Senaru - Aiq Kalak (Mt. Rinjani's hot springs) (Tropical approach)

Access to starting point:
The village Senaru is located at the northern part of Lombok island in Indonesia (east of Bali). The trail begins at the end of the road in Senaru village.

Path description:
The trail from Senaru is known as a tropical approach. The trekking adventure usually starts in the late morning hours at the Rinjani trek centre at the end of the road in Senaru village at approx. 600 m of elevation. After signing (and paying the fees) the trek can begin. The trail gradually heads up through the rain forest to POS I at 934 m (1 hour). Look out for an "organic" walking stick at this point! The beginning is the hottest part of the entire trek and only after additional 2 hours when the POS II at 1500 m is reached, it gradually gets colder. POS II is a usual stop for a rest and a meal. Be on a lookout for macaque monkeys! Epic battles for snacks were fought and lost here! … From here on, the forest begins to brighten up a little, but clouds begin to gather. In the case of rain, do not touch too many tree trunks. I got a leech like this on another trek in Bali mountain Gunung Agung 85 kilometers away. But I guess the same can happen here. However, after 2 hours of walking up the forest suddenly ends with no gradual transition to pine trees or something. Instead the high grass and an occasional bush dominate the scenery for the next 5 minutes until the POS III at around 2000 m. The path continues gradually at first but it gets steeper and steeper the closer one gets to the crater rim near Pelawangan I. It takes 2 hours to get there and if it is not cloudy, the rim can be seen far above as a distant destination that persists to stay away for more than an hour. It is normally cloudy in the late afternoon / evening so the views down to the lake and Gunung Rinjani are not as clear as in the morning. But it is nevertheless rewarding to spend few minutes at the rim before returning a few 10 meters down the path to the camp where the night is usually spent. If you leave some food outside the tent for the night you may hear strange sounds just as our group did. We couldn't quite identify those sounds though, some bet on the dog, some on the monkey, some even on the deer, but nobody dared or bothered to take a look outside the tent. It was obviously quite cold during the night …no, it really was!

The next day usually starts at the crater rim awaiting the sunrise. After the sunrise it is the best time of the day for taking photos, since the air is clear. After breakfast and packing the path continues down inside the crater to the huge turquoise lake Segara Anak (Child of the sea in translation, the name given for its colors.) The crater itself is huge measuring from 6 to 8.5 kilometers in diameter and it is 600 meters deep, therefore it takes 2 hours to descent down the lake. The descent is steep and technically it may be graded as partly difficult to difficult. It requires some modest bouldering but the porters can do it gracefully while wearing 30 kilograms on only one (!) of their shoulders and with most basic beach footwear imaginable. On this side of the slope, the pine trees soon begin. Further down the grass is also taller. Being used to pristine alpine environment, we were somewhat annoyed because of all the garbage lying around by the lake. However, the cleaning was supposed to be under way. It takes additional 20 minutes to get to the lake campsite and additional 10 minutes to the hot springs (take a path left from the campsite). The hot springs manifest themselves in two parallel waterfalls and two natural pools of 45°C-hot-water. The fish live in the water and they nibble the dead skin off the feet but only if you keep them still for a while. It is quite a tingly sensation.

On the way: POS I (934m), POS II (1500m), POS III (2027m), Pelawangan I (2641m), Danau Segara Anak (2009m)