Mount Inerie — Local services in Flores

A great hike with some beautiful views. I was unable to complete it due to an absolutely incompetent guide (see below) and some rain that discouraged me from completing the ascent at around 4am. With a moderate fitness level, this climb should be doable. If ascending alone, wait till there is light, with a COMPETENT guide, it should be doable before sunrise.

The best stories in life come from the most epic moments or the most spectacular failures. I arranged to do the Inerie sunrise hike with a guide Edwin, who was recommended by my homestay. I met him the day before and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He was on time and picked me up at 1:45am. It took about about 20 minutes to scooter to the trail head. While I was on the bike, he said that he didn't get enough sleep because he was up drinking arrack.... Giant red flag, I should have asked him to turn around right there.

He didn't bring walking sticks or head lamps, as he had agreed to the evening before, but anyhow, the hike began ok, using just my phone's flashlight. After about 10 minutes of walking, Edwin needed a break. He struggled a lot. We continued along, but about 20-30 steps and then he would need a 3-4 minute break. At 3am, he told me that I should continue alone. He said he was out of breath and couldn't complete the hike, but that the trail was easy enough to follow.

Boy was I an idiot, I should have called it a night and just gone back to bed... Anyways, I continue along, the next 30 minutes of the hike are through thick vegetation with a moderate incline. I have a moderate degree of physical stamina and had no issue at all with this. After about 1-1.5km, the trek became steeper and there was basically no vegetation, just lots of rocks. It continues to progressively gets more difficult. The "path" is difficult to follow at times as there was a loooot of mist/fog and the terrain becomes less hospitable as you ascend. At about the 2-2.5km mark the terrain becomes just volcanic rocks which are EXTREMELY slippery.

At 4:15 it started to rain, and rain hard. I decided to get to a spot where I could at least sit down and wait out the rain. According to google maps, I was approximately 2/3 of the way to the top. Up till then I hadn't needed to take any breaks, the climb was completely doable. The rain continued for 15 more minutes and then I tried to continue my ascent. After about 5-10 minutes of slipping and falling I decided to cut my losses and head back.

Going down was considerably more challenging than going up. The rocks are very very slippery, particularly right after the rain. It took about 2 hours to get down with lots of stumbling along the way. An hour into my descent, I caught back up with Edwin, he apologized profusely and begged me not to mention any of this to the homestay owner, lolol... He was penitent enough, but the whole experience was utterly unacceptable.

We would have finished the descent sooner, but Edwin "lost his pants," as he apparently got too hot to wear his trousers at one point and took them off. Absolutely ridiculous. We wasted 15 or so minutes frivolously looking for his pants to no avail... A very disappointing experience overall, but I'm happy to be back at the homestay and in bed.

Some notes: BE CAREFUL. Hire a competent guide, the path is not that easy to assess on your own, especially in the dark The volcano is beautiful!! You are rewarded with great views even at the base. I imagine the final push to the summit is more challenging, unfortunately I didn't feel safe enough to go for it. Telekom has 4g LTE coverage for the entirety of the part...

This is Mount Inerie. Inerie which "Ine" in the language of Ngada-Nagekeo major tribe in Flores Island means "mother". The locals believe that this mountain is like mother who is always loving them, the children who born and grown from the lands surrounding it as her wombs. Based on locals traditional story, Mount Inerie also have its own legend related with Ebulobo a neighbor mount. The short story in the beginning, there was a man named Ebulobo and a woman named Inerie. Fell in love with the beauty of Inerie, the gentle Ebulobo want to propose her, but she rejected the proposal. The angry broken hearted Ebulobo then willing to kill Inerie. Inerie know Ebulobo's willing so Inerie requested Jaramasi and Manulalu to help her kill Ebulobo. War happened between them.

Mount Inerie is an active volcano located in Ngada Regency, Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara. For those who are interested in hiking, Mount Inerie which has the highest peak altitude at 2245 MASL can be hiked usually with hiking route from Watumeze, Tiworiwu Village, Jerebu'u District which has altitude +- 1000 MASL. The hike will take approximately 4 hours. The hiking route begin with easy-slope savanna then continue with hard-steep rocky sands. The track to the peak and around the crater is quite narrow so it is quite dangerous for newbie-hikers. Hiking route has not been well managed by local government proven by there is no sign of path, rest area buildings, and safety & security properties installed along the hiking route, so it is recommended to hike with local guides. In addition, do not forget that we have to always behave well throughout our hiking in this mount, because almost all of the mounts in Indonesia generally is considered as holy and sacred and closely related to the wisdom of living for every local communities who lives around it.

Besides hiking, we can also simply enjoy the beautiful panorama of Mount Inerie which usually is clearly visible in the morning/evening from Ring Inerie St. around Aimere - Bajawa - Jerebu'u - Inerie Districts, also in several tourist attractions such as Watu Nari Wowo Hill, Bata Ne Suka Valley, Manulalu, Wolobobo, and many of traditional villages...

We started the climb at 2:30am with a local guide and reached the summit at 6:00am so just in time to watch the end of the sunrise. Beautiful views despite the clouds and we were the only people up there. We are two young people with relative fitness with no mountain climbing experience and found the hike hard but manageable, not sure I can say the same about our guide as he seemed to struggle for the last hour but did complete the whole thing in flip flops which was rather impressive. The path is fine to climb until about an hour to the top where the path disappears and it’s a scramble to the top with deep crevices everywhere. You reach the crater first and then it is about 30mins to the summit. We spent about an hour at the summit enjoying the views and even had 4g at the top. There was internet coverage across the whole trail. Due to rainy season we couldn’t slide the whole mountain so had to take the same path down as we did up. We spent most of the decent on our bums and hands to manoeuvre over the loose rock. Overall an enjoyable hike and the views at the top and on the way down were worth it. I would say that you would need a guide as I don’t think we would of made it up on our own in the dark, especially when it came to scrambling...