The next day we were up early because we were going to watch the sun rise over the still active volcano, Mouth Batur (5,633ft). More energetic and intrepid explorers trek up the hill but we decided to do it the easier way, by Jeep safari.

We were picked up and transported to “base camp” from where a lot of the aforementioned intrepid travellers were setting off on foot, arriving at 4AM! After a light breakfast we were introduced to our driver, who introduced us to his jeep, and we set off up the mountain in the dark. Looking ahead and behind we could see a convoy of other jeeps, until we finally turned off the track and parked.

It was chilly, with a damp mist hanging over the valley so we were wondering whether we would be able to see anything but as the sun started to rise we were able to make out the silhouette of Mount Batur. It got light quickly and then we realised just how many jeeps there were – there were hundreds!

Our descent back down the mountain was via the lava field left from when Mount Batur errupted in 1963. That was a big erruption, the last one in 2000 didn’t produce so much lava.