Much of the adventure and challenge in hiking the infamous Gunung Tambora is getting to the mountain. It’s on the north coast of the island of Sumbawa, with Lombok to the West and Komodo to the East. Sumbawa is not your average tourist destination, and so we were pleased that our friends in the Java Lava hiking group had planned the trip and organised the logistics, which included a full range of transport options: plane -> bus -> ferry -> bus -> small boat -> truck. All in all, it was 28 hours of almost non-stop traveling from Jakarta to get to the trailhead.
Gunung Tambora is famous for its eruption in 1815, which was far bigger than Krakatao and caused the “year without summer” in 1816. The blast killed up to 12,000 people on the islands of Sumbawa and 80,000 in the region as a result of famine. Quite the killer volcano and the eruption left an enormous and almost perfectly circular crater, which is 7 km wide and over 1,000 meters deep.
Western Sumbawa is notably drier and poorer than other parts of Indonesia, and is also a malaria area. Our plan was not to get bitten by any mosquitoes, but to carry our treatment doses of Malarone in case of sudden fever; a reasonable idea given we were either camping with the sea breeze or high up with no mosquitoes. The travel from Lombok by ferry to Sumbawa Besar was fine, as was the bumpy bus ride to the port of Badas, where at dawn we were due to catch our chartered small boat . There were 15 intrepid Java Lavans on the boat across to Calabai, and it took around 5 hours cross the huge bay, which became increasingly choppy as the morning winds picked up. We were all feeling a little bit jaded as we unloaded and met our guides and porters. From Calabai we all piled into the back of a local truck with our gear and the porters (more than 30 people) for the two hour bumpy driver through Pancasila village to the trailhead.
Some of the porters looked like they had never carried a backpack, and didn’t look that enthusiastic about carrying a 12 to 15 kg pack. This observation was to prove painfully accurate since they were “a shower of useless B**tards” according to more than one Java Lavan.
Day 1: We set off, heading into the forest at about 13:30. It is not a steep climb to the first camp, but it is quite long being 12 km and xxx meters elevation gain. It was very hot, but then as we climbed it started raining and soon we were soaked from this and from sweating. We arrived at the camp at Pos 3 just before dark at 18:00 and started to collect some damp wood and try to light a fire to keep warm while waiting for the porters; it can get pretty cold at night at higher elevation even on the equator. Several of the group didn’t have dry clothes or a jacket (you don’t think of that when setting off in 30 degree Celsius temperatures). After about an hour a few porters arrived, but as hour after hour went by we started to get worried. After waiting for 3 hours, we were starting to fear the worst, that our lightweight village boys could not make it. Tales of porters never arriving because they had “followed ghosts”, or were simply useless, were told and we planned for a night around the fire with no tent or sleeping bag and only rain coats. Luckily, about 3.5 hours after we arrived, another sorry shower of porters arrived and sheepishly gave most of us our packs. Their excuse was heavy rain (it was only a shower) and that they wanted to keep our packs dry. We’ve never been so glad to cook instant noodles and crawl into our tent, and after 2 long days of travel we slept well.
Day 2: it seemed clear that some of the porters might only make it to the top if they had their own porter to carry the bags, and them. Still, we promised a 50% increase in pay, lightened their loads and they promised they could make it the crater rim where we would camp on day 2. The weather was perfect as we hiked up through cooling mist that was being burned away by the morning sun. As we emerged from the forest the sun was getting pretty intense as we reach the old lava flows and climbed on the fairly flat and wide rim. There was not much vegetation, only hardy drought tolerant bushes and grasses. The crater is quite staggering, and photos cannot really do justice how huge and deep it is. Go there, and hope you get a day as clear as we did. The crater edge is quite dangerous in some areas as the steep cliffs are slowly disintegrating into the crater. The highest point on the crater rim, the current summit of Tambora, gives you a fantastic perspective looking at the rim and crater. From the crater rim we could also see Gunung Rinjani on Lombok in the west, and made ourselves comfortable for a spectacular sunset behind Rinjani.
The wind started to pick up at dusk, and we realised that some of our tents were a little exposed; the wind made sleeping difficult because of the noise the tent being buffeted. All of us had to use rocks to weight down our tent pegs and stop the tents from being flattened by the wind. The other thing was the dust – the crater rim area is covered in volcanic sand and dust, which the wind blasted at out tents. Gill and I soon realised that our mosquito net tent inner was not volcanic dust proof and we showered with dust on every gust of wind. The only way to sleep was with our heads completely wrapped in a t-shirt.
Day 3: we got up early for the long hike out to where the truck would (hopefully) be waiting for us. Some of the porters could not make it to the rim to help carry the bags, so we had to spilt loads among a few of us. The hike out was long but the trail is not too steep or slippery and is in great condition. We finally made it back to Calabai for dinner and a warm beer. The next challenge was the arrival of the small boat the next morning to get back to Badas. Despite promises from the guides, the boat failed to arrive until 2.5 hours after our requested departure time, after having several “problems” including “being moored just round the corner” and “having fishing nets tangled in the propeller” – you need to learn to be patient when travelling in Indonesia. After a 7 hour boat ride, 2 hour bus ride, 2 hour ferry ride, and another 2 hour bus ride we finally arrived in Sengiggi in Lombok and enjoyed (finally) a cold beer.
All in all we had a great trip (endurance test!) and saw a truly amazing volcano in perfect weather. Check out our Google Photos!