Here’s a very nice photo of our accommodation when we went on the mountain climb. Nothing special, but very cosy. Our porters put up the tents as BB and I struggled up the mountain, hours behind them!
At least when we got to our camp for the night everything was in place and dinner was cooked. As you can see we all look pretty relaxed. And no, that’s not a telephone that BB is using on the right of the photo. I’m not sure what he’s doing.
This is the view of the property from the road. You can just glimpse the ocean at the top left, it’s just a little darker shade of blue than the sky. Suffice to say, we haven’t had a lot of time to post in the last few weeks. As you can see, it’s been nearly a month since our last post. Nevertheless, the property is still very much on our minds.
In fact I’ve been wishing that we were back there in the last few weeks. Back where life moves at a much more manageable pace!
We have been in touch with our friends in Senaru and everyone is well. We can’t wait to get back and see them.
Oh dear, it’s Sunday night and I haven’t had a chance to work on the design of the house this weekend. Too much going on in Sydney! I’ll try and finish during the week. In the meantime, this is a shot of where the first bungalow will be built. This is the middle terrace, just above where the barugas will be. We’ll stroll down to the barugas in the morning and see the sun rise over the valley.
At the moment you can just see it’s a vegie patch, but here’s hoping that by year’s end it will be a modest but very comfortable dwelling!
A very quick sketch is made on a piece of old cardboard we found. A basic layout of the buildings and some landscaping. Andy is working on the design of some simple bungalows at the moment. These are running late, they were meant to be ready before Christmas, but hopefully they can be sent at the end of the month. We’ll post the rough sketches of the bungalows up when we have them ready. Aji will take the designs and turn them into reality. The plan is that they are simple dwellings, basic but functional. They will fit in with the architecture of the area and so won’t stick out like a sore thumb!
Down at the lakeside one morning. Truly a scene of peace and serenity, and after the long walk to get there you are well advised to take a side-trip to the hot thermal springs to refresh those jarred joints and tired muscles.
This is what all the fuss is about! Climbing Mt Rinjani will be one of the more challenging things anyone will do in their lives, but the pay-off when you reach the rim of the crater and see the sweeping views down to the lake and to the new baby volcano is well worth the effort.
We haven’t yet climbed to the true summit of the mountain, which you can see in the top left of the photo above. However we apparently took a much longer climb to get to this part of the mountain rim, followed by a climb virtually straight down to the lakeside.
There are plenty of guides and porters in Senaru to help you negotiate this once-in-a-life-time experience. If you’re interested we can forward you contact details for some of these.
The site has three terraces from northern to southern property line, and two from the west to the east (from the road to the cliff). BB and Aji are planning what to do with the bonus terrace we have that isn’t officially included on the title, but is ours to use nonetheless. We will construct some retaining walls on the cliff and extend this 2m strip out to around 3 or four metres width.
The wall of earth behind BB and Aji in the photo above will be strengthened with a stone wall and will form a lovely backdrop for this terrace, which will be home to three barugas (these are roofed huts without walls) where we can sit all day and watch the mountain.
The terraces will eventually be where some small bungalows will be built.
Welcome to our little piece of paradise. One of our first tasks is to work out what to call this place. We haven’t quite come up with the best name yet but more on that later. So what is ‘this place’?
In 2003 BB and Andy bought a little parcel of land 600m up Mount Rinjani, in a little village called Senaru in West Lombok. Our project is to build three small dwellings on the land and let our local friends run it as a small business for them. At the moment the land is just that, land with a veggie patch on it.
But later in 2006 we hope to see the first of the buildings go up. As we gradually post pictures of the location here you’ll understand why we fell in love with this place.
So the name…
As you read through this blog have a think about the names that we have so far been toying with:
Hmm, not hugely creative, but it’s a start!
