Abang, Bali. Just Us and The Mountain

Just Us and The Mountain. Abang, Bali

September 24, 2018 By Vlad With 1 Comment

In Indonesia / Travel

Abang is the highest point from the enormous caldera of the Batur Volcano and the third on the island.

A while ago, I’ve seen some pictures of the top that drew my attention, with the famous Batur on the other side of the lake.

It looked very good, and after reading that it is not popular among the tourists, I decided. This mountain is waiting for us!

I found a route on Locus Map, a few perspectives on Google Earth and more pictures from the top. Not much information, but that’s why it attracted us.

We knew that in the Kintamani area the locals are aggressive with tourists and compel them to take a guide for an easy route. We have done more difficult trekking in Romania than this one, so we did not even think of taking a guide.

The plan was simple, we go on a smaller road to see other places too, after sunset we pass the control point and we sleep somewhere for few hours. Until 3am, when we start trekking in order to reach the top for sunrise.

We started off, everything went well until the control point. Being dark, they certainly did not see our white skin, plus we were wearing long shirt and pants.

Almost at the end, the road got more difficult, steep and sandy. We pushed the motorbike, who gave up, until a temple where we got to the asphalt. We saw that we could have bypassed that off-road and taken a better one. It didn’t matter anymore …

From the Hindu temple (Pura Bubung Renteng), we continued on to where the trail started. The road still ok for the motorbike. At one point, we came to a wider parking lot, from where many trails started. We could go by motorbike until this point …

We found a camping spot a little further from the parking lot, it seemed like others had used it before. Cold and wet. We realized it will be a cold night …

We woke up at 3am and needed 1 hour to prepare, even though we calculated only 30 minutes.

The direction of the route was indicated by a yellow arrow on a tree in the parking lot. No one around, that’s a good sign.

The trail quite easy, not too steep, anyway we couldn’t see much in the dark. It continued like this until the first temple, from where it seemed to become more serious.

A nice view of the lake and Mount Batur opened in front of us. Wow! There were three lines of lights on Batur that headed toward the top. Few hundred tourists for sure.

So close, just across the lake, we had the whole mountain just for us.

We continue the trail pleased with our choice.

More steep and slippery. In the dark, these areas are harder to avoid, but we manage somehow. We arrive at the second temple and realize that we have to hurry up if we want to reach the top for the sunrise.

We pass the steep and slippery side, but the batteries are running out. Probably lack of sleep and food … Vlad hurries up but I’m ok to see the sunrise through the branches. Anyway, when I get to the top, it’s really cool, the sun shines on Batur and almost the whole caldera.