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The crescent-shaped crater lake of Batur, 1,031 meters above
sea level, is seven and a half km long, with a maximum width
of two and a half km, and a depth of between 65 and 70 meters.
The western side is barren lava rock while the eastern side
is lined with trees. The average height of the huge outer
rim is around 1,300 meters. Though there are no suface river
outlets, the waters of the lake feed underground rivers which
emerge as holy springs in the southern part of the island.
Eight villages huddle along its shores: the ancient Bali Aga
settlements of Seked, Prajurti, Kedisan, Buahan, Abang, Trunyan,
and Songan, and the newer village of Toya Bungkah. These small
fishing settlements are characterized by their archaic layout
and unusual, fully enclosed, pavilion-style, single-family
houses-steep bamboo shingle roofs, low eaves, and walls of
clay, mud, brick, woven bamboo matting, or wooden planks.
Fish provide most of the protein for these lake dwellers.
After your three-km corkscrew descent from Penelokan down
to the lake (Rp1000 by bemo, or walk it in 45 minutes), turn
left and journey two km on the northwest side of the lake
through a strange moonlike landscape. Rivers of black lava,
a layer of gravelly volcanic ash, sparse scrub, a few onion
fields, and scattered houses now occupy an area where villages
stood before the 1926 and 1963 eruptions. After seven km,
this switchback, undulating road arrives in Toya Bungkah.
The road down from Penelokan ends at an intersection-to the
left is the way to Toya Bungkah and to the right is Pelabuhan
Kedisan for boats to Trunyan and the villages of Buahan and
Abang.
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