Conserve | Rubbish Free Rinjani Part II
I’ve been lucky enough to trek in many wonderful places in the world, including Europe, America, and Asia, although the natural beauty of volcanic Mount Rinjani is very hard to match.
Rinjani dominates the landscape and broods over its surroundings on the Indonesian island of Lombok, one of the over 17,000 islands that make up this island nation. Lombok is no less beautiful than neighbouring Bali, but it is much less developed and, in our view, all the better for it.
The incredible volcanic landscape of Rinjani produces some of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. Not to mention hot volcanic springs, a warm river with waterfalls, yellow rocks, and bright turquoise waters, and fascinating caves with religious significance. Clouds often roll in and out both above and below you, forever altering your view of this incredible mystic mountain and its many valleys.
Lombok is an easy plane journey from Singapore, so I urge you to book now! After summiting Rinjani, spend a few days recovering on South Lombok’s deserted white sand beaches.
However, there is one “but”.
Whilst the climb is still definitely worthwhile, Mount Rinjani has a problem with litter. Too many disposable plastics are taken up the mountain and discarded, and there is no infrastructure for rubbish collection or latrines. It is disheartening to see one of the world’s most stunning mountains tarnished by man’s interference.
With our movement aspirationally named “Rubbish Free Rinjani,” Chickenfeet Travels is trying to change this. Our view is that this needs to start with small, manageable steps taken when working closely without our local team. Our project is at an early stage, but the steps we are starting with are as follows:
We have thoroughly researched and tried and tested providers of guides and porters on Rinjani and selected one partner who shares our goals, and we believe can help achieve them – a lot of the guide companies say they have eco credentials, but we have found that this is often not the case in practice;
We are promoting climbing Rinjani using our local partner so more visitors use guides who share our ecological aims;
All our guides collect rubbish as they walk down the mountain and bring it back to base;
Chickenfeet provides durable, non-disposable water bottles for use by all of our guides, porters, and trekkers;
Conducting a review of all items carried up the mountain by our guides to eliminate, as far as possible, single-use, disposable items;
Looking into and developing solutions for composting human waste
Encouraging our local partners to work with the authorities to provide proper rubbish collection on the mountain.
The more visitors who travel with our team, the more trekkers who visit Rinjani sustainably.
We also hope that other trekking companies will have to adapt to our methods in order to compete.
