Lombok - Rinjani Team IV

Chillin' on the sumit

ze autrians and Mattes trying for the sunrise

kati, ange, ze austrians happy to have reached the top!

Lombok - Rinjani Team III

kati keeping warm in her icebreaker

kati above the clouds

dan and his glasses

Mattes and Ange and a sureal picture

Lombok - Rinjani Team II

our guide

mattes and the active baby volcano in the crater lake

Dan the smiley man

Mattes keeping warm for sunrise (which never showed its face)

Lombok - Rinjani Team I

ze two austrians - faster than us all on the way up and down that mountain!

Dan and ze austrian taking some daring pics

mattes and philippe, who was a good pace maker for us - this is on the way up, about the first time we saw the rim through the clouds, that's why they're so happy :-)

on the crater rim in the sunset

Lombok - Rinjani Guides

As we had planned (and kati had dredded), the next stop was renting a scooter on the island Lombok and heading to the volcano Rinjani - to climb it. The 2 day hike was one of the coolest things I've ever done, I think I can say the same for Mattes, but also one of the most exhausting. Luckily we "only" had to carry our small backpacks - the team of porters and our guide carried the tents, cooking things, etc. and created the greatest meals!! even banana pancake for breakfast!

Some of the porters with the traditional carrying utensils - I don't know how they do it... and none of them have shoes, it's either flip flops or barefoot...

Lombok - Gili Meno our home

the view from our little terrace at the beach - face to face with the volcano rinjani on the island lombok, which we will conquer in a few days! starting left, the first flat part is where you start the hike from (600m), the you climb to the second flat bit, which is the crater rim (2600m). at least we think so :-)

waking up to see the sunset infront of our hut

our long awaited hut at the beach - with the hammock :-)

Lombok - Gili Meno

Gili Meno is the island next to Gili Trawangan - and alot quieter. We found a lovely place to chill called Sun Gecko, nothing else around, just us in a little hut bz the ocean. We rented some snorkling gear and swam with giant turtles right off the beach oer the corals - heavenly!*

Lombok - Gili Trawangan

drinks in the sunset at that plcae by the ocean the next day

view over to the main land

Lombok - Gili Trawangan (contd)

Sunset on the West side of the island

North-West, hoping to catch a table for dinner here tonight!

Beach beach beach on the East coast, you can see Gili Meno on the other side, where we will be heading tomorrow!
We're enjoying beach life, though there is a pretty strong current in the reeaaally warm water. Dinner is fresh grilled fish at the beach in nice restaurants, we've almost walked all around the island by now, they've even made an open air cinema! We've ended teh past two nights at an Irish Pub open to the water, which has the busiest crowd, good pizzas and really affordable drinks! Ole! But we still don't understand the fame of the island as THe party place around... it's been fun, but no dancing, no electronic music, and all this even though there are many merry people around... But we met some nice folk anyway and talked and table-fussballed our way thru the nights.

Lombok - Gili Trawangan

Nice island, great beaches, cleeeear water, lush inland, little paradise (staying at Lisa's which had a room to spare, ole!)

Bali - Crossing over to the Gilis!

Right the next morning, we gave bck our faithful moto, boarded the bus to Padangbai and then the ferry over on a 5hour ride to Gili Trawangan! The ride was blessed by pure sunshine and we enjoyed relaxing on the deck. We decided to stay on the islands for a few days, starting in Trawangan.