Batur Mountain Clear Balisky

Batur Mountain is in central bali and is one of the island's most sacred places.









It's a beautiful sight when you arrive at the top: the road climbs and climbs up the edge of this ancient volcano until you reach the lip of the caldera, when this astonishing view opens up.









The walls of the caldera fall amost vertically to the plain that was the old centre of the volcano, which has now re-emerged in the centre of the plain as a new and very active volcano. Curling round one side of the new volcano is lake batur.









There is much you can do here. First instinct will be to get out of the car and admire the spectacle - well worth a look but be careful of the hawkers. This is a very poor area and visitors are pounced on by vendors desperate to sell you everythign from fruit to chessboards.








This is normal for Bali, but their pleading tones and genunie desperation make refusing them harder and more upsetting than normal.









Descend to the plain and things become a bit easier. Inside the caldera the landscape is dominated by the new volcano, the black lava flows from the 1994 erruption still clearly visible. It's a bumpy path over the flows to the lake, where there are several hotels and some mediocre restaurants: you're best off staying here.