If you’re travelling in Bali’s Bukit, and you’re into rock climbing, then Padang Padang beach is the place to go. This adventure is for people who have already had some experience in rock climbing.
Georgina and I headed to Padang Padang beach on scooter from our base at Balangan Beach. It was hard to leave Balangan that day because the surf was looking amazing! However, we surf often, and we’ve come to realise that even when the surf is good, we always appreciate getting out and doing something different. We arrived at Padang Padang beach carpark after a 30 min scooter ride. We headed down the stairs to the beach, which led through a narrow split in the rock, which was quite cool. We stopped to look at the beach and were welcomed by the monkeys, or should I say monkey poo. One monkey had decided to release a little brown bomb from up in the trees, which landed neatly on my shoulder. I’m pretty sure it was aiming for my head. It was a nice way to be greeted to the beach. Georgina was trying not to laugh.
As we arrived we saw a group of local rock climbers over to the left, by the small cliffs surrounding the beach. We headed over that way.
The Rock climbing instructor was super friendly and chatty and his name was Pinetree (nice name, I say) there were several other Balinese people who we met too. They were all training for a local Bali rock climbing competition which was in 1 week’s time. There was one woman who was climbing, who Pinetree told us was the female Bali rock climbing champion. Obviously, these climbs aren’t for beginners! The whole cliff face was a gradual over-hang, which makes the climbs quite physically demanding.
Pinetree asked us if we wanted to warm up with some bouldering. Usually, we might have said yes, but because the climbing looked challenging, we wanted to save our energy! So I said “no, I think we’ll just climb straight away please”. We looked at all the climbs and even though we haven’t got a lot of experience, Georgina and I were like ‘bring it on”. We have done about 5 outdoor climbs between us both so we already felt challenged, which was great.
To the side of the rock climbing area were some girls getting taught how to do pop ups on surf boards. As they were doing this, a coconut fell down and landed 1 and half metres away from the girl’s head. “Wow, that was close” said Georgina. The girls didn’t even notice. We looked up and realized that it may have been a good idea to wear helmets, but no helmets were provided.
The instructor said there were 5 routes and set us up on the easiest one first. I went first and found that it was super challenging but made it just over half way up the climb so was stoked with that.
Georgina made to about the same spot and came down knackered! She had surfed for two hours at dawn and her legs were already shaky. She said “right I’m off to get a coconut and some food for energy”.
I then asked if there were any climbs with less of an overhang. He said yes and straight away he was setting us up on a different route. The harness we used was his and he offered his rock climbing shoes as well. He was such a nice guy. I had brought my rock climbing shoes to Bali so Georgina used his shoes. He was a top-level climber and two years ago, at the Bali rock climbing nationals, he came 2nd. He did a bit of climbing when we were having breaks and we asked if he was able to go upside down on the rock. He did it with such ease! This man was talented, he really inspired us.
The next route was easier at the start, but more difficult and technical at the top. I took many breaks half way up the rock face on this one, while Pinetree held my weight on the rope.
Then I spotted a ledge on the rock face. I said to the instructor “I want to climb up to the ledge please and traverse across”. Ok, he said and off we go. After three attempts, a break in the middle, and guidance from the guide, I made it across the ledge and traversed along. I also managed to find a few single-finger holds on the rock face and made it up to the top. I was stoked! I asked what grade it was that I had climbed and he said 5.10. We watched a lot of the Balinese crew climb after this and realised they were pretty talented and made it look almost effortless. It wasn’t.
You constantly have to hold your own body weight whilst climbing overhang. After a few climbs, Georgina was knackered and was laying on the ground like a starfish.
After a long, and determined, last climb, I was pretty knackered too so we called a day. I was barely able to clench my hand into a fist so I knew I had given it my all. In the end, we had spent about 3 hours at the rock face; climbing, chatting, watching and drinking coffee from the nearby vendors.
We stumbled over to the water for a swim because we were boiling hot by this point. It was so nice to be in the cool water.
We headed to get some food. Georgina had Corn on the Cob cooked over hot coals and I had Chicken Satay and of course a Pocari Sweat (this is a hydration drink they sell in Bali). We badly needed food at this point, so we were happy as.
After this, I needed to go to the loo, so Georgina and I headed over only to discover It was guarded by the “monkey gang” I put my bag and shoes down to go into the cubicle, only to find it was locked. Next thing I know one of the monkeys is trying to unzip my bag and take my shoes. Georgina tried to tell it off and “SHOO” it away. The monkey stared her down and lunged at her threatening to bite! I grabbed a bamboo stick and said firmly to the monkey “get away” it hissed at me too but it was scared off by the bamboo stick and ran away. PHEW! I grabbed my bag and quickly ran away. I had to find a loo elsewhere!
We made our way up the stairs back towards out scooter feeling nice and tired and refreshed from our swim. We were happy with the day and headed on our scooter to Uluwatu for a drink and to watch the big surf from the cliff-top cafe. What an amazing day. Rock climbing is a full body work-out. No gym work-out needed for me today J. I would highly recommend using Pinetree (the local Balinese guide). All his gear was top quality and he knew his stuff. He was a qualified rock climbing instructor and he was really encouraging. I felt completely safe with him. He is a lovely, cheerful, likeable guy.
Cost: $30 NZ per person
Contact name: Pinetree
Phone number: +6281246266874