For any waterfall lover, Bali is heaven on earth. Like New Zealand, waterfalls are plentiful. What’s different is the environ. While New Zealand’s waterfalls are commonly seen cascading down sheer rock formations, Bali’s waterfalls are ensconced in lush green tropical forests. Northern Bali is where the biggest and prettiest waterfalls are, and getting there from Ubud is a 2-hour journey. So we met up with Made, and booked a full day tour to go waterfall hopping. First stop – Sekumpul waterfall.
Bali’s tallest waterfall is Sekumpul, which means “bunch” in Indonesian. It’s not a single waterfall, but a couple – each falling from 260-330 ft in height. Hiring a guide is recommended, though you can do without, but given that the cost is the same you might as well hire one, who can later double as a photographer. There are 2 route options – the medium route brings you to Sekumpul and Hidden falls ($10 pp), and the long route includes the above and Fiji falls ($16 pp). We opted for the longer hike, which is only 2 miles round trip.
The first 10 minutes is on a paved local road to the second ticket booth. Those with scooters can ride all the way to this point and shave time off walking in the hot sun.Rice terraces alongside the road The path narrows past the second booth.Outside the cities and towns, Bali is stunningly green and lush.Another 10 minutes gets you to the first viewing platform of Sekumpul. From here on out, it’s all steps down to the bottom.View of Sekumpul from a lower vantage point.A preview of what to expect on the way back 🥵 Rudimentary signpostsThis stream crossing meant shedding our sneakers and hiking in our flip flops for the rest of the way.Hidden falls so named because it can’t be seen from above.Cascading down 230 ft. For those who don’t mind getting wet, this is a good spot for a swim to cool down.Looking back towards the trail. So lush!Then it was onwards to Sekumpul.Can’t fault me for imagining that a dinosaur could just be around the corner.Stream crossings helped cool us down just a tad.Have I mentioned “lush”?We humans are so insignificant.A rare photo of the two of us Having a guide ultimately proved useful. We would have had a hard time finding Fiji Waterfall from where we were.Ticket booth for Fiji waterfall More stream crossingsA glimpse of Fiji waterfallAs we got closer, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there were in fact four separate falls.Definitely worth the extra hike and time in the sun.Back up top – we realized that while we were busy heading down earlier, we had completely missed this view – Sekumpul on the left and Fiji tucked all the way in the (center) back.If there is such a thing as heaven on earth, this would be it.
FIRE'd @ 47 