It is 1:45 am when my alarm clock goes off. After only 3 hours of sleep I jump out of bed with an unexpected wave of energy running through my body. Today is going to be the highlight of our holiday on Bali! We are going to climb Mount Batur to watch the sunrise!

After I made sure that everyone actually got up from their comfy beds, I start to get ready myself. It is usually the coldest before the dawn, but few moments later we will be probably melting under the Balinese sun. Because the rainy season officially started, I am packing my raincoat along with sunnies, sunscreen, water bottle and chocolate for energy.

Our drivers are already waiting for us at the entrance of our hotel in Ubud. The drive takes about two hours from Central Ubud to the starting point of the hike and most of my family members fall asleep in the car.

There are lots of different companies that organize Mt. Batur hikes. From the sea of offers, I chose Bali Bliss Tours, who are doing the trips from Seminiyak, Ubud, Sanur and Nusa Dua. I personally recommend to do the hike from Ubud, simply because the drive is the shortest.

When we get to the meeting point I am surprised how many people there are to do the hike. I knew this is one of the most popular tours on Bali, but I personally thought that people would rather sleep. I can hear all the different languages happily chatting around us, while our Balinese guides (young and very skinny boy and girl) are handing out the flashlights and telling us about different stages of the hike. We also learn that yesterday was quite unfortunate day on Mt. Batur, it was raining a lot and because of heavy clouds travellers got only a very short glimpse of sunrise. I hope we will have a better luck today.

Once we enter the forest at the foot of Mount Batur, darkness surrounds us and the path is illuminated by nothing more than our torches. The first part of the hike is more or less on paved paths, but soon we find ourselves stumbling up the slope, slipping on the rocks of old lava and volcanic dust in complete blackness, and I am thinking that in some ways it is better that I cannot see what is in front of me. It is just us, in this moment, putting one foot in front of the other, our torches revealing less than half a meter of grey and black dusty “path”. I keep telling myself, that we have to be almost there, only this one step, climb this little rock and we will be atop, but when I raise my head, I can see long snake of light, made of torches of people at the front. It seems like it never ends.

I take a deep breath and continue to walk.

We take breaks obviously but because the sun won’t wait, we just keep walking as much as our sore legs allow us, still in complete darkness. So far we are lucky, not a single raindrop falls down!

After two hours we finally reach the top! There is one buffet where you can buy light refreshments like a bottle of juice or pack of nuts, but if you are expecting for example toilet, you will just have to go to the nature. 😀

Our tour guides bring us blankets and show us a space on the ground that is reserved for us. It is still quite early, cloudy and it is getting chilly, but at least it is not dark anymore.

Then the sun starts to show its first, still cold rays of sunshine, fighting their way through the clouds. It fills the sky with mighty colours of red and orange and the clouds has now become pink, like a sea of fairy floss. It’s bright and mesmerizing. It is definitely the highlight of all the trips we have done during our Bali holidays.

When the sun is up and it gets warmer, we are served with our complimentary breakfast. I don’t know what I expected to get on the top of an active volcano, but smashed banana inside of an unbaked slice of toast with an egg on side that was boiled on lava heated rocks would not appear in my craziest expectations. 😀 But in this moment is seems like the best food we can have.

After breakfast, our guides take us further up the hill to see cracks in the surface from where the hot steam is constantly rising up to remind us that the mountain is still alive. There are plenty of active volcanos on Bali and shortly after we left the island, Mount Agung erupted after almost 50 years of sleeping.

Nature is amazingly powerful.

Climbing Mount Batur and watching the sunrise is amazing, once in the lifetime experience! If you like outdoors and if you are at least a little bit fit, I definitely recommend to do this trip when visiting Bali. Even if your sneakers will be forever grey from volcanic dust and you won’t feel your legs the next morning, I promise, you will not regret it!

Have climbed Mt. Batur? Would you do this tour after reading this article?

What is your favourite or craziest sunrise experience?

Let me know in the comment section below!

Cheers,

Hana xx