Day 7 - Mount Batur

So this is it, the alarm went off at 2am..... I must have had maybe 1 hours sleep... this was going to be painful. Luckily there was tea and coffee made available so we drank a gallon of the stuff before boarding the bus and heading 1 hour up into the mountain arriving at the car park at the start of the walk with about 200 other people!

We were introduced to our guides (4 in total) and donned the headtorches and started our hike. The first mile or two was relatively flat walking past tomato plant fields and the odd shack. The the ascent started. At first it was just a slight incline with winding paths that twisted and turned on the way up. More and more people were arriving behind us and the higher we got the better the view of the hundred of torches that followed us up the volcano. We stopped for a brief rest before we were introduced to the real climb. I think it was actually a good thing that it was dark so we couldn’t see what lay ahead. Things got difficult quickly, because this was an active volcano, the last eruption was back in 1963 the slope was completely covered in rock like lava. You stood on it expecting it to act like a rock but it moved with the slightest of touches as lava is very light. None of us fell on the way up, all of us fell on the way down.

After 2 difficult hours of stopping and starting because of the sheer number of people we finally reached the top, it was still pitch black but we all managed to whoop and high five each other. We were one of the first group so we set up camp right on the edge facing eastwards and I set up my GoPro with precision ready for the time lapse video. Every so slowly the sun started rising. It started with a very slight blue/yellowy line across the horizon and then slowly grew and grew. About 6am you could start to see the outline of the mountains opposite and the lake below and by 6:30 the whole landscape was lit by a beautiful orange sunrise. It was pretty breathtaking and for a few times the group just sat in silence watching the world go by soaking it all in.

Once the sun was up and we had started to warm up, we headed over to the volcano crater, only 300 metres from where we stood but in the dark we hadn’t been able to see the thick clouds of sulphur smoke coming from the deep. There were a number of holes in the ground which you could put your hand into and got the most lovely warm sensation as the sulphur ran over it.

We then headed down the mountain which was much more difficult to deal with, slipping and sliding out way down. I’ve no idea how some people made it up and down alive in the flip flops or Crocs that they were wearing.

We made it down unscathed. Next we headed back to the hotel for breakfast.... which consisted of one piece of toast and a pancake, all without any jams or sauces.

Next on the agenda was the hot springs, I’m not sure what we were expecting but we pulled up to this quite swanky complex and walked in and were dumbstruck with the sheer size of the place. 3 hot spring pools, one with a bar and infinity pool out over the lake and a view of the volcano we had just climbed. We all congratulated ourselves with a beer and wallowed in the pools for a few hours before picking up our luggage and heading off to our hotel for the next two nights in Kalibubuk, right on the coast. Beautiful hotel with a lovely room, two pools and a nice restaurant. My favourite so far.