near to heaven...

don`t miss this trip..

we got up at 2AM and the taxi was waiting for us at the villa we stayed.
After a drive from two hours in the early morning we reached the first step...the first breakfast and coffeestopp with banana pancakes. they were so delicious.
Then we drive about 20 min to a very big parking spot to meet our guide.
We were a very tiny group, only a couple also from germany and my husband, me
and the guide.
The guide we get was a 20y old daintily girl named Kadek (you have to know that each second women in indonesia is named Kadek). She gave us our second breakfast package for the top, two bottles of water and flashlights for everybody. And after short instructions of behavior we start to walk.
In front of us and behind a huge crowd of people also started to walk. It was a big mass migration and some of the people were very loud with their music boxes and singing and drinking beer. (dont forget, it was in the early morning) At the foot of the mountain it was very easy to go, the land was flat only very sandy and we cross a few fields of chili and Tomatos. We needed two and a half hour to scale the top of the mountain. The trip has been exhausting with every level we reached. In the first time you could walk normally and at the last part you needed a helping hand that lift you up the big rocks. It was very difficult because the stones and rocks were so sharp edged that u cant hold tight yourself
without cutting your hands. so it happened to me. We have made 3 short stops during the rise for drinking and change clothes. I started with a sport top, a T-Shirt, a Sweatshirt and a scarf over it and got so wet from my sweat so i have had remove them all. The trip was really really exhausting and i doing sport regularly...maybe not enough?? Every next level we saw quitting guys, some girls were crying, their bodies want to go on. It was one of the hardest workouts ever...but we run this shit. We had to survive the monotonous walk....only look at your feet or the back from the person in front of you, climb climb clim...jump jump....walk walk walk...u didnt see anything because its so dark only your flashlight and the light at the top of the mountain from the other people there and the beautiful stars in the heaven.
If we came up at the top of the mountain the first thing a had to do, after beeing amazed, was to take all my extended clothes from the backpack and put them on quickly. It was such a strong and cold wind there like on the northpole.
Our guide Kadek tooks a seat inside the little old cottage and drank a hot tea at the top and we could enjoy the sunrise now. It is 6.30AM.
It was so amazing, this beautiful nature...all the time it was so quiet but when the sun rise up the birds started to sing with the wind.

Now we have had time for our breakfast box and make photos. Everbody were so flashed from this special moment if the sun kisses the Mountain. It was really such a great outlook to the volcano Mount Agung opposite to us.
After a hour we started our little special at the top of the Batur, we where going to arround them at the top.
And now we saw the beauty of the land arround us in the morning sun.
I donteven know the right words for this mother earths beauty....exhausting, amazing, wonderfull....only wow...
look at yourself....

What i never expect is the fact that we took 2,5 hours to climb up the mountain but needed 4 hours to go down..
We had to go very slowly and watched each foot step we did. At the half of the trip down two kindly dogs follows us.

This trip was one of the best experiences we ever did...we met nice people, had a good time, see the beauty of nature and go on our limit in one day only....

                               Bali we`ll come back..