The day started early. At 6.30am, we had already eaten our simple breakfast. Our guide, named Anum had already been waiting for us. He is a petite but strong guy. Mt Rinjani for him is like his second home. Anum completed all the necessary procedures with the officials and we began our climb of Mt Rinjani at 7.30am. Our goal for the day was to reach Plawangan II, the first day campsite.
Early morning view of Mt Rinjani from the valley of Sembalun Lawang
Start of the journey to conquer Mt Rinjani
Initially, the trail was not so hard to negotiate. It was pretty flat to be fair. It took us around the lower parts of Sembalun valley and we were mesmerized by the beauty and tranquility of this place. It was the picturesque view of the vast valley that kept us going and not feeling tired. The sun had already taken its throne in the sky. It was terribly hot and clear on the day.
Beautiful view of Sembalun valley
At around 12pm, we stopped at a dried river and had a deserved rest. Anum and the two porters prepared our lunch. The treat was a big portion of instant noodle that we tried very hard to finish. This was a luxury to me considering we were in the midst of utter wilderness. But hey, we had paid for it.
The climb continued at around 2pm. It seemed to me the first day climb was not that strenuous after all. It was like a stroll in the park where you could enjoy the beautiful scenery of the nature. I applied some sun blocks and drank more and more water. Luckily, I did bring some Pocari Sweat isotonic drinks with me. Hehe...
Up and up again!
Almost reaching the 1st day campsite
Lush greenery of Sembalun valley
Mysterious and tempting summit
At 4pm, we reached our first day destination -- Plawangan II campsite. It's 2900 meters above sea level. This site was just perfect. It offered the best view of Segara Anak crater lake (Danau Segara Anak) and the Gunung Baru, the small volcano that last erupted in 1994. We could see Mt Agung (3142m) in Bali from here.
Sunset at Plawangan II with Mt Agung at the background
This time, Anum and the porters prepared Gado-gado for our dinner. Gado-gado is essentially an Indonesian style rojak. And again, they prepared a big portion for us. Our initial plan of losing some extra weights had gone with this kind of treat again.
Later that night, we gazed the night sky. Since there was no light pollution and we were at a very high altitude, we could see a lot of stars that are not possible to be seen when we were at home. And I really mean it. It looked like the whole sky is covered with stars. We could see constellation Orion, Ursa Major (Big Dipper), and others. We even noticed few satellites that orbited the earth, no joke. Of course, there were shooting stars to be seen as well. But I could only seen few of them. Alvin said he had seen more than 10 shooting stars that night. Incredible! We crawled into our tents later and that brought the day to a close.
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