Bali Blog 4 - The Ridge

Saturday 7th February

Rob on "The Ridge".

Today we decided to go for a walk along "The Campuhan Ridge". The Campuhan Ridge is a walk along the top of some rice fields and greenery. It's a very picturesque and enjoyable walk just meters away from the hustle and bustle of Ubud.
Today was a perfect day for a walk, the weather was beautiful. So hot and sunny definitely a sun glasses day! We've been so lucky with the weather so far it's been prefect! :)  

Rob at the start of the trail.

There are a number of places to start this walk, the route we chose started from behind the Ubud clinic on a path near the Warwick Ibah Luxury Villas (these villas are very, very fancy, I guess the clue is in the name!). 

The path leads down to a small bridge over the river and passed the temple, Pura Gunung Lebah, both of which can be seen from the main road above. The path then leads upwards through lush vegetation and stunning views. This walk is relatively easy but can be taxing in the heat! We were sweating! I think we only started the walk at around 11 am and I can highly recommend doing this walk much earlier in the day in order to stay cool. We took some great photos along the route and saw many insects, a weird red spider being one of them (photo below). We also saw a praying mantis, which was awesome! I have never seen one of these before and had no idea they even lived on Bali. It was just walking along the road enjoying the sunshine! Spectacular! :)

Spider!

We stopped for lunch at the top of the ridge at Karsa Kafe. It was a cute cafe over looking the rice fields. We sat on a small platform above a carp pond. It was a little different and I loved the novelty of it! :)

Due to the heat I wasn't too hungry, so I just had some veggie spring rolls! These were very greasy and I felt a little guilty eating them, but I took solace in the fact as long as I don't eat that much grease everyday it should be OK.  

Smile, Smile, Smile! :D

We then relaxed with a much deserved drink. I am becoming very fond of coconuts considering I didn't like drinking coconut water until a few weeks ago. Here, in Bali they are so refreshing in the sunshine. And so cheap for the amount of liquid you get, so you can't go wrong. :) We must have sat at this cafe for over an hour before continuing on our walk, only to surrender a couple of hundred meters down the road due to the heat and turn back to Ubud.

Me drinking a giant coconut! ;P

The Ridge appears to be a popular place with kids and young people as we met many on a return to Ubud. They were mainly just chilling out in the shade in small groups. However, we did see some weird photo shoot going on. The girl was layered in make up, it was crazy! 

On our return to the main street of Ubud we ventured into Clear Cafe, a very bright and colourful cafe towards the end of town. Upon entering the cafe, you remove you shoes, like most places in Ubud and here you are given a voucher to ensure you receive the correct shoes back once you depart. The cafe has a two floors, the top floor is quite high and provides a great view of the temple and street below. Sitting on the top floor of the cafe next to the windows feels as though you are in a tree house, it's so much fun! My iced chai latte was awesome by the way, so refreshingly cool, hints of cinnamon and vegan! It was a prefect relaxation drink after hiking in the heat for hours!

Chai latte!

After chilling out in Clear Cafe for a while Rob got bored and decided he wanted to go check out the surf at Keramas, fortunately there was a taxi rank opposite. So we jumped in a taxi after a little bartering and were on our way to Keramas. The drive was approximately 40 minutes and with air-con the drive was bearable. The driver seemed like a friendly guy but most taxi driver are quite chatty, I guess it gives them something to do whilst they are driving. We arrived at Keramas beach and parked in a car park at the end of a dirt track road near a restaurant. He offered to wait for us to drive us back, so we agreed we would be 2 hours max.

Fancy!

We strolled along the beach, the sand was black. I have never been to a beach with black sand before, so it was quite different. We saw some surfers, a silly little dog and many friendly people. We took lots of photos and then headed back to car within 2 hours, so not to upset the taxi driver.

Black Sand! Keramas!

The taxi dropped us off back at our hotel, where we met an English couple who had just started their 6 month tour of Asia. It must be amazing to go travelling for that long, I am so jealous! The longest I have travelled for in the past was a little over two months and that was only around Europe. 

Later we went to check out the yoga barn but unfortunately there was a class on, so we couldn't go upstairs and get a proper look, so that will have to wait until another day. :(. The cafe was also closing so we went across the road to a Japanese restaurant, The Pond. The meal was a lot smaller and much more expensive than the previous evening, so Rob was a little disappointed. I ate tofu fingers and then banana pancakes for pudding. Rob had chicken katsu curry. 

Before heading home to bed we stopped off at the Perama bus times to Kuta tomorrow morning. Then we walked home in the rain, fortunately it didn't rain for long, so we didn't get too wet.

We have both been having trouble sleeping since we arrived, so we woke up in the night again! It was a good job we bought some mini bananas yesterday, as I enjoyed a midnight snack then went back to sleep!

Have fun!

Sam x