Rinjani - the trek Day 3

Day 3 -

Woke up to find it quite bright outside.obviously had
missed the sunrise. Me and Ila got out to take a look
at the scene outside. After a couple of snaps, Ila
(Yes, It is Ilavazhagan of "Thondan" fame) read
out his poem which he had composed probably last night.
Once he finds some time from his writing assignments,
I'll get hold of the poem.

After breakfast each of us set about finding a secluded
place to squat and u know do it.After a while of searching,
i managed to find a spot only to look up and find ravi
smiling down at me from about a hundred feet above me.
Oops!got to find another place. Finally everyone managed
to relieve themselves in privacy. We then set out for the
hot springs which was nearby. It was in fact a small
waterfall cascading in to a rather large puddle before
continuing downwards.The water was warm and we had
a hugely welcome bath after a couple of days.After the
refreshing dip, we headed back to the lake.And after lunch
we again started on the way up.





We found another party camped near us.We also found a few
more people on the way up.This stretch was characterised by
a lot more greenery,tall grass at first and then short shrubs.




It was quite tiring.There seemed to be two ways to overcome
the tiredness and increase the tempo.One way was to take a
deep breath and start walking really fast and keep pace with
the guide.This way would ensure a good lead ahead of the
others and so when you wait for the others to catch up and
then wait along with them, you have had an extended rest.
The other way was to detach oneself from the trek mentally,
either by chatting with a co-trekker (on any damn topic
under the sun) or just daydreaming.I did both at various
points in the trek. Other tactics were indulging in quizzing.
After a lot of climbing, we reached a spot where there was
a sign in the local language which said that the path ahead
was dangerous. Well it was definitely was a bit dangerous
as the trail narrowed down further and there was just about
enough space for a person to walk through. Lord of the rings
revisited. We could picture ourselves as frodo baggins
scaling the mountains to dispatch the ring. A few false
steps could lead to someone tumbling down a few hundred
feet.And with the load on our back, it was even tougher.
Still donno how those porters managed it.That's a lot
of skill involved apart from the obvious strength required.



Finally we reached the campsite at the other side of
the crater rim. We had trekked up to the crater rim,
went down to the lake in the crater and then trekked
up to the other side of the crater rim.The soil was very
dark and one could sense the volcanic nature of the
surroundings. Everyone got down to taking snaps of
themselves overlooking the lake. It became more misty
soon and the entire scene beame a bit spooky. We could
see gunung agung which is in Bali, the adjacent island
in the distance.



The porters were already there and had set up tents.
Some of them had gone to fetch firewood and soon
we had a small fire going. We drank some very watery
hot tea. Then made some soup using ready to make soup
powder. All these seemed like a gift from God for the
parched throats and tired bodies.



We were resting in the tents when someone called.
Went out to witness a captivating sunset. This was
one of the highlights of this eventful trek.
After dinner, we rested our tired asses as we had to
haul them up by 2 in the morning if we wanted to
catch sunrise at the summit.



Coming soon....The Grand finale...The Summit...