We started from Ubud at around 9.30 in the morning, driving up via the villages of Bongkasa which has a great view over the paddy field as well the village of Taman which is next to it. When we were driving through the villages, we were spoiled by the view over the rice field along the way. The central mountains ranged of Bali were so perfect that morning as the sky was quit clear. We took the back roads through Anggungan, Sangut, Antap, Kasianan and came out at the little district town of Petang. We stopped to get some snacks and water to bring along with us for the hike. We left the little town and drove up to the village of Kerta where we made the left turn into a smaller village road just by a sign on the corner which says, “Tedung Sari Trekking”. It is on the side of the main road by the village meeting hall. The smaller road leaded us to a small sub-village named Banjar Lipah. We followed the small paved road, going through village’s houses, coffee farms and then by the time that we go to the bridge over the river that’s surrounded by dense bamboo forest, we took the road to the right up the hill with such a great view overlooking down to the valley and southern Bali. When we got to the top of the road, we parked the car on the side of the roads by a T-junction that has the dirt track up the hill side. We grabbed the backpack with our snacks and some water and started to walk following the dirt track up the hill side. The view was really gorgeous, plenty of tropical crops on both side of the tracks and some little huts where the local farmers have their cows in them. On both side of the track was a deep gorge with dense tropical farms such as coffee, cocoa, taro, vanilla bean, clove, turmeric, and some Snake fruit trees.
The higher we got the view was really spectacular down the hill, over the southern part of the island and if you look to the right side, you would be seeing Mount Agung, the highest volcano of Bali. The track was kind of steep but it was quit easy to follow.We got to the top of Puncak Tedung and the view was really incredibly beautiful over terraced paddy field, mountains, lush grand valley. The southern peninsula of Bali was so clear that day and we were very lucky as it was such a sunny day so we didn’t miss any of the spectacular view. We took the best site on the top to take a little rest, taking pictures and also enjoying our snacks while enjoying the fabulous panorama. We stayed about 30 minutes before walking up to the temple that was built on the top of the hill. There was a little renovation going on at the temple, so we did not go in to the temple. We kept following the little farmer’s track on the left bottom side of the temple. It was paved steps which is an access for the local to get to the temple. We got down to a paved road and went to the right following the paved road about 100 meters before taking the little dirt track through the farm which was leading us down the hill side. We were told by a local farmer about the path that could lead us back to where we started our walk, so were just following his information. We followed the track down hill and there were lots of cocoa, turmeric, lemon grass and vanilla bean growing on the hill side. We passed a couple huts where they got some cows living in there.
When we got to the bottom of the valley, there was a nice temple sitting on the hill with Small River running under. The track goes by the backside of the temple, leading down to the riverside with a little bamboo bridge across the river. We took another rest by the temple and it was really nice and call sitting on the riverside, hearing the birds singing and the sound of the river’s cascading that creates a nice little waterfall. It was really peaceful there.
We back on a paved road and it was leading us back to where we parked our car. It was such a fabulous hike. We got back to the car and followed the road where we came and heading back down to Ubud. We took the main road instead of the back roads and made a stop at the village of Sangeh, where it is known for its Sacred Monkey forest. We did see some monkeys by the side of the forest when we drove by it but didn’t make any stop. We left the village and by the time that we got to a huge rice field at the end of the village, we saw a nice little local restaurant on quit a big fish pond. We drove in and have a look at the menu which they offered fresh water fish for their special. We decided to have some lunch as we were getting hungry and ordered some fried fish. It was nice and we spent about Rp. 100,000 for the 4 of us includes soft drink.After lunch, we headed back to Ubud via Blahkiuh Village and back to Bongkasa.
