Climbing the volcano for sunrise

Realization of the day: Starting the day at 1:30 in the morning gives you a lot of daylight.

Klausi picked us up at 2:30 am, he drove Caro, Lisa, and me to Mount Batur, an active stratovolcano with an elevation of nearly 1750m. He dropped us off at a parking lot at around 1600m. Caro, of course, handled the ups and downs incredibly well.

The left and right turns, the holding on and sliding. So she got to enjoy her breakfast three times, although only upon arrival(!). Respect for enduring.

Cold and dark; masses of tourists (why did I think it would be just us and a handful of others?), set off - with each having their own tour guide (if you're lucky, they speak English well) - towards the summit. For 630,000 IDR (about 38 euros), we climbed 150 vertical meters up to the first station, where Caro and Lisa stayed, then another 25 slippery and rocky minutes to the summit, which I climbed with our guide. Here, the Balinese people's problem with telling time became apparent for the first time; the announced one-hour ascent turned out to be only 25 minutes, and the crossing from Bali to Lombok, initially advertised as 60 minutes, ultimately took 150 minutes. The groups spread out nicely, so there was no crowding. The ascent itself is completely doable without hiking or climbing experience. Initially easy, as it was on a flat road and then on a slightly gravelly path with a gentle incline (according to Caro, dreadful gravel), we got used to the darkness and the little light of the flashlights. Gradually, the ascent became steeper and more slippery, the chatter of the people subsided, however, more to concentrate. We all agree that the level of performance is average, and the pace, due to the line of ants that started from halfway and split into groups according to their abilities, was comfortable. The cool air supported the ascent; it wouldn't have been possible in the hot midday sun.

Our guide climbs this mountain every day for 50,000 IDR (about 3 euros plus a tip); she only needs an hour and never looked exhausted or slipped during the descent. We ran together for part of it; she laughed and pointed to her shoes: Good shoes from Portugal. Well then..

While the guides had breakfast, we waded towards the sunrise; while Caro and Lisa watched the monkeys steal the hikers' food from one station below, I sat on top and filmed the spectacle with Lisa's GoPro camera. The sun was 8 minutes late, but as soon as it broke through the horizon, the world was bathed in gentle pink light, it immediately became warmer, and the clouds in the basin of the mountains disappeared. Lombok appeared through the haze, overall a breathtaking spectacle, which made the 2.5-3 hour climb worthwhile.

The descent once again separated our group; Caro's fear of rolling down the mountain slowed her down a bit, and the guide took good care of her. By then, I was already at the bottom, a nice Swedish family gave me a ride back to our starting point (in the meantime, I had taken a wrong turn at the foot of the mountains and ended up at a different parking lot... oops).

All that effort deserved a reward. Immediately afterwards - completely soaked in sweat and dusty - we went to the hot springs (200,000 IDR entrance fee). For an hour, we could enjoy a basin of warm water right at the foot of Mount Batur, with a view of the mountain and Batur Lake, while a fisherman went about his daily work just five meters away from us. After recuperating, we returned to Alam Anda. There, we ended the day with swimming in the pool, Caro getting a massage, a sumptuous dinner, and a cocktail. Once again, we had to go to bed early that evening. The next morning, a dolphin tour awaits us, so we have to leave our hotel at 4 am to wait off the coast of Luvina with a fisherman's boat, 3 km from the shore, for the playful swimmers to (hopefully) appear.