Mount Batur
An Active Volcano Inside A Thirteen Kilometre Caldera Holding Lake Batur; Part Of The Batur UNESCO Global Geopark And The Most Walked Sunrise Trek In Bali · Kintamani, Bali
Batur is the sunrise trek every visitor to Bali is sold, and it is genuinely good - a two hour climb in darkness to a one thousand seven hundred metre rim, arriving as the light comes up over MOUNT AGUNG, MOUNT RINJANI ON LOMBOK and LAKE BATUR in the caldera below. THE CALDERA IS THE REAL SUBJECT: thirteen kilometres across, one of the finest in the world, and the reason the whole area is a UNESCO GLOBAL GEOPARK. Batur itself is active and its 1963 and later flows are visible as black tongues across the caldera floor. TWO THINGS TEMPER IT. The trek is CROWDED - several hundred people on the same path on a good morning. And GUIDES ARE ENFORCED BY A LOCAL ASSOCIATION THAT OPERATES AS A MONOPOLY and has a long history of turning back or intimidating independent walkers. Book through a guesthouse and the problem disappears; try to walk up alone and it does not. The caldera view from the Kintamani rim road above costs nothing and involves no climbing at all.
Kintamani, Bangli Regency, Bali, Kintamani, Bali, Indonesia
THE TREK STARTS BETWEEN 3 AND 4 AM from Toya Bungkah or Pura Jati to reach the rim for sunrise; the climb takes roughly ninety minutes to two hours. A GUIDE IS ENFORCED IN PRACTICE - the local trekking association operates a monopoly on the routes and independent walkers have been turned back or worse, so book through a guesthouse or operator rather than attempting it alone. FEES COVER THE GUIDE, TRANSPORT AND USUALLY BREAKFAST cooked in the volcanic steam vents at the top. THE MOUNTAIN CLOSES WHEN VOLCANIC ACTIVITY RISES and has done so more than once. THE RAINY SEASON, ROUGHLY NOVEMBER TO MARCH, frequently means cloud and no sunrise at all. THE HOT SPRINGS AT TOYA BUNGKAH on the lake shore keep their own daytime hours and are the standard way to finish.