Volcanic Vegetables

The rich volcanic soil on the banks of Lake Batur in Bali beneath the active volcano, Gunung Batur, provides a rich and fertile base for the growth of local vegetables. As you drive round the lake you can see many local farmers in the vegetable fields tending to their crops.

One of the best and most simple meals I had was right here in the middle of the vegetable fields where a small restaurant served up local rice along with fresh vegetables from the fields and fish caught from the lake .... washed down with the local Bintang beer of course!

Danau Batur

Lake Batur or Danau Batur is a crater lake that fills the south-eastern side of the Batur caldera. It is Bali's largest lake and has an area of approximately 18 square kilometers. Just as Gunung Agung is revered by Pura Besakih as Bali's largest mountain, Batur is revered by its own temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur, as Bali's largest lake. Pura Batur is considered Bali's second-most important temple, after Besakih.

Terraced Rice Paddies at Lake Toba

Terraced rice paddies on the side of Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The lake is the flooded crater of an ancient volcano and the surrounding land now provides fertile volcanic earth for the growth of rice and other staples.

In agriculture, a terrace is designed to slow or prevent the rapid run-off of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. The human landscapes of rice cultivation in terraces that follow the natural contours of the escarpments like contour plowing is a classic feature of the island of Bali, the Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao, Philippines

Supervolcanic Lake

Lake Toba is the largest lake in South east Asia and is also the largest volcanic lake in the world, 100km long, 30km wide and 505 m at its deepest point. It is located in the northern part of Sumatra, Indonesia and was formed after a supervolcanic eruption 69,000 to 77,000 years ago. This eruption is believed to have been the largest eruption anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to some anthropologists and archeologists it had global consequences, killing most humans and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today.