We got up at half 1 this morning! We managed to get some sleep so that was good! I never thought we would be getting up at 1.30am to do a sunrise trek up a volcanic mountain that's for sure! A guy came and picked us up at 2 in his people carrier and then went on to pick 4 more people up. There were only suppose to be 4 people to each trip with a guide but it doesn't bother us. The guy that picked us up was just the driver to bring us to the base and back to our accommodation again. I really wouldn't fancy his job having to be up at that time every day!
On the way we stopped at a coffee plantation and had a banana pancake and a cup of tea, which was a nice surprise as we didn't realise we got that! We got to the trek starting point in the pitch black and were told that 2 or 3 groups would join and we would have 3 guides for us all. We were given a torch and set off along the tracks but on the way all the groups and guides just blended as there were that many people- it was confusing to know what group you were with sometimes! Even though there were suppose to be 3 guides for our group we ended up splitting off and the 6 of us were left with one of the woman guides.
We might have made the wrong choice with the guide and the group as the guide wasn't very fit and had to stop more times than us and there was also a woman in our group who held us up big time and just couldn't do it.
Mount Batur is 1717m high but from where we started we climbed 1500m. It took us about 2 hours to get up, maybe a little more. It was actually very steep! I kind of thought it was going to be pretty easy but it was pretty tough in parts! It was also still dark so this added to the fun! We didn't have a clue what we were climbing until the way back down.
It rained nearly all the time we were trekking up and we were soaked! We arrived at a stop point near the top before sunrise and the guide didn't want to go any further to the very top and tried to stay at this lookout. It took some serious persuading and some crossed words with the group before she realised we were going to go to the top anyway! I think one couple in the group (the one with the slow girl) didn't really want to but us and another couple did so I think they went along with it.
We just got to the very top for sunrise and it was a very tough but funny climb. We didn't realise until going back down that the path to the top was the lava path so it was all black ash and rock that we were climbing through, which was pretty slippy too! At the top it was amazing and definitely worth the climb! We were above some of the clouds and we could see out to Mount Catur and some of Mount Agung poking above it once the clouds had cleared a little. Once the sun rose we could also see the crater lake which was lovely. The views were just brilliant!! There were the mountains on one side and a massive crater from the volcanic eruption of Mount Batur which we had climbed on the other side. Even though the weather was bad and it was a bit misty and cloudy to see everything at the top, it didn't ruin it at all, it just added to the whole experience!!
We took in the sights at the top for a while whilst the sun rose and we had breakfast of a boiled egg and a banana sandwich whilst 1717m high on a volcanic mountain that we had just climbed in the early hours of the morning! Pretty crazy! On the way back down I had a good fall on my bum and Nath fell down between two rocks near the edge of the crater! We stopped at the large crater for photos and also went to the largest cave in the mountain- which was pretty huge! There was also a vent in the mountain where we could feel the heat coming out of the volcano. A bit further down lived the monkeys, which is a strange place to live on a volcano! They also weren't as nice as the monkeys at the monkey forest and I thought one was going to go for me!
It was quite slippy coming back down so it wasn't just me that fell (more than once), and we had to practically run in places. It took about 2 hours to trek back down, soaked but loving life! It wasn't so fun sitting for an hour in the car on the journey back to Ubud soaked!
Once we got back it was still morning, which was very confusing! It was only about 10am so we chilled for a couple of hours and got showered and ready. I felt sick with exhaustion and lack of food so Nath had to go to the shop to get a snack to sort me out! I felt much better and we both had a beer and headed out to restaurant later in the afternoon. We opted for an Indian restaurant that was advertising a 3 course menu with unlimited beer for 150,000 each (£7.50). They tried to get us to order straight away so we would be full and wouldn't drink as much but after a disagreement with 3 different members of staff they let us just get on with drinking first for a while! The menu said you had up to 3 hours so we weren't rushing. I don't think they liked us very much after that but the food was lovely! We had quite a few beers and I got a little tipsy so all in all a good night and great food and drink for the price! It was raining whilst we were at the restaurant and coming back from the toilet and on the way out of the restaurant I fell on my arse in front of the staff on the hard marble stairs! I'm sure they had a laugh at me behind my back! It was really funny!
We got home about 8pm and got straight into bed. We had been up since half 1 in the morning and had climbed a mountain so it had been a very tough and tiring day!