Gunung Rinjani sudah ku daki, tapi tasik tak dituruni

This is a looooOOOoong overdue entry. Almost 6 months...gaaaaahhh!

Friday 8th April 2016
There were only 17 of us plus. Half of them, geng sama2 mendaki gunung Kinabalu in 2014. Half of them, kira kawan baru la gitu. First time jumpa, no problem though. Amazing huh, how common interest can make us bond faster. We started our hike after a 1 night stay (7th Apr) in a quaint village in Sembalun. Niceeee village..nyaman, surrounded by the mountains.

 

First stop, was registration at the Sembalun Rinjani Trek Center (RTC). We walked from the guesthouse to the RTC. Started to get nervous (betul ke aku ni... haa..gitu). I was ill in Dec/Jan, so I was a bit worried. Only 3 things gave me confidence : 1) I was lighter by about 9kilos and 2) no foot/ leg injury. Had a bad plantar fascia during Kinabalu. 3) Me and hubby persevered for 21 hrs ascending to Low's Peak and descending to Timpohon entrance. We have perseverance, loads of them.
We actually got a remark (twice T_T), 'Ooo..korang ler yg turun Kinabalu nak dekat pukul 12 malam ye?' We hiked Kinabalu and Rinjani with Danz Travel. So words got around within Danz Travel's circle. Macam legend lak. Legend haru biru...nasib baik CikDan tak pangkah kitaorg join Rinjani trip ni...huhuhu.

 

Our local guide herded us onto the back of FWD truck and took us for a jaunty ride to the Pintu Sembalun. Sakit la jugak tongkeng duduk kat belakang tu, melambung2 ;D
We walked first through undulating green fields, saujana mata memandang. Baru lepas monsoon, so the field was abundantly green. Had to watch our steps. Cow droppings was also abundant hahaha...jerangkap samar. Looks like Bukit Broga (minus the poop..). Rinjani savannah is much grander of course.

Mid morning and it got hotter on the savannah. We made a long brunch stop at one of the posts...tak hengat..Pos 2? Pos 3? It was really a long stop, 1030-2pm kott. Sempat tido, solat jemaah bagai.
Oh ye...oleh kerana kami couple slow, a specific porter/guide (mas Wan) was assigned to us. He carried our knapsack (satu je, tapi besar hohoho) and he was also the sweeper. Ye..yer..kami belakang sekali..Orang lain dah berdesup. Takpe, yang penting, slowly but surely.
Next phase of the hike, I braced myself for it. Bukit Penyesalan which many bloggers cursed. Bukit Penyesalan really looks like iklan Salem High Country (otai-otai je tahu iklan ni...). Cantikk.

 

It rained though in Bukit Penyesalan. Disposable raincoat did not help. Rainwater slithered down the legs. Wet shoes, wet socks, wet pants. My hands were cold and pruny. My toes cramped so many times I lost count. But somehow I was glad. Hahahaha. Not so menyesal? I think, the cold rain helped to lessen the hardship. Imagine if it were sunny and hot..confirm menyesal. Bloggers said 7 peaks, but porter said 5 peaks. I was too tired to count the number of peaks. I just asked 'Ada berapa puncak lagi, mas?' and dragged my feet in the squishy shoes.
Almost 6pm it stopped raining and we finally arrived in Plawangan Sembalun. Tents were already lining the path which leads to Rinjani's peak. You know lah what happened when you stop moving. Body cools down. Our porters were late, so no tents for us yet. We were cold, wet AND miserable! Freaking cold!! Cold wind, nightfall and temperature was dropping. Damp shirts, wet pants and shoes...gaaahh!
Luckily, Wan and our knapsack was with us ..that means we can dig up for dry clothing straight away. I put on a dry fleece jacket on top of my damp shirt. Ya Allah best nya...The others, had to wait for the porters to arrive and deliver their knapsacks.
Once the tents were pitched and assigned, we just stayed in the tents due to cold wind and light drizzling. We were the only khemah kelamin, dubbed as khemah Happy Ending. Tah apa-apa laa depa ni.

The tents were so closely pitched, we could eavesdrop hahahaa. We simply raised our voice to talk to the neighbouring tents. Even had dinner in the tents. After dinner...rest time..zzzZZZ. I thought I would be having trouble sleeping in a cramped tent, with thin mattress and sleeping bag. Pffftt..fengsan jugak...

Saturday 9th Apr
The Day. The morning itself. Cold and foggy morning. Most of the journey to the peak was manageable. The hard part was the last leg, about 1KM or so to the peak. We had to trudge the loose, fine volcanic sand. Again, I braced myself for the infamous '2 steps forward, 1 step sliding backward' moment. However, no back-sliding woooHOooo! The fine sand was damp and somewhat compacted, I think because of the rain yesterday. Even our guide was glad. I was mightily glad.

Both of us (couple kura2) reached the peak just before 10am. Last one to arrive of course hahaha..but not so bad, just about 15-20 mins later than the rest of the team. Frankly, Kinabalu hike was tougher to me. I think, for Rinjani trip, I was fitter (plus the damp sand helped a lot!).

I considered the easy path to the peak is like a rezeki. Once at the peak, takde rezeki pulak - tak nampak Danau Segara Anak because of the thick clouds. *Sigh* You get some, you don't get some. C'est la vie, bak kata sorang hiker. We did not stay long at the peak. After taking the group photo, we made our move back to plawangan. It lightly rained and this time the path was really slippery. Berapa kali tah jatuh terduduk...huhuhu...gelak je laa masa jatuh tu.

We reached plawangan around 1-2 pm. The original plan was for us to break camp after lunch and make our way to Danau Segara Anak. However, due to rain, slippery path and everybody was miserable with cold and damp clothing (again), it was unanimous - no Danau Segara Anak trip and to break camp tomorrow morning, going back to Sembalun village.

No hotspring, no waterfall trip, no Senaru village. Hubby was mightily happy, he was still jet-lagged (flew back just for Rinjani, all the way from his overseas assignment). I also did not mind, I've achieved my main aim of reaching Rinjani's peak. After having lunch in the tent (again), sambung tidorrrr.. I really enjoyed sleeping in the tent that evening. It was cool, sound of raindrops hitting the tent like music, kenyang..heaven.

Husband dah fengsan

In the evening, it stopped raining.The guys went to a nearby piped water source for a bath...errr.. about 20-30mins jugak ke water source tu. Ladies stayed behind, hurhurhur. That was the only time we stayed out of the tents and bersembang2 di luar khemah kakakaka! Nightfall came and we got into the tents back, had dinner in the tent. Sejukkk..it was windy that night. Soo windy, I thought some of the tents might flew off!

Around 2am, somebody called out - stars in the sky. Ngantuk2 tu, I looked up from the tent's entrance...oooo..cantiknya (the night before was cloudy, saw no stars at all). Kamera henpon je..I could not capture the enchanting views. The strong wind must have blown away all the clouds. Cold wind, could not tahan. I slipped back into the sleeping bag and stuck out my head. I laid on my back to look up at the stars. My head on the outside of the tent, my body in the tent. Heaven. After 15 mins or so, got back into the tent. Sambung tidorrrr.

Sunday 10th Apr

Truly a SUNday. Best nya Ya Allah. Hahaha! Not seeing the Danau Segara Anak and crater lake for the past 2 days and finally seeing it before we break the camp, I felt truly blessed. It was a photography session for most of us, finally. Everybody was whipping out the cameras and handphones, posing and all.

Lion King pose

It was a beautiful day. Everybody was in a good mood to head back to Sembalun village, even with such a major change in the itinerary ie no Danau Segara Anak, hotspring, Senaru village and waterfall visit. Sporting lah korang2 ni.

Although we've ascended the Bukit Penyesalan and the savannah, we truly enjoyed the second passing. The sunny day exposed us to its utmost beauty, which was denied to us on our hike up. We reached Pintu Sembalun, managed not to finish last...hahaha! What an achievement XD

We stayed one night in Senggigi. Tak hengat dah apa nama resort tu..

Monday 11th Apr

The rest of the group continued the trip to one of the Pulau Gili. Which Gili pun tak hengat. We have planned earlier not to join the trip to the island. We had to fly back to KLIA in the noon, since hubby is catching evening's flight back to his oversea's assignment.

However, sempat jugak laa we rent a bike and rode the whole stretch of Senggigi. And found this one cute Pura Batu Bolong. Small attraction - has a beach, has a small Pura, has a short passage/cave and has a geological formation (volcanic rock).

Rinjani trip was a beautiful experience.  For me, Rinjani offers more scenery than Kinabalu. One Rinjani trip is enough though, a bucket list stricken off. Kinabalu on the other hand, I do  feel the urge to re-visit. Of course lah I feel Kinabalu is more special being a Malaysian. Biased heheheh.