Gunung Rinjani Sunrise, Indonesia

Gunung Rinjani is a volcano that takes up most of the island of Lombok in Indonesia. In fact it's probably the reason that Lombok is an island at all. I caught a boat there from Bali on a trip in 2002, and climbed the great volcano as a 2-night guided trek.

A highlight of the trip was the first arrival at the crater rim, with its view of the lake within and the smaller volcanic cone growing out of it. But the climax of the trip of course, was the 2:30am wake-up call and the steady climb to the summit in darkness, in order to catch the sunrise. As the sun came, it cast the shadow of the mountain we stood upon against the clouds on the opposite horizon, meanwhile in another direction, the summit of volcano Gunung Agung became visible, its pointy summit emerging from the clouds over Bali...