From Gili T we had organised a 2 night, 3 day trek to reach the summit of Indonesia's second highest mountain and active volcano, Mt Rinjani, 3726m above sea, not far off 3 times the size of Ben Nevis. We were up bright and breezy to catch our boat over to Lombok. After a few hours we arrived at the Trek centre to meet our guides and the rest of our group, there was 11 of us in total and 2 guides. We also had 6 porters but they had already left to make sure we had a good spot to camp for the night.
We had a quick banana pancake for breaky and then a short car ride to the starting point.
We walked for a good 30 mins and a quite tough 30 mins aswell before reaching the proper starting point and gate to Rinjani national park, we were definitely warmed up!
The first day set the tone for the 3 days..it wasn't going to be easy. As we walked the ever increasing gradients we got to know our group and guides. As ever we had a great group of people.

We walked, climbed, slipped and slid for a total of 7 hours (obviously a couple of little breaks in between) before reaching the crater rim, our home for the evening. With out doubt it was one of the best views we have seen on our 5 months of travels! The pictures say it all!
As the sun set the temperature dramatically dropped and it was the coldest we had been since leaving home. Jazz really felt it so it wasn't long after dinner we were tucked up in our tents ready to attempt to sleep.
We woke early the next day to continue our adventure. Day two was slightly more relaxed as we got to stop at some hot springs, which I think our legs really needed. They didn't like starting to walk again though! We had lunch at the lake and then continued to trek up to our base for the night on the other side of the crater rim.
From the previous nights experience we knew it was going to be cold so we collected fire wood on the way up. This was such a good idea and made a nice evening chilling round the camp fire and sharing stories. Jazz was still shivering though. We all had an early night as we had to wake at 2.30am so we could make it to the summit in time for sunrise.

The morning came round too quick. After some tea and biscuits it was time to make our long, gruelling climb to the summit in the pitch black with just a torch to see. All you could see was a trail of torches leading up to the summit, the stars and the moon! We both started with all the clothes on we had with us. The layers soon started to peal off as the climb increased. I started to climb with Jazz but got ahead, I waited for her a few times but got too cold. Luckily one of the girls in our group with equally short legs trekked with her.
The 3 hour climb up was an absolute battle. For every 2 steps forward you'd slide one step back on the molten rock and dust. The higher we got the harder it got and the harder it got the more oxygen we needed but the air kept getting thinner and thinner.. It was hard to say the least. To give you all an idea of just how hard it was, people were throwing themselves to the gravel for a rest or turning around! There were even a couple of people being sick.
After a long struggle I made the summit and with our amazing guides help, Hans, Jazz made it shortly after me so we both enjoyed the sunrise together in the freezing cold. I couldn't of been prouder of her!

The decent from the summit was much easier than the ascent. We were able to slide down most of it on the loose rock and dust, back to our camp for breakfast. We also got to appreciate the beautiful views that we didn't get to see on the way up.

After breakfast our final trek to the bottom started and it wasn't quite so easy. There was blood, sweat and a few tears but we finally made it to the bottom- filthy dirty, exhausted and not wanting to take another step.

Our whole 3 day experience was probably the best but hardest thing we've done so far!