post 3: Rinjani

August 14th

As the night wore on the wind started to whip up. It started to accelerate around the crater rim, gathering speed until it whooshed up and whopped the tent, and I mean really whopped the tent. The poles would bend and flatten the canvas dramatically on the windward side. It would then go eerily quiet.  This continued for while getting worse and worse.  Amie was lying next to me and kept saying 'this is windy mummy...I don't like it'.  I began to think I need to check this out..it doesn't feel good at all..I'm stuck on the top of  a crater rim of the second highest volcano in Indonesia with two small children and the tent is shaking like a jelly...so I unzipped the tent and peered out to see five pairs of eyes staring back - with figures clad in blankets.  Katni had got everyone up to watch the tent.  They started lashing the tent down with extra ropes and moved her tent closer to ours to shield it.

At that point the wind whipped up a real hooli you couldn't see for flying dust..it smacked the tent and whopped alex in the face. Poor boy woke up howling with the shock.  I unzipped our bags and made two blankets from the them (top and bottom). Managed to calm him down and snuggle him down stroking his hair - he was so tired he went back to sleep. Katni was great she kept sayinc don't worry Alex we are hear we will not leave you.

In the meantime poor Amie was not happy - to her it felt like the world was moving so I got her up and out of the tent. Once she could see the stars and moon were ok and that the wind seems much worse inside a tent she was ok.  So she went back to sleep cuddling me whilst I took her fairy Mary stories - we have made up stories about a fairy living in our garden since she was a baby and she found this comforting.  In the end I lay awake all night cuddling both kids with my arm and foot pushed up against the windward side of the tent to stop the canvas battering the children.  I could feel the dust sweeping into the tent over us as the wind whipped it across the crater. In the morning we were covered with a fine layer ...nice.

We were all tired in the morning. Amie slept in a little but Alex was up with the porters tending the fire and helping out.  The night before he and Amie had sat in the porters tent and helped cook which was great fun for them.  They peeled beans and ate carrots.

We took our time eating more pancakes (Amie wouldn't consider anything else) and watched the sun come up over Lombok. It was beautiful.  We packed and set off on our descent.  The nigh before, before bed Amie had said mummy there is a dog outside. Don't be daft, I said we are on the crater rim. But sure enough there was a dog. The kids had given it some egg and it became their friend.  Much to their delight it followed us down the mountain.  Alex has just asked to also mention that we saw lots of bats flying around the night before and that he saw a monitor lizard. He was fascinated.

We made up make shift masks from teashirts for the decent through the savannah dust.  Alex hated his so Neep gave him a doctors mask which he definitely approved of.  As we went down it was touch very, very slippery. Everyone feel at least twice sliding down through this orange muddy dust on their bum.  We hit the forest after about two hours.  We came across a group of monkeys. The biggest hated the dog. It went ballistic, absolutely mental, sending a change of monkey chatter down the mountain.

It was much better in the forest, less heat and less dust.  We made it to base camp two in around four hours.  The kids were relieved as they were beginning to struggle.  We made camp and the porters cooked lunch - egg and chips - the children were delighted.  The children then explored the forest, climbed trees and watched the monkeys.  Katni kept a close eye as many of the plants are poisonous.  We came across another trekker who had left his guide and joined another group. His guide spoke no english and they had run out of water - I thanked my lucky stars for Katni and my research.

The children made a tent with Neep and Kanti from sticks and bamboo and the porters went off to find a mountain stream for water. Disaster....there was no water..the stream was dry... There was no choice but to walk down to base camp 1...ahhhhh this was not good at all as I knew the children were very tired.  Ok - I decided let's do it. I will carry the children in turns. Katni asked the porters if they would head down and then come back up for the children.  So off we  went with me carrying each of the children. It wasn't easy as my legs were beginning to stiffen up and you needed to lower yourself down from one tree root to the next, sometimes a drop of three feet.  We cracked on - the kids were in good spirits and laughing and arguing.  After around an hour and a half I called time and we sat and waited for the porters.  They were amazing and came back up to take them.