lifeoutside the lines

What an absolutely epic day.
It started at 12.30am when our guide Wayan and Mudi picked Roger, Darshana, Lorin, Theresa and myself up from Vision Villas then took us for a two hour drive into the middle of nowhere before coming to a silent stop in a pitch black car park.

What happened over the next 8 hours will stay with me for the rest of my life.

We strapped the LED flashlights to our heads (like the guys in the mines do) and set off into the jungle with Wayan and Mudi bouncing around like they did this every day (they do). It began to rain as we were half walking, half climbing up a really steep, muddy jungle track as hopes of a clear sunrise at the summit began to fade.

Lorin, Roger, Myself & Darshana.

Chossy, knarly, slippery and really freaking steep conditions forced the group to split in two, as if we wanted any hope of seeing the sun come up from the top we had to get a wriggle on.

As we cleared the as we cleared the major cloud line after an hour of scrambling through the bush, the stars came out to play. Even at 1500m, the stars looked spectacular. As you go higher, the atmosphere gets thinner so there is less to distort the starlight which is why they don’t appear to ‘twinkle’ as much as they do at sea level, rather they just feel like they are jumping out at you.

The most intense blue sky I have ever seen.

The next 1500m was nuts. I can’t believe we made it in time. This is a serious 45 degree incline on the craggy face of a live volcano. The moss covering the rock is slick from an overnight thunderstorm and both Roger and I who had charged off ahead to ensure we would make sunrise had to seriously question what the hell we were doing.

Now keep in mind, if this was anywhere else, we would have needed to go through at least a half day safety briefing and be covered from head to toe in safety gear. Instead we were armed with out miners lights and instructions that consisted of “just head up and to the left… and don’t fall.”  Wikid.

At 2500m you could totally feel the thinning of the atmosphere. There sky was lighting up with a pre-dawn glow that ignited the mountain with intense blues and oranges that were so magnificent they took my breath away. Then again, it could have been the altitude.

At this point, Rog and I are 500m ahead of the rest of the crew, including our guides, and we were stuffed. Every time we thought we got to the summit, another 200m climb presented itself. We were pushing as hard as we could to get the job done. At one point we were both climbing a vertical rock face to escape a deep trench carved by piping hot magma from the last major eruption which did some serious damage to local villages back in the 60’s. I mean seriously, If you have not risked spinal compression for a great photo opportunity, you haven’t lived!

Roger Hamilton and I at the top.

Success. We made it. Just. We arrived at the summit, 2874m above sea level at 6.15am, just as the far edges of the Indian ocean released their grip of the god of gods. These photos don’t do justice to the majesty.

Sunrise at the summit

No sleep and 4 hours of hard trekking. I don't know how she does it, but I am glad she does.

Mount Agung is the highest and holiest mountain in this island and is considered to be a place of the gods. During our ascent, Wayan was telling us how important it was for us all to observe 3 principles while on the sacred site. The first was to keep our thoughts pure. The second was to keep our speech pure. And the third was to keep our actions pure. All I can say is that there is no church, mosque or sinagog on the planet that could ever come close to eliciting the humility, grace and awe that I felt up there. It really is a very special place.

Wayan tappin

Anyone who is familiar with serious trekking (this was my first rapid initiation) knows that coming down is way harder than going up. And so it was. It took almost twice as long to get down as it did to get up!

Besakih Temple "Base Camp"

We all coined Bali’s most sacred temple, Besakih, ‘Base Camp’ which the local who were serving us coffee and food at the end of the climb found terribly amusing.

If you get the chance to climb Agung, which means ‘the Great One’, do it. It’s hard work, and most people are not up for hard work while they are in Bali, but if you want to push yourself to the top, the gods are all up there waiting. And they are happy.