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11 years of Reservist and finally it’s coming to an end. It certainly didn’t feel that long. Personally, I find it to be a good way to force myself to escape work, but still near enough to be contactable. So many good memories, fun and exasperating at times. Now that I’m days from completing my Reservist cycle, certain things also came a full cycle… eg. my hair:) Live and laugh often.
Today I did a few things. I did some editing, met my dad, did a family portrait for a client, visited the nursery and spent quite a bit on plants, did some editing, spent time zenning out with my plants (I need to do this more often and hope I would get rid of my teeth grinding at night) and blogged! This is what a Saturday is like without a wedding.
At about 2000m above sea level, climbers call it a day, camping right at the edge of the crater. Some on their way up to the summit while some on their way down the mountain, very often exchanging words of encouragement.
A portrait of the bride, Shi Qin.
A lone hiker taking a break while the light from the sun broke into a dance routine with the fast moving clouds.
The lone porter along the crater of the Mount Rinjani.
Without them, the climb would not even have made it past day 1. They are the miracle workers of Mount Rinjani. Each porter carries up to 30Kg worth of supplies on their shoulders up the mountains, very often reaching the check points way earlier than their city dwelling customers. They zipped up and down the mountain with such speed and ease it made me feel useless. By the time we caught up with them at our resting areas, they would have already set up our tents, makeshift toilets and halfway through cooking our meals. I can’t help but feel amazed everytime a porter overtakes us (which happens all the time) effortlessly. While I struggle up some of the steeper parts of the trail in fours, they simply stepped up, hands free, in slippers and sometimes barefooted. The equally amazing guides started out as porters when they were younger too.
As we moved up and down the slopes around Mount Rinjani, scenes like that kept appearing around us everytime we looked back. Before the trek, Macho, our guide, told us that he will tell us a method to trek up the summit. During the course of the trek, we all forgot about it and didn’t ask. On our 3rd day down the mountains, I asked him, what was it that he was supposed to tell us. He said, ‘when you trek up, do not look up. Instead, look back.’ The whole idea was so that you look at what you have achieved to motivate yourself rather than look at the path in front, which I agree, did not do anything positive to my morale. It’s always so near yet so far. Simple theory, but so effective.
