Danau Batur, Bali

The shores around Lake Batur are a great opportunity for some good hiking. I leave really early in the morning, before sunrise, as this is the only way to beat the oppressive tropical heat, and set off along the lake shore.

Immediately, I’m in awe of the view. Batur is a crater lake, and it sits right below Gunung Batur, Bali’s most active volcano. The smoking mountain dominates the scene and will be visible during virtually my entire walk around the lake. The huge, looming presence of Gunung Batur reminds me of a story the Balinese tell their children.

It is said that around here, there once lived a giant named Kebo Iwa. For many years, he was a valued member of the community. He was loved for his kind, easygoing nature, prized for his ability to do the work in an hour that ten ordinary men would do in a day, and famous for his appetite, which, even for a man as huge as Kebo Iwa, was truly tremendous. 

Happiness never remains in the same place for long, and one year, famine struck. All in the village began to grow hungry, and Kibo Iwa suffered most of all. Instead of his usual mountainous portions of rice cooked in coconut milk, his favourite fragrant rendang, his great spears of satay grilled on the open flame, poor Kiwo Iwa had only a little copper bowl of thin rice porridge each day for his evening meal.

Soon, the giant began to think not with his head, but with his rumbling belly. He stole buffalo, putting three at a time into his big copper pot. Then, he stomped over to the paddies and scooped up great bushels of the tiny amount of red rice the farmers had managed to grow. He stripped every tree of fruit, every bone of meat, and every river of fish, until, finally, there was not a morsel of food for miles around. Tortured by the pangs of hunger, Kebo Iwa flew into a rage. He began attacking his friends, smashing up houses, and, most shamefully of all, desecrating the local temples.

The people of the village were in crisis, and they gathered what remained of their strength. Together, they approached Kebo Iwa. Each scraped together whatever meagre scraps of food they could find and told the giant that, as a gift, they would build him a house. All they needed first was for him to dig the foundations. Meanwhile, they would gather the limestone for the walls. Kebo Iwa ate his fill and then began digging the hole, toiling and sweating in the humidity and the heat, until finally he finished, and set down to take a nap.

The villagers pounced. They piled the limestone on top of the giant, then flooded the hole, trapping Kebo Iwa under rock and water and creating Lake Batur. The nearby mound of earth left over after Kebo Iwa’s digging was so big that it formed the mountain, which is now Gunung Batur. It is said that Kebo Iwa still lives trapped beneath the lake, and it is his furious stomping and raging that cause the frequent eruptions that blast from the volcano’s caldera. 

Luckily, Kebo Iwa is not raging today, and only a wisp of smoke trails from the mountaintop. No, it’s a perfectly still early morning, the sun just peaking over the hazy orange horizon. I’m alone, apart for a few men and women making their way to the fields, and so it's the perfect time to spot birds. Take a look at the Bali’s Birds local spot to see who I met on my walk around the lake.