This entry is about mountain climbing which is Matt's forte... Well it's definitely not mine, anyway, so he's the only other person who can write this entry...
 
If you refer back to the Kota Kinabalu blog entry, you will notice that Lauraine officially retired from mountain climbing and in the Grampians entry, she was kind of forced out of retirement and very quickly vowed that this time she really meant it and was never doing that again . Well!!! After going for dinner last night and getting talking with a guy we met in bar, I decided she needed to rethink her retirement plans just one more time: 3rd time lucky and all! The guy we met raved about the Gunung Rinjani volcano trek and showed us some stunning photos he had taken of the views. This fuelled a fire which was already in my head after spending over a week seeing it across the waters from Gili T every day. So, after a quick look online and receiving some more very high recommendations from friends we were suddenly down town and booked on a 3 day trip! "Woo hoo" from me and a Marge Simpson "hmmnnn" from Lauraine! So with thanks to our friends Sarah, Phillippa and Natalie along with the guy from the bar, I take great pleasure in announcing Lauraine is now a mountain climber once more!
 
We quickly sorted our bomb site of a room and packed our bags to get up early in the morning. It felt quite sad finally leaving Gili as we caught the 7am public boat to Bangsal. We arrived expecting to be met the guy who sold us the tickets but, as we were beginning to understand, a completely different guy was there . Our lift to Senaru actually turned out to be a horse and cart ride about 500m up the road to a cafe. This was all quite confusing but amusing until it came to getting off. I've got somewhat of a reliable track record of always having cuts or blisters on my feet whenever we have to do a big trek making everything a little bit more painful for me, the usual suspect of giving me these is flippers whilst snorkelling or scuba diving. Luckily, I was completely clear of anything and my feet were perfect! This was until I climbed off the back of a very cramped horse and cart and kicked my heel on the handrail causing a big piece of skin to flap open and bleed everywhere. As you would expect I was quite unamused and just couldn't believe my luck. But at least my reliable record lives on. 
 
We sat in the cafe and had breakfast with a young Belgian couple and a Swedish girl, it turned out their trip was to start straight away but ours wasn't until the next morning, which was a bit of a shame as they were nice people . Lots more people arrived including 2 French couples, a Spanish couple and 2 girls from Quebec. It soon became clear that these were to be our group instead.
 
We were then piled in a bus and driven to Senaru with one of the French couples and the girls from Quebec. Most of our bags got tied to the roof of the car even though it didn't have a roof rack so we were all a little bit concerned as to whether they would still be there when we got out at the other end. Thankfully, we arrived in Senura with our bags intact. In all honesty, our hotel was awful and the bathroom was the grimmest we'd ever had, but it was only for one night so we put up with it. Most of the others went for a walk to the waterfall but as it was an hour away we decided against it and went for a walk in the village instead. After buying some supplies, we stopped for lunch and met 3 people from New Zealand who were also about to start the trek. It was nice chatting to them as they were like us: almost completely in the dark about what we'd gotten ourselves into . Back at the hotel we met a couple from France who had just completed the 3 day/2 night trek but in the opposite direction to us. They told us all about it and were very honest saying it was very hard! They looked exhausted as they stretched their legs out. 
 
We all had a briefing meeting at 7pm where we got told everything we needed to know including our groups: we were to be with Melanie and Andrée-Anne (the girls from Quebec) and 2 other people who would be meeting us at the first rest camp on the trek as they didn't arrive until the morning. This also gave everyone a good chance to chat and get to know each other. The funniest thing about our intro and our evening as we had dinner was the little puppy that lives at the hotel. He was very cute but an absolute little terror as well. During the entire duration of the meeting and dinner, he moved from person to person nibbling on people's toes or running off with flip flops. It didn't really hurt but it made people yelp out randomly in surprise. It was especially funny as he turned his attention to the guide giving the speech which made it hard work for him to try and talk to us all while being attacked . We all headed back to our rooms to somehow figure out what to take for the next 3 days while at the same time carrying as little as possible. Luckily, there are porters who carry all the food, water, tents and cooking equipment so all we had to worry about was our camera, clothes, wash stuff, torches and sun cream.
 
Day 1
After cramming our minimal amount of stuff into backpacks, we were up early for breakfast at 7am and made the most of our last chance to have a shower and use a toilet with a seat for the next few days, even if they were both disgusting and the shower was freezing cold. We met up with Melanie, Andrée-Anne and our guide, Kario! We were driven to the starting point and, after completing the log book and signing our lives away, we were ready to go around 8:30am.
 
The base camp is 601m above sea level which meant we had 2041m to climb today with the ridge being 2642m. Usually it's easy to get carried away on treks like this and start off too quickly but Kario was very keen to implement his "slowly slowly" approach . Although this was a bit too slow of a pace for me really, I was happy to accept it with me being in a group of 3 women and I knew we had a long 3 days ahead. As we were to be a group of 6, we were led by Kario and assigned 3 porters. Kario himself had a huge bag to carry but the porters all had 2 big bundles of stuff each strapped to the ends of a bamboo stick. I later tried carrying one of these and they definitely weigh around 30-40kilos. The porters were soon whizzing past us though as if they were carrying nothing at all and even more remarkably every single one of them was walking in flip flops!!! So if ever you think your day job is bad you should try carrying 30kilos of stuff on a stick up a 3000m mountain in flip flops! Insane is the best word to describe it I think. 
 
The first 3 hours of the walk wasn't very difficult but it was extremely humid and hot so everyone was sweating buckets. We walked through thick rainforest and stopped for a quick group picture at the main entrance while we were all still a bit fresh faced . We were soon passing stray goats, monkeys and people working until we came to our first rest point. The track itself varied from just a muddy path to a path of thick roots and quite big steps so our legs were getting a good work out already. Along the way, a guide from the other group seemed to take a liking to me: complementing me on my skin colour, bracelets and calling me Mr Massive. This obviously prompted Lauraine to joke he probably fancied me (very flattering indeed!). 
 
We had a quick stop at Pos 1 and whilst we were sat resting, we got our first surprise of the day as our friend Flore came walking up the track with her mum, prompting her to come running up and give us a big hug. Flore is a friend who is part of beloved Stray family and was one of the first people we met in New Zealand so it was brilliant to see her again. She had literally landed in Lombok the same day we did and we told her via Facebook that we were doing this trip so she just booked it straight away and came along. She's with another company but we all walk the same way so it doesn't matter too much!
 
We stopped at the Pos Extra stop which is 1165m high, so we had already done nearly 600m . This was where we would stop for lunch and wait for our other 2 group members to catch up. They had only left Bangsal this morning which is why they were a few hours behind. The company obviously realise how important it is to feed everyone well and keep our energy up as we were given a huge portion of noodles with vegetables and a boiled egg with a pineapple for dessert. Considering it was cooked on a knocked up fire in the middle of the rainforest, it was delicious. After a little while, our new members arrived in the form of an American guy called Luke and a German lad called Alex. They both looked the extremely sweaty mess we did an hour earlier as they'd walked very quickly to catch us up.
 
After our lunch, we carried on for another couple of hours up a similar sort of path but it was gradually getting steeper. Already people were getting tired as Alex and Luke had gone off ahead with Melanie and Andrée-Anne falling behind a bit leaving just me and Lauraine to keep each other going. Our pace was slightly quicker than the girls but the boys were obviously quite good at trekking . I was happy to stick at Lauraine's pace as she had been doing really well but we were slowing up a bit now as we'd been walking about 6 hours already and it was pretty steep. Being the amazing boyfriend that I am, I carried her bag for a little while to take the weight off her to help her along. This seemed to help her so much she actually went skipping off ahead! 
 
We stopped for a quick biscuit and drink break at Pos 2 where there were loads of monkeys. Although they were ready to eat what they could, they were actually pretty good and just came for the banana skins people were throwing away. This was until we got our biscuits out which they must love as one instantly ran over to steal it from Carrie's hand (an American girl in the other group!) and she literally had to kick it away. We were now at 1500m and you really could tell. The air was cooler and a lot mistier as we were up with the clouds now. We were finally breaking out of the rainforest and starting to get views of the scenery around us. This was where I took the opportunity to have a go carrying the porters' luggage . I only held it for a few minutes and there's no way I'd want to be carrying that for long as it very quickly hurts your shoulders. 
 
Once we were past Pos 2 and about 7 hours into our day, the walking really got tough. Kario had warned us that the hardest was saved for last and he wasn't joking. It was generally getting a lot steeper as we had climbed up to the rim and we were all very tired now. A lot of this part was almost rock climbing and every single step was burning in our thighs. The plus side of it was that we were now surrounded with amazing views back over the mountain and down to the mainland. We were now above the clouds as well so it was incredible seeing the clouds pass by. One of the craziest sights though, was seeing a porter climb up a huge tree, only to sit on a branch and hack away at it in his attempt to collect firewood!! 
 
There are 2 places to set up camp, one is at Pos 3 which means you have an extra walk to do in the morning or at the Cemara Lima which leaves only a little to do in the morning . We could tell it was hard getting to Pos 3 because as we sat having a much needed rest we watched the porters cry out in pain as they struggled to carry our food up such steep rocks. The last hour of this day was very hard going. It resulted in a little break after every 10 steps or so. Eventually we all made it to our campsite around 6pm, meaning we had done a solid 6 and a half hours walking today with nearly 3 hours of breaks!
 
The relief to have made it was immense. Everyone whipped off their boots, changed their sweaty clothes and got ready before sunset. Unfortunately for Kario and our porters they weren't so lucky. They now had the job of setting up all our tents, lighting a fire, and cooking us dinner. It was hard not to feel sorry for them but they've done it so many times it's normal to them. We got treated to a beautiful sunset as we sat in awe looking out at how high we had climbed. As the sky was so clear, we could see the Gili islands in the distance and they looked so small. We really couldn't believe we had travelled so far . The temperature was now very cold so we all wrapped up and had a quick toilet break behind the bush before it got too dark. We all sat chatting as we were served chicken and fried rice with prawn crackers. It was delicious again. We really were being spoilt and it was was an amazing feeling eating dinner off our knees whilst sat on rocks looking out at such incredible views. 
 
Although Lauraine had hated me for many parts during the day, she finally had a moment which made it all feel worth it. It was a running joke by now about how much Lauraine loved me at various parts of the trek. It was 100% before the trip (of course) but had dropped down to as low as 20% during the day. But after me helping her climb so much and seeing such a sunset with amazing views it raised back up to about 60%. Of course this all changed when it came to sleeping in the tents provided! Everyone was in bed by 8:30pm and it was a terrible night's sleep as it was freezing cold, the ground was rock hard and we had to use our bags as pillows, this meant I had now dropped back down to 25%!!! Of course the luckiest thing about all this was that it wasn't raining . Being stuck in a place like this in the pouring rain and wind after walking in it all day would have been nothing short of torturous. I can certainly count myself lucky to have 25% of love because if it had been raining I'd probably be down to about -90%!!
 
Day 2 
Day 2 started with a few sighs, groans, a crack of the back and a bit of a kink in the neck after some what of an uncomfortable night. The alarm went off at 6am and we were quickly up and out of our tents to watch the sunrise. We were pretty glad to get out of our tents actually, when you have such a rough night it's actually a bit of a relief to get up. The sunrise wasn't much to shout about as the best part of it was hidden behind another mountain but it was worth getting up for. We were still in a bit of disbelief about the location of our campsite and it still made very scenic viewing watching the haze and the shadows gradually disappear over the distant sleepy towns and the Gili islands. Our porters were already hard at work making us cups of tea and pancakes . It wasn't until the morning that we realised Kario and the porters didn't even have a tent!! All 4 of them had spent the entire night sleeping under a big tarpaulin with a couple of sticks holding the ends up. That must have been awful for them. We were freezing in proper tents and they never even had ends to their "tent", which they also shared with the cooking stuff and food. When I quizzed them about it, they were totally fine about it and when I asked about if it rains, they said "you just get wet"! Unbelievable or what! The most shocking thing was that the tourists used to have to use tents like that as well. -90% would be a distant memory if we had a tent like that, I can guarantee you that. 
 
Once fed and watered we set of again at about 7:30-8am as we had a long day ahead. We had a short 20 minute walk to the rim itself where we were greeted with the most amazing view. We had such a lovely clear morning so there wasn't a cloud hardly in sight and we could see the entire crater, the beautifully blue holy lake, the smaller volcano inside the crater and, of course, the dreaded summit . The people doing the 2 day trip turn around here and I can see how that's still a brilliant trip to do as the view from here and the camping experience is well worth all the pain. Of course turning round wasn't part of our plan so, after a quick few photos, we started our 3 hour trek to get down to the lake. 
 
We only descended 641m in altitude but the distance we walked was much further as you have to go around the crater as it is way too steep to go straight down. Even though we were working our way around, the route was still extremely difficult. This was said to be the most dangerous part of the 3 days with it being so steep and it was all very rocky. There were several times when we were actually climbing vertically down rocks or holding on to very dodgy handrails. In fact, several people have been seriously injured and even died on this part of the trek! I waited until we were halfway down before I told Lauraine about this though, as I knew there was no chance of getting her to agree to come if I'd told her earlier! Literally, the first review I read online told how a woman in their group had fallen on this part and seriously damaged her spine meaning she had to be airlifted to hospital! Kario then told us about the most recent death, where a young Italian girl fell down the crater right in front of her boyfriend a couple of years ago, cracking her head open and instantly killing her . This is why most of the handrails have been erected as it was so dangerous but even with them it doesn't make you feel much safer. We continued with Kairo's slowly slowly approach mainly because that was the only option. Usually going down like this is the bit I hate as my knees kill me but they were behaving this time so it was actually quite fun scaling down all these rocky pathways, even Lauraine was enjoying it as it made it feel like much more of an adventure than treks we'd done in the past. The last hour of the walk was pretty tough going though as we were all so sick of going down such awkward pathways, so when we finally reached the lake we were hugely relieved. 
 
After a short walk around the lake to our site for dinner we quickly whipped off our sweaty boots, ditched our stuff and went to find the natural hot spring pools to rest our now very tired legs and feet in the water and it was amazing! The water was so hot though, it felt much hotter than the 40 degree pool on Franz Jozef so it took a little while to get in completely . It bubbled away nicely like a natural jacuzzi. After 30 minutes of relaxing, we were treated to chicken and vegetable curry with rice that our ever busy porters had knocked up for us. We got to dine right on the lake's edge, it was so peaceful. The clouds had rolled in whilst we'd been walking as they move very quickly here. We could sit and watch them zoom past inside the crater so we couldn't actually see very much for quite a while, but then out of nowhere it completely cleared up. Although the view from the rim was more impressive, it was brilliant to see right across the lake with us completely surrounded by a high volcanic rock wall and the small volcano peacefully sat in the middle of it all. The rim is 600m higher than the lake and it's estimated that the lake is up to another 600m deep filled solely with rainwater. It was only a few years ago that this small volcano was erupting and smoke was pouring out of its small opening. Amazingly, people were still allowed to do this trek while it was erupting, that would have been a brilliant experience for those lucky people!
 
After watching the monkeys rummage through everyone's rubbish which was thrown everywhere, the time to set off had arrived again . This was the bit we had been dreading the most as the French couple said this part was harder than the climb to the summit, after seeing how steep it was getting down we could see why they thought that. Kario didn't agree but let me tell you after 4 hours of absolutely hellish walking and climbing it was definitely the hardest thing we'd ever done, even Alex, who was a very experienced trekker said it was the hardest he'd ever done. This was far far worse than any part of Kinabalu, it was certainly a huge test as we really relied on our willpower to get us up as it seemed never ending. I was struggling a bit so I couldn't even imagine how hard Lauraine, Melanie and Andrée-Anne were finding it although Lauraine's face did reveal a lot. My love percentage was now falling rapidly with every step. She was really hating this now as tiredness was really effecting us and our legs hurt so much. Although Andrée-Anne had 2 hiking sticks, I'm not sure how much they were actually helping as we had to climb our way up using our hands a lot of the time as well . Certainly 2 and a half of the 4 hours were simply awful with no views of anything as we climbed up through the clouds. Lauraine hit breaking point quite a few times and Kario certainly wasn't sugar coating how many hours of climbing we had left. It seemed no matter when Lauraine asked, we always had 2 hours left! But after some near tears and lots of words of encouragement from me, we finally made it past the hardest part leaving us with a 30 min 'easy' walk to the campsite. My love percentage was now at rock bottom with 5% probably being quite generous. 
 
The campsite couldn't arrive soon enough as everyone was in a bit of a bad way by now and it was 6pm so we'd been at it all day. If I'm honest the day was a whole lot of effort for not much reward, aswe did around 7 and a half hours of extremely hard walking just to have a 30min dip in a hot pool and lunch by the lake. Andrée-Anne and Lauraine had ruled themselves out of the summit in the morning whereas Melanie was going to see how she felt. Even I was seriously doubting myself about whether I could manage it . My legs were killing me and it was another 5 hours walking before breakfast with 6 hours after to get back down. It was more the getting down part I was worried about though. The only thing I really had going for me is my out right stubbornness and determination not to be beaten, although I had huge doubts I would never forgive myself for not trying and I always believe I can drag myself further than I think. Lauraine was extremely happy with making it this far so she was going to watch the sunrise at the campsite and wait for us to get back. This was a very wise decision given how hard it was going to be. 
 
The porters had set up camp on the Sembaluen Crater rim which is 2639m above the sea so it was quite similar to the one the night before but on the other side of the crater with the summit looking down at us. The spot they had chosen to camp on was pretty spectacular but also incredibly dangerous. Although it was very cloudy so we couldn't see much, our 3 tents were actually neatly lined up right on a cliff edge with a massive sheer drop . We sat chatting about the day's events whilst the sun went down giving us a beautiful red sky with the mountain peaks in view. Yet again, we were served a brilliant dinner of fried rice with egg and prawn crackers. It was delicious and, yet again, quite surreal eating it in such a crazy place. As we'd been away for 2 days now and being fed so well, the topic of the toilet got brought up (by us boys of course!). Even though we were all feeling the need to go, we all laughed about the fact that the options were behind a bush with all the rubbish and poo everywhere or in our little porter loo with a tiny hole in the floor. Neither seemed hugely appealing so everyone was holding out for the hotel at the end, we obviously weren't ready to fully be at one with nature yet. After such a hard day everyone was heading to bed by 7:30pm, yet again it was pretty cold so we were all hoping for a better night even though the alarms were set for 2am!!!
 
Day 3 
Everyone seemed to get a much better sleep than the night before and it hadn't felt as cold but the dreaded 2am alarm soon went off . I initially did a quick body check to see what the damage was and how bad my aches were. To be honest, I wasn't as bad as I'd expected so even though I still had my concerns I got myself up and ready. The first task of the morning though was getting changed whilst sat in a tiny tent and then going outside in the dark for the toilet without either falling off the cliff or standing in someone else's "toilet area" shall we call it. It was pretty cold outside with it being so early so Kario, Alex, Luke and I huddled round the fire whilst eating crackers and biscuits with cups of tea. Melanie decided against coming with us so it was just us 3 with Kario as the porters don't come. We all made feeble attempts at stretching our legs but whichever way we looked at it they were stiff and it wasn't going to suddenly go away. We had emptied our bags as much as we could to carry as little weight as possible knowing we'd be coming back to camp afterwards anyway. This seemed like a brilliant idea at the time but it had its flaws which we later found out .
 
We set off just after 3am. Several people were well ahead of us but we were confident we could still make the 6:15 sunrise. Although this part is not the steepest, it's made extremely hard as it's loose gravel instead of rocks. You instantly noticed how hard it was as within minutes from the camp we were slipping away trying to get up an almost soft sandy pathway. As much as it was making things more tricky, it wasn't as bad as yesterday so I was satisfied if it was to be 3 hours of this, I could do it. Although it was quite cold we all soon got very hot from walking so took off our jumpers and jackets. We reached the top of the first section in about 30 minutes and once we got that out the way, things really changed. Suddenly we were walking along the narrow tip of the crater rim, this meant we were walking in the pitch black on a gravel pathway with a virtually sheer drop one side of us and a very steep drop the other side. The path itself was only really about 2 metres wide so it did put butterflies in your stomach just imagining how easy it would be to fall and how it would be almost certainly fatal if you did . We navigated our way along with our torches and followed Kario's slowly slowly lead.
 
As we were now an hour into the trek, the temperature really had dropped off so all the jumpers went back on. The first 2 hours weren't anywhere near as difficult as I'd imagined but the cold was really taking over. Alex had gone off ahead as Kario's pace was too slow for him with him being so fit and experienced, although it did seem slow to me as well I wasn't going off ahead as I knew we had to take our time, Luke's legs were hurting him a fair bit so he was sticking with Kario as well. By now, the wind was so strong and it was so cold that the 3 of us had to hide behind a big rock for 10 minutes to at least warm up a little bit and give us a break from the wind. This was where our lightweight bag idea came unstuck, as we were absolutely freezing partly due to the fact Luke and I had left our jackets back in the tents. I had almost brought mine but I really didn't think I'd need it, I even nearly wore shorts! Lucky I didn't hey! We pressed on in horrendous conditions and it now looked like people who were near the summit were actually turning round and coming back down . We hid behind another rock to see if they were as it would save us going all the way up only to turn around. If the weather is bad they do shut the trek as it very dangerous, in the past a group of 11 Europeans had been attempting the summit and because the weather conditions were so bad 8 out of the 11 died! This must have made the authorities actually start being sensible and keep a check on the conditions. Our weather wasn't anywhere near that bad but it really must have been close to getting closed. We were so cold that we didn't know what to do with ourselves and, with the summit still over 45 minutes away, we realised it was only going to get worse. 
 
As a few people came back down, they told us how bad it was at the top, some had been almost 100m away and turned round as the wind was so fierce and so cold. This prompted me, Kario and Luke to have a group discussion about throwing the towel in and going back. Luke was very quick to declare he was happy to turn back but I wasn't so sure. Kario obviously wanted to quit as he does this so much and it isn't anything special for him but whatever happened he would have to wait behind the rock for Alex . Although I very much wanted to turn back and be pleased with what we'd done, the stubbornness in me was saying no as, after all the concerns about not being able to do it, now I was doing it I couldn't get beaten by the weather. If my legs gave up then fair enough but not by a bit of wind. I bravely decided to carry on for a while longer and see how it went, luckily this made Luke decide to come as he said there was no way he was going back alone. That decision turned out to be a brilliant one and also a pretty damn awful one as the next 45 minutes of walking was the most painful of it all. It was at about a 45 degree angle with a very loose rocky surface. It can only be described as walking up a huge sand dune. Every step we took, we slid 2/3s of it back down. As we'd hidden behind the rock expecting to turn back, we never made the summit for sunrise but we still got to stand and see it on the way up so it didnt really matter. We made steady progress but my body had never been tested like this before and neither had Luke's, once we were in the last 20 minutes some of the early birds were now on their way down . They cheered us on as we were struggling but were so close. 
 
Now the sun was up, the temperature was much more bearable and we had the most incredible views back down the track to the crater. We finally made it to the top at about 6:45am, the summit is 3726m high so it's no wonder it was so cold. After a few quick photos, Kario was keen to get moving again so we didn't get to rest at all really. We were so pleased we'd made it, especially Luke after he'd been so keen to turn around earlier. I actually preferred getting there after sunrise as it was quieter and we could actually see our surrounding rather than it being pretty dark. It's always an incredible feeling looking back on the world from such a height. Kinabalu was slightly higher than here but this definately had the better views.
 
Getting down was a very different task to getting up, luckily much easier though. As the gravel is so loose you actually have to ski down instead of walk. Obviously you are walking but every big step you take, you slide about the distance of 2 or 3 steps . It was pretty good fun actually as we slid our way down. This cuts a 3 hour journey going up to just over an hour getting down, the only problem is your boots get so many rocks in it becomes agony to walk when you hit a hard surface. Even though we stopped for several pictures and to empty our boots on the way down we still made it back for breakfast around 8am. We had had some amazing views of the campsite on the rim, it looked amazing seeing all the little orange tents dotted along such a narrow ridge, quite unbelievable that was where we had slept.
 
We had a very welcome return to the camp by the girls and Alex as he'd been back about half an hour already. Everyone was so proud that we'd actually made it. We couldn't get our boots off quickly enough to empty the rocks out again and put our flip flops on to relax our feet. Whilst we'd been away Lauraine, Melanie and Andrée Anne had got up at 6am to watch the sunrise from the campsite. They had a brilliant view of it so they were all happy and quite pleased they hadn't gone to the summit after hearing our stories . Now it was morning and daylight, we really got to see just how special our campsite was. With a perfectly clear sky, we had the most spectacular view of the crater and down to the lake. We really hadn't realised how high we were last night. We carefully sat on the cliff hanging our feet over the edge in amazement as we ate our breakfast. This was definitely was one of the most spectacular places we've ever been and it was a perfect reward for making it to the top and back. 
 
Unfortunately 9am soon came and Kario was eager for us to start the journey down. We hardly had a chance to rest properly with chatting, eating breakfast and packing our stuff up so getting down was going to hurt a bit. The stiffness was a bit of a killer and our thighs were like jelly already. The first 2 hours were the hardest and steepest bit down. It really wasn't a fun 2 hours as everyone had really sore thighs so going down so steeply was really hard work. Lauraine found this particularly tricky as, for the first real time in this trip, she was actually very scared . She didn't like the fact the ground slid away under you as you walked when she could see the edge of the cliff beside her - she had definitely made the right decision in not coming to the summit! With a bit of holding her hand and her taking her time we got the steep part safely out of the way, then we had an hour and a half of quite a gradual slope until we got to stop for dinner. This was much easier as we could walk with a bit of pace without worrying about falling down the mountain.
 
We stopped just past Pos 2 which was 1500m high. The porters had found a lovely spot underneath a big tree with a lovely view so we all enjoyed getting out of the sun for a bit as it was very hot now. This was to be our last meal cooked on a quickly made bonfire and their vegetable noodles yet again didn't disappoint. We also got to eat loads of biscuits as we used up the last of the food supplies. Now knowing we only had 3 hours of walking left we could almost feel the end. Everyone was suffering a fair bit with sore feet and aches all over really but especially our thighs and knees . 
 
It was quite a flat walk for these 3 hours so we did some walking with intent. Lauraine, Alex, Luke and I set off with a decent pace leaving Kario behind with Melanie and Andrée-Anne as we were just so keen to get finished now. The weather was beautiful so we had some amazing views but it was very hot and there was no trees to cover us which made it a bit more hard work. Once we set off we were stopping for nothing: it was 3 hours in one go, all or bust. The first 2 hours passed pretty quickly as we all chatted but the last hour wasn't quite so nice. Maybe because we knew we were close but it felt like it took much longer and every time we went round a major corner we were hoping to see the finish but it just wasn't coming. We knew once we were in the forest we were really close, we had even caught up 2 other groups which showed how quickly we must have been trying to get back. Randomly, we were suddenly in a field full of cows, meaning we had to make our way right through the middle of them, there were hundreds of them as well and some were stood on the path showing no signs of moving, some even gave us funny stares as we walked past . Luckily they all seemed nice and calm so no one got charged by one! After 3 days of nearly dying up a mountain it would be quite funny if we then got injured by an angry cow.
 
Once we got past the cows a funny thing happened, we were now down to about 1200m and somehow I had gone from the front of our walking line to the back and then found myself gradually getting left behind. It was like I was a baby animal where if they don't keep up with the pace of the pack they just get left behind to die. As much as I tried, I literally couldn't walk any quicker. I found myself really struggling to walk at all, my legs had finally given up on me. This had never happened to me before so I found myself having arguments in my head with half telling me to just collapse on the floor and half telling me to man up. Lauraine had noticed I was struggling so was willing me on and giving me encouragement. This situation really was a serious role reversal as I'm usually the one having to gee up Lauraine and egg her on. Luckily she was coping quite well but I was definitely ready to collapse . We were so close to the finish though that I just had to carry on. 
 
The group we passed earlier had now caught me and Lauraine up, as we started chatting to some of them it turned out they were from Southend. I genuinely think that the only thing that got me from that field to the finish was chatting to that couple as it totally took my mind off everything. The finish is at 1156m which shows how flat we had been walking really and within 15 minutes we finally made it to where Alex and Luke were sat waiting for us drinking cans of coke. Melanie and Andrée-Anne were only about 20 minutes behind so we all made it down in the 6 hours predicted and got back for 3pm. We grabbed ourselves a fresh cold drink to celebrate our achievement, it tasted amazing after warm water and tea for 3 days. The finish line is at a much higher altitude than the start at Senaru but it's actually about 3km longer in distance but we agreed that the extra 3km was much better than the steep walking. 
 
We were all incredibly tired now but our day was far from over . We now all had to climb into the back of a truck and had an hour long journey to get our bags from the hotel in Senaru. This was quite funny for a few minutes but it ended up being more painful than the walk itself as we all tightened up and it was hurting our legs and back as we bumped around on all the pot holes in the road. By the time we got to the hotel, we were both feeling a bit unwell but we still had to get to Senggigi yet which was nearly 2 hours away. Of course we got greeted by the little terror of a dog again and we got to say our goodbyes to Kario and his porters.
 
Considering this had been a very spur of the moment trip, it really was an unforgettable one. Although it had been, without doubt, the most difficult and testing thing we had ever done, it was also one of the most rewarding. There are not going to be many places we'll experience views or camping like that. Although the camping isn't too much fun when you're doing it, it really is such a big part of the trip and you appreciate it afterwards . We both felt so proud of what we had accomplished here, with Lauraine doing more than amazingly to do what she had after coming out of retirement for me, she really had gone the extra mile this time. I was also extremely pleased with myself for actually finding it in me to carry on when I really didn't think I could as I've certainly never been tested like that before. 
 
We can't thank Kario and his porters enough for their endless efforts to look after us as a group, they really do a day job that would be impossible for most and on very low wages. Also, it wouldn't have been the same without Melanie, Andrée-Anne, Luke and Alex - it was great trekking with you all and hopefully we'll see you all again some day soon.
 
As you would expect Lauraine has yet again announced her retirement from mountain climbing, she has even come up the the rather cunning plan of setting fire to her boots! Knowing that with no boots there's no chance of me talking her round again. She nearly gave them to Kario as he seemed to like them, even though I'm not sure he'd wear them as he's a flip flop fan. I'm pleased to say though that she still has her boots and they're not a little pile of ashes yet so who knows!!
 
P.S. After fluctuating quite a bit over the trek, the love percentage finally went back up to 99% once we were safely back down, reunited with our bags and on our way to a bit of luxury in Sengiggi. Lauraine said it would have been 100% if I promised she never had to do another climb again but I can't promise that so 99% will do.