A Trip & A Bath Part Deux

Day three and it was time to start our volcanically enticing hike. As expected, once arrisen, the morning was full of the now usual Baliniese tricks, to try to get us to give them money. Once again, luckily our Lonely Planet guide came to our rescue and we didn't fall victims to any of their predatorial traps. It was one Baliniese after another. "Hey, you need guide?", and that became the phrase of the day. "Hey! You need guide?", we'd utter to ourselves and even to the so-called guides themselves as we'd walked past them. Some would say that we were actually not allowed to go up there without one but we knew better. As we walked on up the volcano, the answers to them started to differ. From shear lies like: "No thanks, we'd never walk up that thing! We're just going to the base of it to have a look", to things like, "Oh, thanks but don't worry, we're professional 'guides' from Europe. We all took 'guide' courses!". We actually passed one guy on his way down. After his compulsory "Hey! You need guide?", we looked around him inquisitively saying "Why? Have you lost your group. I'm not sure I'd want you to be my guide. You probably lost them, shrugged your shoulders and then came back down the volcano for more!". You get a bit cheeky after a while here in Bali but truly, it's harmless. Everyone asks you the same questions and if you answer quickly, they rarely understand what you're saying anyway. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do love the Baliniese, but once again, priority number one is to see how much money they can get off you. Once they know what that number is going to be, if any, then you can actually have fun chats with them. Anyway, once we got far enough up the volcano, the 'guides' ceased to be and all that was left was our own metle. It was harder and warmer than we'd anticipated it to be. The cold winds didn't materialize and the path up, turned out to be a little trecherous. To start with it was quite simple, just following paths through the woods but once we got past the forrested section, it was all rocks and sharp bushes and branches. There wasn't much risk of falling but it did get a little hard on knees and ankles. It promped a few stops along the way which were rewarded with stunning views across the lake. The sort of views that make you think about how small and insignificant you are as well as how beautiful our planet is too. With the summit, came a welcome euphoria and self sense of satisfaction at what we'd done. We'd been checking the view to the lake behind us for most of the trek but when we got to the top, the crater was rather special. It took us around thirty to fourty minutes to walk around it and although some of the section had shear drops, either side of them, we still took great care and moved together around it. The views to all sides were incredible. Clearly visible, down away from the main villages and the lake, was the path that the last major lava flow had taken and where it had basically engolfed the village. Unfortunately, it had come at night, killing most of the people there. Inside the crater, you could clearly see different points at where the earth had just exploded, allowing the lava to errupt from it and pour down the side of the mountain. There were also still many points where hot steam was bellowing out from. You couldn't put yourself too close to some of them as they'd burn, but you could get close enough to sit in your own private sauna. About half way down the side of the volcano, there was a little restaurant/food place. We stopped in quickly to have a chat with the man who, every day, awoke at four to hike on up the volcano with supplies for the tourists once they arrived here. In well earned celebration, we cracked open four beers and toasted our victoriously accomplished mission. Once we'd moped them up, the chap at the restaurant actually pointed out the 'proper' way to come up the side of the volcano so that we could go back down easily. We all looked at each other a chuckled slightly. So, we'd taken a route that wasn't the right one! We still got up there anyway. I mean, that was kind of our point. How hard can it be to just keep going up. Anyway, the day turned out to be an amazing one and once we'd all got down, I think it took a little while to sink in but once it did, we all realized what an amazing thing we'd all done. I highly recommend it!