Beautiful Bali: Day 5
We got up at 2.30 am this morning for a 2 hour hike up mount Batur to watch the sun rising over mount ahgur. The track is mainly volcano rock, so the Tongariro crossing was pretty good prep for this.
I think I’ve read blog posts about how busy this walk is, but I never expected as many as this! All I could see in front and behind for miles was people carrying torches. It looked like a line of glow worms trailing up the mountain!
We entertained ourselves by playing a memory alphabet game – ideally with the words relating to our trip! Here’s the load down (before each new word is added, the person adding the word has to recite the last). It really helped to pass the time and was a really fun game!
At one rest point, our guide told us that this bright light is Venus, and the one below is Mercury!
After seeing the number of people climbing up to the summit, we opted to sit at the sunrise view point because there was no one in front of our view. The experience was similar to that of watching the sunrise from the Great Wall of China but not entirely the same.
It was a real mix of emotions, we were relived and happy to make it to the viewpoint, and later the last member of our group made it to join us and that was brilliant! We had maybe thought she had turned around, and not been able to complete it, but she did, and we were all so pleased! (A testament to how lovely this group really is).
And then it was slightly more emotional than I was expecting, as I was about to lean in for a group snap, I suddenly noticed the lady next to me was upset, crying in fact. She said it was a year exactly since her husband passed away and we all started to cry – it was a very different experience than expected, but a shared memory with the group. And it was quite an intimate moment.
The long walk down had problems of its own. I had expected a degree of difficulty, but I thought I wouldn’t have to concentrate as hard seeing as it would be light out. However it was quite slippery underfoot with all of the scree, I think we all slipped over at one time or another.
The one thing I wouldn’t have expected to see was a young kiwi guy hobbling DOWN the mountain on crutches. After apparently breaking his ankle four days earlier when his friend wiped out on a moped that he was on the back off, thus crushing his ankle. At times he even got carried down the mountain by a guide before eventually making it to a track where a motorbike could pick him up.
After this, there was time to quickly eat breakfast before a 30 minute drive to a local hot spring resort. It boasted of a ‘flamboyant resto’ featuring a photo of a man dressed head to toe in a white suit, holding hands with a woman in a bikini being pulled along behind him. (Sometimes I question who exactly is doing the marketing for these places?!).
The hot springs were the perfect antidote to the long hike. We drove for awhile to a buffet which was okay, not my favourite. This was the preamble to our 3 hour drive to Lovina! Famous for its Dolphins (which are sadly chased by tour groups when they’re spotted so I won’t be partaking in this activity).
We ended the day by watching the sunset from the beach in Lovina – ending our day full circle!
DistractedFlick 