The shuttle of Villa Sabandari, one of the newest Ubud boutique hotels, will drop you off at the start of the walk and will pick you up at the end. A phone call to the driver will do the trick.
Campuhan Ridge Walk is a free and easy nature trek, popular among repeat visitors to the central highland town of Ubud. The area provides a great retreat from the more hectic southern parts of the island, but this trail presents an even more pristine outback to escape from the contemporary boutique, guesthouse and restaurant-lined Jalan Raya Ubud. While the hike lets you enjoy cool fresh air and probably the most gorgeous hillside vista in the region, it also allows you to shed off some calories too with its nine-kilometre hill track.
Getting to the starting point is relatively easy. The main access is a concrete path just down from another one of the Ubud boutique hotels, the Warwick Ibah Luxury Villas and Spa’s entrance. Smaller letterings under the signage of the Warwick Ibah, bears “Going to The Hill” with an arrow pointing left, and as soon as you take on this path, the verdant surroundings of the Campuhan Valley immediately come to sight, lined by dense tropical foliage.
A small bridge over the revered Campuhan River leads to the majestic Pura Gunung Lebah temple complex. Signs before the temple clearly show the directions to follow along the route, which borders the eastern walls of the temple. These intricately carved walls and the towering ‘meru’ tiers of the shrines visible from the path provide an exotic and cultural touch to the beginning of this nature walk. You might meet a few fellow trekkers on their way back from their earlier jog, but most of the time you’ll have the path to your own.
A few hundred meters and up the slopes from the temple, the view widens to reveal the vast hills that make up the valley hinterland. The best time to enjoy the Campuhan Ridge Walk is early morning and late afternoon, when the temperature is cool and when the skies show their best hues during sunrise and sunset. Slopes as far as the eye can see are an undulating sea of green, covered in tall reed grass, which at times are harvested by the locals for thatched roofing that is typical in traditional Balinese architecture.
(c) Bali Magazine