Batur Volcano

In addition to vanilla instagram tours, old good trips are also organized in Bali. For example, one can climb an active volcano to meet the dawn.

The volcano is called Batur. Tracking starts just helluva early. They pick you up from the hotel at two in the morning, bring to the campsite, where you’re forcibly poured half a liter of coffee and fed with nutella pancakes.

The darkness is such that the Milky Way can be shot on the phone.

Before climbing the volcano, guides pray at the Hindu altar.

Tracking is quite easy. Even smokers and overweight rise. I didn’t notice the mountain at all, ascended without a break. From above, there is a great view of the neighboring volcano.

Crowds at the top.

The first rays of the sun appear.

Neighboring mountains come out of the shadows.

Merchants walk along the mountain with trays, sell snacks and blankets. Everybody came in shorts, and it’s goddamn cold at the top.

Time to timelapse.

Well, that’s it. Then a cloud hits Batur and you can’t see a damn thing for several hours.

However, Mount Batur is a real active volcano. Therefore, you can go straight to the mouth of the volcano. It’s somewhere out there on the edge, where one can easily slip and fly down.

There is one nook on Batur from where steam is coming up. This piece of land is already very close to the vent. There is lava deep underground at such a temperature that the soil and rocks are heated many meters up to the surface.

Hence the steam rises. That is, it is not smoke that would come from burning lava, but steam, the result of soil warming up.

In some places, the temperature is such that one can boil eggs or light a cigarette.

The blanket is no longer needed. The heat and humidity make you sweat with a stream.

Frozen lava can be found on the slopes of the mountain.

In general, it is much more beautiful on the descent than at the top.

Below are rice fields and vegetable gardens. The landscape looks like Africa.