Where Exploration Meets Connection

About us

This page covers the About section of the Venture Beyond Expeditions website, introducing the company, its founders, and the Indonesian ground operation behind every school expedition. It explains why Venture Beyond was created, the backgrounds of founder Angus Lawrence and Lombok-based co-director Saefudin Zohri, and the twelve-year history of Rinjani Dawn Adventures, the locally led trekking operation that runs every program on the ground. The page covers the company’s approach to safety, community, and environmental responsibility, and is written for Heads of Outdoor Education, Deputy Principals, and teachers who want to understand who they are trusting with their students before making an enquiry.

Why We Created Venture Beyond

Venture Beyond was created because we believe young people are capable of more than they are usually asked to give.

We believe that real growth happens outside the classroom, outside the comfort zone, and outside the familiar. It happens on a steep trail at altitude, in a village where nothing looks or sounds like home, in the quiet moment when a student realises they are stronger than they thought. That is what we are here to create.

We created Venture Beyond to bring genuinely transformative experiences to students. Not packaged adventure, but real challenge in a real place, with guides who know and love that place as deeply as we do. The kind of experiences that forge lasting friendships, build grit and resilience, and leave students with memories and a sense of themselves that no classroom can replicate.

We created Venture Beyond because we believe business should be a force for good in the communities it operates in. We work closely with the chief of Senaru Village at the base of Mount Rinjani, providing food aid and educational materials to the local school. Following the 2018 earthquakes, our sister operation Rinjani Dawn Adventures founded the Sasak Warriors program to support the community through its recovery. That commitment to the people of Lombok has never wavered.

We created Venture Beyond because the environment that makes these expeditions possible deserves to be protected. We limit group sizes, follow strict leave no trace principles, and work exclusively with local guides, suppliers and partners to ensure that tourism benefits the community rather than exploiting it.

Genuine challenge and rigorous safety are not opposites. Our risk management systems have been built and refined over twelve years of operating on Mount Rinjani, one of Indonesia’s most demanding environments. Every guide is trained, every route is assessed, and every decision on the mountain is made with student welfare as the only priority. We will never compromise on safety, and we will never water down the experience. Both matter, and we have spent twelve years proving that you do not have to choose between them.

Venture Beyond is built on twelve years of doing this properly. We are proud of what we have built, and we are only just getting started.

Student Growth

Real challenge. Real resilience. Real confidence.

Community Partnership

Twelve years of deep roots in Lombok and Senaru Village.

Environmental Responsibility

Protecting the landscapes that make these expeditions possible.

Risk Management and Safety Venture Beyond

Risk Management & Safety

Rigorous systems built from years of experience.

Seeing a student push through something they did not think they could do, and come out the other side with a quiet confidence they did not have before. That is something you cannot manufacture in a classroom or replicate on a weekend camp. Genuine challenge, lasting memories, real growth. That is what I believe in, and that is what Venture Beyond is built around.
— Angus Lawrence, Founder, Venture Beyond Expeditions

The People Behind Every Expedition

Angus Lawrence

Founder & Managing Director

Australia & Lombok

Angus grew up in the UK, served as an officer in the Army, and spent the years that followed working as a commercial diver and rope access supervisor on offshore oil and gas projects across the North Sea, West Africa and Australasia. It is a background that instils a particular attitude toward risk, safety and personal responsibility. Those foundations have never left him.

He first came to Lombok in 2011 and never really left. What began with a small resort on Gili Meno grew into the founding of Rinjani Dawn Adventures, an operation he has led for over twelve years. Saefudin Zohri has been his operational partner from the very start, and is today his official business partner and Indonesian co-director.

Now an Australian citizen, Angus established Venture Beyond Expeditions to bring that proven operation to school groups, backed by Australian accountability and a team that has been on the ground for over a decade.

Angus divides his time between Lombok and Melbourne, where he lives with his partner and twin daughters.

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Saefudin Zohri

Operations Manager, Lombok

Lombok

Saefudin Zohri has spent twelve years as the operational heart of Rinjani Dawn Adventures. Born and raised on Lombok, he knows Rinjani and its surrounding landscapes with the kind of depth that only comes from a lifetime on the mountain. He manages the guide team, coordinates all logistics, makes the on-the-ground safety calls, and ensures that every expedition runs exactly as planned.

When the 2018 earthquakes devastated communities across Lombok, Saefudin was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Sasak Warriors program, a community outreach initiative that channelled support to those most affected during the recovery. That commitment to his community was not a response to a crisis. It reflects who he is and how he operates every day.

Saefudin lives in Senaru Village, at the base of Mount Rinjani, with his wife Nur and their son, who attends the local school that Venture Beyond supports with educational materials. Nur runs Cafe Rinjani Dawn, the on-site catering facility that feeds every Venture Beyond school group during their time on the mountain. Their roots in the Senaru community run deep, and that connection is felt by every group that passes through.

When your students arrive on Lombok, Saefudin is there. He is not a contractor or a subagent. He is a partner, and he treats every group that comes through as a direct reflection of everything he has built.

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Rinjani Dawn Adventures

Our Ground Operation

Rinjani Dawn Adventures is the Indonesian trekking operation at the heart of every Venture Beyond expedition. Founded over twelve years ago by Angus Lawrence and operated day-to-day by Saefudin Zohri, it is the same team, the same guides, and the same systems that run every school group we bring to Lombok. When you book with Venture Beyond, there is no handoff to a third party. You are working with the people who built this operation from the ground up.

Over the years, Rinjani Dawn Adventures has had the privilege of working with some wonderful groups, including independent schools from Singapore and a Scouting group from Australia. Those experiences taught us a great deal about what school groups need, and they are a big part of why Venture Beyond Expeditions exists. We wanted to make that experience our entire focus.

We are proud of the reputation we have built on Rinjani, but we are more proud of how we have built it. Small group sizes, responsible waste management, a locally employed guide and porter team, and a genuine commitment to leaving the mountain in better condition than we found it. Mount Rinjani is one of Indonesia’s most extraordinary natural environments, and we take our responsibility to protect it seriously. That commitment has been recognised with the World Luxury Travel Award for Sustainable Tour Operator of the Year, Indonesia, a Luxury Travel Guide Sustainable Tourism Award, and multiple TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Awards and Certificates of Excellence. We have also been voted Lombok’s number one guiding company on consecutive years, and were invited to contribute the Mount Rinjani chapter to National Geographic’s “100 Hikes of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Scenic Trails”.

Cafe Rinjani Dawn, run by Saefudin’s wife Nur in Senaru Village, provides all meals for Venture Beyond school groups. Every dietary requirement is registered and managed in advance, and every meal is prepared fresh on site.

Awards & Recognition

Travellers Choice Award TripAdvisor, 2026
Sustainable Tour Operator of the Year, Indonesia World Luxury Travel Awards, 2023
Certificates of Excellence TripAdvisor, Multiple years
Contributor, "100 Hikes of a Lifetime: The World's Ultimate Scenic Trails" National Geographic, 2019