I met my fel­low trek­kers, a dutch couple named Robin and Ingrid, at 6 am, when we were all picked up in Sen­g­gigi. It was almost 8 am, when we finally arrived in Sen­aru, where we were intro­duced to Mursan, our guide, and Mordi, our porter for the trip. When we repacked our bags I noticed that Robin and Ingrid were equipped with the best gear money can buy. Well, it only made sense, con­sid­er­ing that they had been to Mount Everest Base Camp and on the sum­mit of Kili­man­jaro. Nev­er­the­less, I felt a bit inad­equate with my Nike train­ers and my flimsy rain­coat. After a yummy break­fast of banana pan­cakes and tea we set off in a bemo to Sem­bu­lan, the start­ing point of our little adven­ture. There we first checked in at the Rinjani Ranger Cen­ter and then short before 10 am we star­ted walk­ing. The first hour was fairly easy, first through rice fields and then later through open coun­tryside. When the forest star­ted it got notice­ably steeper and thus harder. Con­tinue read­ing →