After departing Seram, the next stage of my Indonesian adventure was to meet up with my boss Daryl Kitchener in Jakarta. This large, hectic city was a complete contrast to the distant lush forests of the island that had been home for 3 months. Darryl was Curator of the Mammal Department at the Western Australian Museum at the time and our mission for the next two months was to continue surveying the mammal fauna of Java and Lombok. We spent a couple of weeks in Java and then traveled east by bus and ferry, via the popular tourist destination Bali, to the neighbouring island of Lombok. During my six weeks on Lombok I stayed with wonderful families in Suranadi, Batu Koq, Pelangan and Kuta and was also privileged to experience an amazing week camped on the rim of Gunung Rinjani.
Map of Lombok showing towns, roads and the peaks Plawangan and Rinjani. At this scale you can even see the small ‘peak’ that is a young active volcano in the south-eastern corner of the lake and the break in the rim on its northern side where the hot springs are located.