Vulkantrekking tour 🌋

At 3:50 am this morning, we stood ready in front of the bungalow complex with Api, our guide for today's volcano tour 👍. She handed each of us a flashlight 🔦 and off we went. It was pitch dark 🤭, but fortunately the flashlights were quite strong. So we could always see exactly what was in front of us!

The first 20 minutes we walked pretty quickly and it was still a wide path. Then Api stopped and said, "now we go to the jungle"! 😮🙈 "Really"? Well, it was dark and I thought, don't shine around, just concentrate on the path. It worked very well 👍. What is worth mentioning are the sounds that came from the jungle at night, a bit spooky🤭!

The path became narrower, sandier and steeper. Phew, that was really exhausting and I had to ask Api to slow down a bit. Eventually, we also saw other groups with their guides walking up the volcano paths. It looked pretty funny, as we could only see the light of the flashlights.

After about an hour, Api said, only 15 more minutes, but please be CAREFUL! Now we reached a passage where it was quite steep and there were small rocks that you slipped on frequently. After an hour and 15 minutes, we finally reached the top. 😀👍 We were sweating because Api set quite a pace...

Now we had to wait for the sunrise 🌅, about an hour 🙈. In the meantime, Api prepared breakfast for us: eggs and a banana sandwich 👍. It was very cold on top of the volcano and fortunately we had spare clothes. The sunrise today wasn't as great because there was a cloud around the volcano. The sun kept appearing and when it did, it was a very beautiful sight 😊!

Then we got to see the hot stones and the crater 😮. Wow, the crater was huge, incredible! The volcano is still active, as shown by the hot stones! Since I was still cold, I would have liked to sit on those hot stones 😂!

So, now it was time to descend 🙈. It was daylight now and we had a great view of Batur and the lake. Now I could see where we had walked up 🤭. It was incredible, the passage with the rocks looked really dangerous and the path through the jungle was not my favorite. I'm sure I wouldn't have done it during the day!

We safely arrived in the village and treated ourselves to a delicious breakfast. Afterwards, we walked to the "Hot Springs". It's a natural pool that gets its energy (warm water) from the volcano! The water is said to have some healing powers 😉! We spent 3 hours in the water, our fingers were all wrinkled 😂. Somehow we managed to get out of the water, but it felt really good after the volcano trek 👍.

Our driver was already waiting for us at the parking lot in front of the hot springs! Next stop, Amed 😊. I have to say, the driver was a complete idiot 🙇🏼‍♀️. A young guy who probably thought, oh two women, let me show off 🤦‍♀️. I have never experienced such a catastrophic driving style. I would have liked to hit him on the back of his head 🥊! He was speeding through the villages and then kept turning to us with a grin on his face🤨! But the idiot got what he deserved, the roads here are very narrow and he thought he could pass a truck, but the maneuver went wrong. He drove into a huge pothole on the left 😂 and damaged something 😇. That was nice, afterwards the idiot drove a bit more calmly!

We will stay in Amed for the next 3 days. We definitely want to go snorkeling here - there is supposed to be a great underwater world 😁

Well, we are totally exhausted and tired😴! Today we will go to bed early again!