Our 7 Month Travel Blog

We kicked off our trek to the caldera rim of lake Batur with a very early start, we were up at 2:30am!

We booked the trek through Seek Sophie, who organised the transport and guides for the hike, which all worked really well.

We were picked up from our accommodation in Ubud at 3am and were driven an hour and a half to a small village next to lake Batur. We met our amazing guides, put on our head torches, and headed to the edge of the lake. Before getting on the boat, there was first time for a quick photo stop with the stars!

It turns out our guides were not only good at hiking but also great photographers!

After the short boat ride across lake Batur, we arrived at the foot of the climb.

We were expecting an obvious well-trekked path….instead there was a lot of dense undergrowth and a lot of clambering! All great fun! As we were hiking before sunrise, it was also pitch black, with just our head torches to light the way….but this all added to the adventure!

We trekked our way up the trail, which wound its way up the mountain.

We hiked for quite a while up the steep trail, with our guides pointing out slippery rocks or holes to be aware of. They were really helpful and had some interesting stories. We definitely wouldn’t have wanted to do something like this without their knowledge.

We’re not experienced hikers but would say the trek was challenging but doable. You needed a good level of fitness though, as it was steep all the way up, and in parts we had to use our hands to climb.

We reached the summit before sunrise, where we could already see Mt Rinjani on Lombok in the distance.

As the sun rose and the mountains became clearer, the views were pretty spectacular. We could see Mt Agung in front on us and Mt Batur behind.

In the distance on Mt Batur summit we could see lots of head torches as people were climbing up the busier more touristy climb. We really enjoyed having our spot to ourselves and are so glad we picked this hike!

A lady from the local village then prepared a delicious breakfast for us which we enjoyed with the sunrise!

This felt like a really authentic experience that supported local people, rather than other more touristy options.

Once the sun had risen, we got even more incredible views of the mountains and sea.

It was then time for us to make the trek back down. It was interesting seeing the walk now in the light. We actually found going down more difficult than coming up but it was good now we could see where we were going!

Once we had reached the bottom, we then got on the boat again to go back across lake Batur, which in itself was an amazing experience with incredible views.

On the boat ride back we also passed a couple of temples by the water which were interesting to see.

We then headed back to where we had started, this time seeing the local fishing plantations, where they catch and feed fish in order to eat and sell.

Our guides also massively put us to shame when we realised they had done the whole trip in sliders (and ran parts of the hike too)!

Overall, this was an incredible experience and we would highly recommend. This was probably one of the highlights of our travels so far!