Mount Batur is in the north of Bali and is 1717 metres high. At 2am on Saturday morning, Ste & I climbed the volcano to watch the sunrise from the peak.
We booked the sunrise trek through our hostel (Green View Inn Hostel) for 325,000 IDR / £18 ish, which was the cheapest price we could find. A driver picked us up at 2am from our hostel along with 4 other people from various hotels across Ubud. Luckily we’d managed to get some sleep before, so we weren’t too tired.
Wayan, the driver, drove us to an organic coffee plantation for a cup of strong coffee and a delicious banana pancake at 3am (included in the price).
By 4am, we had reached the base of the volcano and met our trekking guide who was also called Wayan. Wayan is the traditional Indonesian name given to the first born boy in a family, so there are a lot men called Wayan everywhere you go!
Wayan no. 2 (our trekking guide) was brilliant – he was really energetic and talkative which is what we all needed at 4 in the morning. Being in a small group of six people with one guide was great because we all had the chance to walk and get to know each other. We each got given a torch and set off up the volcano just after 4am.
The first half of the walk was relatively easy and not too steep. Our guide told us that there were 500 people climbing the volcano that morning! I could see loads of people’s torch lights ahead and behind of us, snaking up the volcano like some sort of pilgrimage.
The second half of the climb was a lot steeper and the path had loads of slippery rocks and stones which made it really hard to climb. Three people in our group went off ahead at a quicker pace, but Ste, our guide and a German lady walked up slower.
We finally got to the top just about 5.40am, just in time for sunrise. We took a seat at the top of the volcano and waited to see the beautiful sunrise…. unfortunately we saw nothing apart from a few seconds of colour shining through the thick cloud. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience to climb a volcano.
After a banana sandwich and a boiled egg cooked by Wayan and finished off by the very cheeky monkeys, we started to climb down. I found the decent a lot harder because of the slippery rocks and my knee injury. I didn’t manage to fall over, unlike Ste!
The view was beautiful halfway down underneath the clouds, although we couldn’t see Mt Agung.
On the way back, Wayan no. 1 took us back to the coffee plantation for a third breakfast of banana fritters and a tea and coffee tasting which was really nice, but not after a 4 hour volcano climb!
By 11am, we were back at our hostel in Ubud – tired, aching but happy.
Adventures of Ailsa 