The higher, less populated regions of central Bali are for me the most magical areas of this amazing island. Today, to celebrate Sabrina's birthday we visited Kebun Raya Bali, the main Botanic Gardens here, overlooking Lake Beratan. It is notoriously cloudy and wet in this region and today was no exception. But with the assistance of my HDR skills I was able to take a few pictures which come close to showing the awesome energy of the place.
There was a neatly kept road that led us gently through the 389 acres of lush forest like none I had seen before. No motorbikes or busses permitted in here, so it was really very quiet.
Along the way we found some most beautiful trees. Like this Giant Ficus...
Looking at this Ficus tree it was hard not to see its interconnectedness to the environment around it.
And it got me thinking, how connected to our environment are we? Not very it would seem. Especially as we were driving through a relatively small area of land preserved as a national park. As beautiful as Bali is with it's man made rice terraces, I wonder how it would have looked before people arrived here. More like this I would imagine.
There was a little path that led us through the bamboo area of the forest.
It's difficult to see the size of this bamboo from these pictures but I have never seen anything like it. Apparently when left to it's own devices, bamboo just gets thicker and thicker, like huge tree trunks of wood.
The thing about bamboo in Bali is that everyone uses it! So it never gets to grow this thick any more.
I particularly enjoyed this part of the forest.
Felt like I was on Pandora in my Avatar body :)
Here you can see my partner & son, Sabrina & Esteban. Who will always travel with me on this long journey around our most beautiful planet.
Esteban had a great time exploring nature. Just as it should be.
Like his dad, he doesn't wear shoes. He is connected to mother earth at all times and this connection will guide him as he grows.
Hope you enjoyed. Keep watching for more. The journey never ends...