Night Climbing on Mt. Agung by Patrick K.

"To experience something new and to overcome your personal border” – this was mainly my motivation for going abroad to Bali. During our hiking trip to the top of Bali, the peak of Gunung Agung, we definitely did. Our group of fellow students started the trip at midnight when our guide picked us up from our meeting point.

About one and a half hours later, just passed the slopes of the holiest place on Bali, we had to leave the car for climbing up the last 1500m to the top, which is at about 3100m. 

The way up was hard for most of us, but probably not as hard as the way back down. Motivated by the coming moments when the sun would rise over Lombok we even did not want to rest. While one of our guides had a short nap on every rest the others were serving us cookies.

The way up was fascinating noticing a change of conditions every hundred meters in altitude – covering jungle, some kind of steppe and of cause the volcanic rocks. Creating a strong group power everybody was able to finish this hard and painful climb.

It took us about another 2 hours until we finally reached the peak.

Having reached the top we were very excited to see the sun rise. The mood was just marred by the coldness on the peak. But after 30 minutes finally the first rays of sunshine came out. This moment should be enough compensation for the climbing.

We really enjoyed the moment intensively and were proud on ourselves for having done this.