Gunung Batur Closed to Climbers

There is so much volcanic activity across the archipelago at the moment. As more and more earthquakes occur the higher the chances of usually dormant volcanoes coming to life. In the last ten day Gunung Merapi in Central Java has unleashed its fury on the city of Yogyakarta. This afternoon I received yet another phone call from Yogyakarta informing me of an earthquake in progress!

The two main dormant volcanoes in Bali are Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur. I can well remember talking with some locals a while back about the volcanic activity of Gunung Batur. One of the fishermen told me that if the lake’s water gets warm then this is a good sign the volcano is coming to life.

I was reading an article today in the Bali Discovery about Gunung Batur being closed to climbers. According to the article: One of the volcanoes placed on alert is Bali’s Mount Batur which, as a result, has been closed to mountain climbers and other activities on its slopes until further notice. 19 volcanoes across Indonesia are currently classified at a “Waspada” alert status, the second highest danger level just short of a “Siaga” status reserved for mountains at an elevated level of tectonic activity.

It’s a worrying time for Indonesians across the archipelago at the moment and one can only hope that recent disasters like those in Sumatra and Central Java never occur in Bali.