Day 14 - Senaru

Relatively late start for us at 0930 although I had been up since 5 as the call to Prayer broadcast was especially loud this morning.

Visited the oldest mosque in Lombok dating from the 17th century which was basically just made of bamboo, clay and jackfruit wood. It isn’t used anymore except for special occasions every so often.

After a 2 hour drive we arrived up the mountain in the Rinjani National Park where you had full view of the volcano. This has been dormant for a number of years however this time last year there was a large earthquake that demolished a large number of houses in this area. As we drove through villages you could see just mounds of wood and rubble where we were told this had been a house. The locals live in fear that another earthquake will happen soon as so they have not rebuilt their house in the same way with brick and clay, but with bamboo and metal roofs. We were told that all houses built with bamboo at the time of the earthquake last year are all still standing so the modern way isn’t always the best way!

We dropped our things off at the hotel which was very quaint and pretty with a swimming pool right outside our room, got changed and then headed off to the Tiu Kelep waterfall which was quite frankly incredible!

This waterfall is 45m high and cascades over in two parts which creates the most amazing visual and the roaring noise is so loud! Even with my wife angle lens I struggled to get the whole waterfall in the picture. I walked down to the very base of the waterfall where the water ended up into river and got absolutely drenched by the spray which was wonderful as on the way back we had a very long, sweaty climb!!

We climbed (crawled) back to the top after our waterfall watching and made it to the restaurant for lunch which had the most wonderful view of the jungle and the waterfalls in the distance. We ate noodles and chicken and drank iced lemon tea then headed back to the hotel to change before going on our last activity, the village walk.

The village that we were taken around was over 1000 years old. Families of up to 14 people, some more than 1 family, lived in these tiny bamboo and straw huts. We were shown around one and were dumbfounded as to how that many people could live in such a small place. Children would sleep 5 to a bed and adults would sleep on the floor. After walking around the village, we entered the “garden” which was basically just a jungle wilderness where they would pick cacao to make into coffee and get all of their other vegetables and spices. We found chilli, avocado, pineapple, macadamia nut, jackfruit, durian (the smelliest fruit in the world), banana, guava, clove. The only thing they seemed to be unable to grow was Apples for some bizarre reason. The prices that we pay in England for fruit and veg is just ridiculous. But the amount that the growers get when they sell is even worse. I learned that we pay over 7 times the price for 1 avocado than the growers make when they see it. I learned a huge deal in the 2 hours we were walking around and the two girl guides English was very good for two girls who had not learned languages at school.

We had a few hours to kill after the walk so sat by the pool and cooled down before dinner where I had a lovely Green Curry and there were no nuts!!

Last activity done with the group. We head off to Gili Air tomorrow for 2 free days before the majority of the group go home. I have an extra day before I leave which I plan on making the most of!!