#summit2) to determine what to bring but mainly who was the best to go with. For me an absolute game changer were hiking poles to get up the scree to the summit with ease.
You pay more, the porters and guides are treated better and they appear to be responsible for the trash and litter they make. So while more expensive than bartering down to $100 at the base of the mountain I am happy with my decision as I actively saw them carry the plastic down. The rest of the mountain however, much like Indonesia, is absolutely covered in litter, plastic, toilet paper and wipes and even perfectly formed poop. All of this I was perfectly prepared for thankfully and therefore didn’t take away from the experience.
My grand plan to address the waste issue is have the national park close the sites, employ people to fully clear the litter as a factory reset. Inspect and then when any litter is found fine absolutely all tour companies and when identified remove tour licenses. This will encourage a nice amount of ‘grassing up’ and hopefully stop the problem. Resolution through fines and fear.
As for the walking, I felt it was pretty easy to the summit but doing nothing but be an active traveller eat less and healthier foods for 2.5 months has had an absolutely wonderfully positive impact on my physical fitness which I am absolutely gassed about. About 90% of the people up the mountain however seemed to disagree and were both verbally ecstatic and crying out how difficult it was. Pansies.
Another part that makes this all so easy is you are basically responsible for nothing but yourself. The guides and porters carry absolutely everything, even your water if you wished. This didnt sit well with me but there were absolutely no option of taking a bigger bag to accommodate tent, sleeping bag etc. so just had to roll with the ‘anyone can make it up Rinjani’ advertising and execution. The porters are absolute monsters - they are faster than everyone, doing it in flip flops, smoking and carrying everything you need to camp and eat. Conversely it felt all the guide does is carry some water, give minor points for direction and say ‘careful bro’. What would have made it infinitely better was a guide who could communicate with us, give us some interesting facts and have a general conversation. Turns out he didnt understand a word I said the whole time but only laid this fact on me on day 3 on our final descent which was equally hilarious and infuriating.
The hard part of the 3 day 2 night experience was the descent into the crater lake and excess walking. In all honesty, apart from the exercise, it really wasn’t worth it. Summit and down in a 2d1n experience is definetely the better option.
Conclusion?
All the tour companies seem the same - pay more, likely to get a more ethical trip
The guides are pretty shit and don't carry first aid kits
The porters are silent monsters
Walk up and down Rinjani is pretty easy with decent fitness
2d1n is plenty - crater lake and hot springs is not worth it
Plastic, toilet paper and faeces line the campsites - be prepared
The views are outstanding and the achievement was amazing
Overview piece out].
Communication in Indonesia with tour companies has been a recurring pain in the ass as a result of a language barrier and general incompetence of people. I organised the Rinjani tour 5 days prior to the pick up day and after a days worth of back and forth trying to understand what was going on we finally set a pick up from Kuta at 5pm so I could have the day with Nicola, which the dude subsequently confirmed. 12pm comes and he says his driver can’t find me and says I’d checked out. Reiterating our agreement I made the driver wait around until 4.30pm before we set off.
He was just as reckless as the ‘taxi’ from Lembar to Kuta. The drive to the hotel in Senaru was a lot lot further than I thought and ended up taking over 4 hours to get there. I was ok with his reckless overtakes into oncoming traffic when it was light but as soon as that faded and we were on single track windy mountain roads doing the same thing I was not comfortable at all. I spent the whole time staring at the road letting out the occasional “nope” in pathetic protest when he went full billy big bollocks. Amazed we made it one piece and that he only stopped once to refuel…
Now past 8pm I met up with Dhyns who gave me a decent briefing of the walk, break points and distances between places. I had signed up to a sharing group tour but only 1 other person was found (Arthur) so we were a happy twosome supported by a guide, his really unfit mate and 2 porters. Very excessive for just the two of us but nought we could do.
Grabbed some dinner, carbo loaded as best I could and took off to my special lonely heart bed.
The tour pick up was 7am so I had a double helping of banana pancake to again carbo load and then met the team. Everything and everyone was in the back of a pickup truck which took about an hour to get to the national park check in.
We got a quick health check up, were green ticked as healthy and not likely to die from the altitude and were dropped off at the start point of the trek. Let the fun commence.
Day 1 consisted of:
5 positions (POS)
Distance = 9.97km
Elevation gain = 1,597m
Moving time = 3hr 07min
Elapsed time = 5hr 56min
We flew up the first 2 POS’ which were more alike to walking in the open British countryside. Before we knew it we were chilling at POS 2 for 1.5hrs as this was the lunch stop. It seemed overly early to be breaking but the spot was ideal for the porters to cook and certainly was required going forward. The food on these things is pretty immense all things considered. Didn’t get the same lunch/dinner meal at all over 3 days and the nasi goreng was probably my favourite one I’d eaten the whole of my Indonesia trip. They also provide a lot of food.
Itching to go we started to do some steeper climbs. I was very happy to be doing it with Arthur who had a good level of fitness (despite spending the last few months of his nomadic working life drinking and working) and being only two of us meant we could dictate the pace. We consistently left the guide behind (he was carrying a big ol bag and we have no idea what was in it or how heavy it was) and his mate who didn’t speak a word of English and was unbelievably unfit for an 18 year old. After watching him spend the breaks between positions almost passed out in a starfish position, and saying it was easy then was blessed with the nickname ‘Eazey’. Occasionally I would just shout easy down the mountain to a limp wave and laugh from the guide. About the extent of my communication with both of them for 3 days.
Otherwise the walk was largely uneventful until we got to Sembalun crater rim campsite. We were one of the first up there and arrived about 3 hours before sunset so spent a long time strolling around and watching people arrive over the next 5 hours, some in a lot worse wear than others. And this day was the ‘easy’ one. It was also the first image of the masses of plastic waste, litter and tissue paper strewn around everywhere. Was a lot less than I expected but still really ruins the vibe.
Our team set up our tent, cooked us food and gave us camping chairs to watch the crater rim world go by. Turns out triangle camping chairs suck.
In an effort to get some sleep before we were due to start walking the next morning at 1.30am we tried crashing out at about 7pm. This failed miserably as it was pretty uncomfortable on the roll mats provided, we weren’t all that tired from walking and someone decided to pitch their tent next to ours when they arrived super late and would not shut the fuck up. Zero etiquette.
We had agreed with our guide that we would start walking at 1.30am to be at the summit for 5.30am as it takes about 4 hours according to various online information. He suggested a 2am start because of our previous days pace but we said we were likely not to sleep and would be keen to just walk, even if that meant slowly.
1.30am came around, we were ready to go and the guide was nowhere to be seen. We tried talking outside the tent to rouse him and eventually had the idea of directly shining our head torches through the tent. This seemed to work but meant by the time we were coffee’d and fed a jam sandwich (terrible) it was past 2am. Bit of a joke.
Day 2 summit consisted of:
Distance = 8.34km
Elevation gain = 1,051m
Moving time = 3hr 33min
Elapsed time = 5hr 39min
My legs weren’t sore at all from the day before so this part didnt really phase me much and the ‘steep’ climb didnt seem all that challenging. The hardest parts by far were the scree (volcanic sand and stones) that lined the start and end of the hike. I walked through the first part without trekking poles but whipped them out for the final hurdle and the difference it made was pretty substantial. The brief before stated it would be a 2 steps forward, 1 step back vibe but the planted poles meant I didn’t have to think about my feet from a stability point of view and were able to pull myself up which made for easy work. Arthur was slipping around all over the place but the selfish prick I am kept my poles to myself (giggidy).
The guide was keeping pace with us more or less this time round as he seemed to have shed a lot of weight from his bag, often coming out with absolute pearls of wisdom such as ‘slowly’ or ‘careful bro’. Really was a game changer.
It took us 3.5hrs to summit and timed it perfectly for 5.30am, just as the sun rising was starting to turn the sky red. There was already a guy up there who had seemed to run past us earlier and on success let out a massive whoop. Rather aggressive from my view.
The views were sensational. There were about 20 people who made it up for sunrise, although many were still ascending past this point and there were many who looked like they would never achieve it. Personally don’t know how people can get their fitness levels so wrong but not for me to question. Everyone was very happy and cheery that they succeeded, some claiming it was the hardest thing they’ve ever done and I just chuckled to myself. Smug prick - ‘tick’.
We started descending down the mountain at the request of our guide. He is an incredibly short guy with no body fat and had what appeared to be a blanket and leggings to keep him warm. He looked like an absolute noob. I even offered him my warm clothing which he turned down, but looking back at it he likely didn't understand me. Either way, the guy needs a bleeding coat. By this point though the sun was fully up and we’d had all our pictures so were happy to descend.
Arthur is Finnish and after spending a lot of time with my Swedish mate Tommy (shout out) turns out the Scandis are all the same (snus & love of salt to name a few stereotypes). Much like Tommy’s mountain goat ability to be stable at all times, Arthur just took off running down the scree without so much as a falter. I on the other hand adopted a combination of skiing and snowboarding down while stacking it pretty often from just not being overly stable. Certainly prefer the uphill to the downhill despite being nowhere near taxing energy wise and quicker.
By the time we’d descended back to the campsite at about 8am, breakfast was already on and coffees provided. At this point the lack of sleep, blaring sunshine and just having a quick reality check of where the lake was in relation to us currently put a bit of dread in us.
After finishing breakfast and spending what felt like zero time relaxing we were off on the move down to the Segara Anak Lake & hot springs:
Distance = 5.42km
Elevation gain = 157m
Elevation decline = (796m)
Moving time = 1hr 59min
Elapsed time = 4hr 04min
The drop off from the crater rim down to the lake was steep and involved dropping down onto large rocks and in some cases scrambling down. Arthur was now sporting the start of some serious blisters and my left LCL in my knee started twanging from the impact of going down. There was little Arthur could do but stuff tissues to try and pad out his pressure points so just ended up having to walk in constant pain that got worse over the next two days. I ended up relying very heavily on righty to compensate for the pressure building on my ligament. This slowed us down a great deal and made for a not overly pleasant walk down to the hot springs and lake.
Once finally at the lake we had a quick soak, the heat and rest appearing to have a positive impact on my knee. In my head all I kept hearing was the forewarning that Nicola had given me before I set off of ‘do not ruin your knees for New Zealand’ after I had previously wrecked them trying to overzealously cycle around the hills of Glasgow for 3 days with a far fitter group of mates.
A little bit more springy we continued round to the lake before a couple of missteps outside of my regimented protective walking pattern made my knee twang some more. Was going to be a rough 2 days.
What made it worse was the lake was awful. Far more litter knocking around, as clearly an easier tourist spot to get to, and the lake stank of sewage and rotten fish. No chance of swimming in this so we reluctantly sat on our camping chairs, were fed and then started the very unwelcome climb to the Senaru crater rim campsite. At this point I also realised I’d lost my power bank so had to stop strava and was absolutely furious along with being tired and injured. In an absolutely terrible mood I set off in sullen silence.
Painful climb up to the Senaru crater rim campsite (from maps rather than actuals):
Distance = 2.5km
Elevation gain = 798m
Elapsed time = ~3hr
If I wasn’t in pain and trying to overcompensate with putting all my weight on my right leg this would have been an excellent climb. It was hella steep that involved basically rock climbing to ascend to the campsite which was pretty excellent. It was fairly slow going for us (our guide had a similar knee problem) and this was made all the more evident as Eazay was tearing on ahead. In good humour was shouting this at us ahead which I approved of. He did however fail to summit Rinjani so he is still weak.
The climb was pretty gruelling and by the time we arrived at about 3.30pm we thought it surely was closer to 5pm. We sat down in our camping chairs, were provided with deep fried banana and chocolate and more or less sat in silence for hours. Turns out this is the Finns natural comfort zone and the thought of bars being full of Finnish punters all sitting there in silence rather than small talk cracked me up (Arthur did not at all fit into this stereotype at all and was a great hiking buddy throughout).
Once fed, we both crashed out before sunset and even the uncomfortable roll mat, tiny leather pillow and decline of the tent could not upset our sleep. It did help that at Senaru there were barely anyone doing the 3d2n trip (2 of us plus another group of 5) and minimal people doing the Senaru crater rim hike and down that day so it was plenty peaceful apart from the monkeys that decided to jump into a poor unsuspecting couples dinner plate from behind. Don’t fuck with the monkeys.
Sunrise was at about 6am and as soon as light started coming through the tent we were up and about. Fairly decent 11 hours of broken sleep as the hard floor made sleeping in one position too uncomfortable after a while but the Uni canoe polo camping trips were less luxurious than this so I couldn't complain.
The sunrise views were enjoyed, able to see the Gili islands from this campsite and before we knew it we were fed and heading down on the final leg to the Senaru village:
Distance = 9.2km
Elevation decline = (2,040m)
Elapsed time = ~4hrs
Both of us were in pain as soon as we started and we just wanted to be back as quickly as possible. My two steps for every one that others were doing to preserve my knee meant it was slow going and the constant chatter from the guide and Eazay as well as the never ending hacking and spitting really drove me nutty. But we ploughed on, barely stopping until we got to POS 1 and less than a km away from the end where we had lunch. Finally, we tipped the guide and porters, although I am deeply against this practice given we had already paid so much to do the tour and felt we were basically guilted into doing so. They had done their jobs but little else more, especially the guide.
We had to wait a short while at the end of the hike for the car to pick us up. All 7 of us and our gear were crammed into this vehicle and dear lord it reeked. As expected from 3 days of walking where the only wash came from the sulphur ridden hot springs.
At the trekking office the owner tried getting input from us about the trip which we were less than enthused to give before eventually getting driven to pick my bag up, and over to Bangsal harbour for the taxi boat to the Gili islands where Arthur and I parted ways - I was very fortunate to have been paired with him throughout the trek and had a good laugh throughout. His long drive to Lembar and the 5 hour slow ferry to Bali I was not at all jealous of.
And there ends the solo travels of Luke’s Lombok adventure.
Comments