Day 32 (Apr 6 2013): Sunrise Hike of Mt. Batur

The Quick Facts:

* Carrie and I continued our weekend of being outdoors with a sunrise hike of Gunung Batur (Mt Batur; elevation of 1717 meters) which is one of two active volcanoes in Bali
* Booked with Pineh Bali Tours who were great; Bali Sunrise Tours also a good operator
* After one month on the road, Carrie is still talking to me (I think)

The Good:

* The sunrise views at the top of Mt Batur were gorgeous
* Hard-boiling an egg with steam from a vent in the active volcano
* Our mountain guide, Wayan, who is a man of few words but somebody we grew to enjoy in a short amount of time

The Bad:

* Part of the deal, but you need to be up and out of the house at 1:30AM to make sunrise at the top of the mountain


This morning was dedicated to a sunrise hike of Ganung Batur (Mt Batur), which is one of two active volcanoes in Bali.  Here it is from breakfast during our bike tour:

 

The thing to do here is hike up the mountain in the dark (it’s a ~90 minute hike that is moderately difficult) to view sunrise from the top.  So, that’s what Carrie and I did.  Feeling completely refreshed after one hour’s sleep, Carrie and I awoke at ~1:15AM on Saturday morning to be picked up at our hotel by the tour company.  After a ~90 minute drive to the Batur region, we were treated to an excellent banana crepe and five different kinds of coffee and tea (our favorites: vanilla coffee and lemon tea).  Here we are at breakfast, looking our best:

After breakfast, we drove another 20 minutes to the car park before making our ascent.  We met Wayan, our guide who grew up in the region and has been leading people up the mountain for over 10 years, in the car park.  After arming our small group of three with flashlights (Elsa, from Taiwan, joined Carrie and me for the trek up) Wayan began leading us up the mountain at 3:50AM.  It was pitch dark, so I don’t have any pictures, but we arrived at the top at 5:15AM which allowed for a time series (of sorts) of the same shot (of Gunung Abang, 2153 meters and the third highest mountain in Bali) over the course of the sunrise:

And here is a picture of Carrie and me, along with Wayan and Elsa.

Here is a good picture of Mount Rinjani in Lombok (which is a ~90 minute boat ride away and the next island over from Bali in the Indonesian archipelago):

 

After sunrise, we ventured off to hike across the crater rim to a spot with a steam vent hot enough to boil an egg in 10 minutes.  Here is Wayan loading the eggs into the vent:

 

 

10 minutes later, ding!  Eggs are ready!  Delicious too!  After snacking on hard boiled eggs, banana, and bread, we decided to hike “the hard way” down the mountain to see this crater, which is the last crater formed on the mountain (in 2000) and is still steaming in a pretty significant way.

 

The climb down this way wasn’t for the faint of heart, but it did provide some of the most special pictures and experiences of the morning, so I highly recommend for those who are able and adventurous enough (young children, maybe less than 10, probably can’t handle it).  The walk along this crater includes a lot of steam and beautiful black sand.

Finally, the locals know that monkeys live in the mountain and can sense when an eruption is about to happen.  They know that when the monkeys descend the mountain in an unusual way, something is going to happen.  We went at a calm time, so the monkeys were all too happy to stop and pose for pictures.

 

 

Follow me on Twitter at @adonaldson1214