Rinjani: Not Just A Place To Hike On (Part 1)

Allohaaa…
In this looong night (yeah, I began to write in the night, but I could find internet connection in this afternoon, LOL), I would let my fingers dance to write down my wildest unforgettable moments on last August with some new friends from my college in the most beautiful incredible place in Lombok, mount Rinjani.

The story began from friend of my friend’s invitation to join their journey to the place which had always been written in my resolution for two years, rinjani. I couldn’t refuse this invitation and struggling to get my mom’s permission at that day. Finally, yeah, that was the toughest lobby which almost failed but could save my trip in the wildest mountain, rinjani.

Day 1 – Heading to Lombok
We went to Lombok province by bus from our place, Yogyakarta. It took 31 hours trip with two times changing ship, from east java to bali and from bali to lombok island. That was my longest tiring bus trip i’ve ever had. But still, it was precious moment.

Day 2 – Rinjani and its mystery
Finally, we arrived in lombok at 9 p.m. and were picked up by the travel to our next destination, base camp in sembalun, one of rinjani’s tracks. After 3 hours-continuing-sleeping, we arrived in the simple base camp which actually was a school’s musholla and met the host who provided the place for us. At that time, she told us some mountaineers’s story who couldn’t pass rinjani’s barriers and died there. Also the recent news about a tourist who fell to the valley and died that afternoon. From the stories, the point is that we can’t control the nature, when it goes to be wild and dangerous, all we have to do is accept it and wait for good. In addition, every single hurried action will bring regrets, moreover, it endangers you. So, preparation is the most important thing.

Day 3 – Morning walks to the reservoir and begin the trip
Starting the day with morning walks together with bunch of cows to reservoir in Sembalun, we ready to begin our trip and repacking our stuffs. The stuffs are clothes, raincoat, jacket, sleeping bag, mineral water, cutlery, wet tissue, flashlight, mattress, small stove with gas, cooker, tents, fly sheet, and food supplies including food energy booster such as chocolate, soy joy, palm sugar, and biscuits. After all those preparation, we began our trip to rinjani from sembalun track at 2 p.m. This track was quite unique because as far as you could see behind, you realized that you were just through the flat one, you were not as far as you thought before. But for us, yeah, it was challenging. At 9 p.m., we decided to build two camps, one for girls and other for boys. The location was in the middle of second post and third post.

Day 4 – Forest fires force us to continue our hiking
After waking up in the morning to pray, I couldn’t refuse temptation to continue my sleep. Moreover, it seems like the weather was getting cold and colder. I faintly heard that my friends talking about forest fires which had been happening for over one hour and were not sure when it will stop. When I checked outside the camp, yes, almost of mount was burnt. We were not sure what the cause of the fires. Hurriedly, we had breakfast and prepared to leave the camp ground as soon as possible to keep safe from the smoke.

Still on the same formation, we continue our journey to the ground named Plawangan, the nearest camp ground to peak of Rinjani. That was end up as the wicked tracking through seven hills, natives called it seven regretful hills, yeah, now we mean it. During the journey, I saw so many hikers there from the youngsters to the elders, from the amateurs to the experts, from the tourists to the natives who only use casual sandals and two baskets on their shoulders, some of them are porters and others are natives who wanted refreshing with their family. Every step that we take slowly but sure have been carrying us closer to the Plawangan, even sometimes we separated each other because some were hiked fast, others needed more time just to take breath well. The memorable thing was when I hiked together with some students from Universitas Mataram, local university, one of them was a fashioned girl who hiked very slowly and being a joke by her friends, this really helps me to forget how tiring the journey was. Seemed like the destination was too far, finally at 4 p.m. we reached the place and looking for the space to build camps. Because of in this ground there was water source, three of us including me continue to fulfill our bottles as our drinking stock, then we realized that the place quite far from the ground, about one hill with the long queue, fiuuuuh. Yeah, at least, I can wash my hands, it was enough. In the evening, after praying and having dinner we committed to start our summit attack at 1 a.m. Why should be in the middle of the night?

TO BE CONTINUED