By : Chha
Staying a night here at Sembalun Agro Villa is really refreshing. Hot shower, filling dinner the night before, comfy bed and cold fresh air makes my sleep wonderful the entire night. I am ready and energetic to start the hike up Mount Rinjani ! Not to forget, the awesome view of Mount Rinjani from Sembalun Agro Villa !
So a night before, we were given a short briefing on how our route for the hike will be and it look something like this - Sembalun (1156m) → Plawangan 2 (2639m) → Gunung Rinjani Peak (3726m) → Plawangan 1 (2641m) → Senaru (601m).
Before starting the hike, we will need to register ourselves at the Mount Rinjani Hike Registration Office which is estimated around 1km away from Sembalun Agro Villa and also to pay for the entrance fee.
Insurance : IDR 10,000 per person
Entrance Tickets : IDR 150,000 per person per day
The hike start from here the entrance of Sembalun Agro Villa. It was an easy walk for the first few minutes of the hike, walking on tar road.
The easy road was not for long, after awhile we start walking on dusty road. I was the last person in the group so i was walking at the back and all these dust is flying around me, at this point a face mask is a must !! If not, I can't even breath. The mask itself becomes really dirty just after an hour of wearing it. Another advice is, cover yourself up, i mean like really cover yourself from hair until toe. The sun is super hot and i get sunburn on my wrist, that is the gap between my long sleeve shirt and my hand glove. Even such a small gap which is expose to the sunlight can get sun burn, imagine how hot the sun is but you won't feel it because of the strong wind blowing will actually make you feel cold.
After the dusty road, you will have to go through road with grass all around you, this scene looks kinda awesome though but here is where i get my sunburn ! Also beware of cow dunk, hahaha ! They are everywhere ... ! So watch where you are going, haha !
The first few hours hike is rather easy, as it is just like walking at the park, where you can see Mount Rinjani from far and the grass surrounding me feels like as if i am in a big football field, haha !
When hiking Mount Rinjani, you can hire a porter to help you carry your things up to the peak but you will have to make the booking in advance through your Rinjani Tracking Agent. For us, we hire an extra porter to help us carry some of our things and it cost us USD 17.00 per porter to carry total 25 kg per day which total up to USD 68.00 for us.
Visited : July 2017
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Posted Date : 26 August 2017
Posted Time : 12.08 am
The first few hours of hiking on the first day is still manageable for me. The wind were blowing strongly, sand and dust flying everywhere, the hot sun burning my skin .. but the route this morning is still manageable. Then it is time to take a break and eat lunch, finally food !
Rinjani Tracking comes in different package, if you pay extra then you will get the privilege to sit on chairs and eat your lunch on tables. Well, for me .. i don't have such privilege, haha ! I just sit on floor .. but i still enjoy the food very much .. haha !
Our daily food is prepared by our porter, they really cook tasty food, i love every meal that they prepare for us. It is tasty and the portion, is big too .. !
We have the main course ... !
Fruits .. !
Drinks .. !
Coffee or tea .. it is like 5 stars dining on mountain, haha ! People here call it million stars dining place as there are million of bright clear shining stars above our head at night .. there are so many and so bright that it actually light up the night even without torch light or a camp fire .. !
That sweet time for lunch only last for about 45 minutes then it is time to start hiking again, this time .. things gets hard !
The route is full of rocky mountain .. with a lot of dust !
So from here and now onward, the route is just rock, dust, rock, dust .. ! The difficulty level on this half of the route is like just increase from 5% hard to 50% hard. It is really tiring me down .. my legs start to feel sore, my tight start to feel weak .. ! The route continue to be like this all the way up non stop until our first camp site for the night. It took us around 4 to 5 hours of hike from the place we had lunch until our camp site for the night.
I was so relief when i arrive at our first camp site. Thank God that the hike is finally over for the day and how much i wish, it is over for good but 'NO', i still have 3 days to hike for .. T.T
And finally i found my tent, haha ! By the time i arrive at this camp site, my tent was already made ready for me by my porter who arrived here first. The tent is so comfortable .. and i does not feel the cold wind blowing outside .. even if it gets too cold, there is a sleeping bag ready for me inside the tent to keep me warm. This is like the best million stars hotel .. !
The view is just simply amazing from way up here .. it feels so awesome to be camping here for the night under the sky of a million stars .. !
After finishing all the auwww and wow over the wonderful view up here, it is finally time for dinner. Once again our Rinjani Tracking Porter is setting up fire to keep us warm and to cook our meal for us. Thanks to them, we are kept warm at night and well fed .. !
Yet another satisfying and tasty meal, prepared by our porter ! A big THANKS to them .. !
Oh, one more thing, lets make a guess .. what does this thing in the photo above do ? haha ! well, have you ever thought of, what if you need a toilet up on a mountain like this ? Well, basically we just dig a hole and cover up the hole with this tent-look-alike kind of thing and do our business in there, hahaha ! Oh, remember to bring your own toilet paper .. the toilet paper is so important at times like this, hahaha ! Soon, the sun set and the night is cold, really cold .. with very strong wind blowing ! i wear 3 layer of shirt and 3 layers of pants while hiding inside the tent to keep me warm. No, i did not had my bath there as there is no bath room here. Do prepare a lot a lot of wet tissues for you to wipe off all the dust from your body or from the food you wish to eat .. as there is no water for you to wash them .. you can use your drinking water but that will be a waste, i rather drink them than to use it for washing .. I sleep early that night as i was really tired and also i need to wake up early the next morning for my 2nd day of hiking. This time is hiking up the peak of Mount Rinjani.
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Posted Date : 26 August 2017
Posted Time : 12.08 am
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