Mount Batur
— the volcano people climb in the dark.
Not only on a wall.
“An active stratovolcano in the Kintamani highlands of central Bali, rising 1,717 metres above the rim of a much older caldera. Lake Batur fills the floor below, the largest crater lake on the island. Climbers start from Toya Bungkah around two in the morning to reach the summit before sunrise. The last eruption was in 2000. The rim still smells of sulphur on warm mornings.
Mount Batur, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Mount Batur is an active stratovolcano in the Kintamani district of central Bali, rising 1,717 metres above sea level. It sits inside a much larger caldera roughly 14 kilometres across, formed by two prehistoric eruptions around 29,000 and 20,000 years ago. Lake Batur, the largest crater lake on Bali, fills part of the caldera floor. The summit is reached from the village of Toya Bungkah on the lake's western shore. The most recent eruption was in 2000.
Lake Batur fills the caldera floor at 1,031 metres above sea level, a shape roughly seven kilometres long, held in by the older outer rim. It is the largest crater lake on Bali and feeds irrigation across much of the eastern half of the island through a network of subak channels. The Batur Geopark, including the lake and the active cone, was designated a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2012. Small fishing villages line the western shore at Toya Bungkah and Kedisan.
The classic ascent leaves Toya Bungkah at around two in the morning and reaches the summit about an hour before first light. The trail is a two-hour climb over loose volcanic scoria, with a guide required by the local pemandu association. At the summit, vendors steam eggs in the volcano's vents and sell them with coffee while the rim turns red. On clear mornings, Mount Agung is visible across the caldera, 25 kilometres to the southeast.