Night climbing Agung Volcano.

Here it goes a posting explaining one of the best days of our journey, if not the best. More than likely we will not be able to completely carry over our feelings and thoughts into words…
It was an early start at 3 a.m. and soon we found ourselves walking uphill in the darkness with our head-torches.
Gunnung Agung is a towering active volcano and Bali’s most sacred peak standing at 3014 m. above sea level. The path started at 1500 m. all the way uphill to the top, it was extremely demanding and hard with no relief, and really steep in places. The trail became even steeper as we approached the summit, with no vegetation and near vertical volcanic rocky fields. Each of the last steps was an struggle, but once on top, it was pure magic! We saw the sun rising half the way up and from the top the view was breathtaking, mind-blowing, luckily was a clear day so we could see almost half of Bali and its neighboring islands. The effort made was worth it and rewarding, moreover, we “enjoyed” a deserved breakfast of chili tuna in a can and expired chocolate with bread! Yummy!
The way down was almost as tough as the ascension due the inclination and the slippery terrain, and on top of that our strength was almost gone… was quite frustrating seeing our local guide walking barefoot and jumping like a monkey while we were suffering to stand up…
The three of us agreed that the key of our successful climbing was the fact that we started in the dark and we were not able to see the path and the never ending hilly trail, otherwise that could have put us off…Altogether it took us between 6 to 7 hours excluding a long break on top with nobody around, while admiring the landscape.
Definitely the best view of our trip! It was a totally memorable experience and so fulfilling!