For anyone who doesn't know, Indonesia sits directly on top of the “ring of fire” where two tectonic plates meet. This means there are a lot of earthquakes in the area and many of the islands have volcanoes. The closest one to where we were in the Gili Islands was Mount Rinjani, the second highest in Indonesia and on the island of Lombok – visible from where we were. After much umming and arrrring we decided that we should try and climb it. We organised it all through a tour company on Gili Trawangan (I say tour company it was just a guy with a shack) as it required a guide to organise the food, tents, porters and transport etc. We took the easiest of three options and would be climbing to the rim of the crater on day one, camping overnight, getting up early the next day to reach the summit and then walking down after breakfast. Not too difficult we thought!
 
The starting point for us was in a place called Sembalun on Lombok and meant we had to get a boat from Gili Trawangan and then a car in order to stay one night there before trekking the next day. The actual trek began with a gentle hours uphill walking through fields which didn't seem too bad. We were getting very hot and sweaty in the heat but nothing too strenuous. We soon learnt that this was the calm before the storm. It started to get steeper towards the end of our second hour and we were all relieved to stop for lunch. It was here we met a lot of other tour groups and it became quite obvious who was on a budget and who wasn't. Some groups were getting three delicious looking courses for lunch whilst sat on comfortable camping chairs. We however had to sit on the floor eating fried rice. No matter, we weren't here for the food! 
 
The next leg of the journey would take us up to the camp site on the rim of the crater. I don't think anyone was prepared for how long and difficult this part of the journey would be. The path just got steeper and steeper with the terrain becoming increasingly difficult due to tree roots, loose rock and crumbling soil. The higher we climbed the harder it became to go for more than a minute or two without stopping for breath. Finally after an exhausting day we reached the top and were able to look down on a very cloudy crater, although this wasn't the clear skies we were hoping for it was still spectacular. After an hour or so some of the cloud had cleared and we were treated to some fantastic views into the crater where there is a large lake. When the sun started to set it made for one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. Truly breathtaking.
 
Over our dinner of fried noodles, we discussed whether we were going to get up at 2am to try and make the summit of the crater – the highest point from which you can view the whole crater and the small volcano within it. We'd been told that this was a very difficult 3 hour scramble up and the same back down. After some time talking we decided we were all too tired, although Prodge probably would have if he wasn't suffering with a knee injury. After talking to our guide he suggested we walked for an hour to a viewpoint from where we could see the volcano within the crater at least. This seemed like a reasonable compromise and meant we only had to get up at 5am! By now we were all very cold and sitting by the camp fire wasn't helping any more so it was time for any early night. 
 
That night was probably the most uncomfortable we've ever been! For a start we were given the thinnest and most pathetic piece of roll mat to sleep on. Add to that the fact that our tent was pitched on a slight slope so me and Hannah were constantly slipping into a crumpled heap at one end of the tent. Plus it was freezing cold! This of course meant we had no sleep whatsoever. When we got up at 5am we were not in a good place, particularly as we knew we had to endure a hard hours walk in the cold and dark.
 
We had a quick cup of coffee and started our ascent towards the viewpoint. There wasn't actually much walking involved as the ground was made up of very loose gravel, this made it more of an hours scramble at times on all fours. Very difficult and frustrating! When we finally reached the viewpoint the sun had just come up and we were looking down onto a small smoking volcano surrounded on one side by a lake and forest on another. We stood there for some time soaking up the atmosphere whilst the sun came up behind us. A wonderful sight. 
 
After about half an hour of enjoying the view we made our way back down to our tents. This was slightly easier and much quicker than coming up but much more precarious as gravity was forcing you to take much bigger and faster steps. Hannah and Alex seemed to prefer the sliding down on your bottom technique. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes because they fell over!
 
Once back at camp we had a pancake and fresh pineapple for breakfast and got going down the mountain the same way we came up. For about an hour we made good progress and we thought it was going to be a much easier day. As the day went on though our progress got slower and slower. The severity of the downhill slope put a real strain on our feet because they were constantly banging and rubbing against the end of our shoes causing sore blisters and bruised toes. Our legs had turned to jelly as our muscles were giving in and it felt like with every step our legs might give way and we'd be on the floor! About six hours after starting the descent though we finally made it back to the village where we'd started. We were very relieved it was all over especially as it had started to rain heavily for the last half hour. We quickly got bundled into a car to take us to the harbour. Originally we were told that whatever time we finished walking we could get a boat from Lombok to Gili Trawangan – despite us knowing the last public boat was at 5pm. This probably wasn't the case given the vomit inducing speed at which the driver got us back to the harbour just in time for the last public boat across. What a day!
 
Overall an amazing experience but probably one of the hardest things we've ever done! It took us a good 5-6 days for our legs to fully recover afterwards and for us to stop looking ridiculous every time we had to climb down any stairs! Definitely worth it though.