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Probolinggo's waterfall

First important thing to know is how to get there, for us it was simpler to just take the train again! (Here’s more information to get to Probolinggo from Yogyakarta) The train ride was uneventful and when we arrived to Probolinggo we decided to walk to the hotel. And for once I didn’t regret it! The town is pretty small so most of the hotels are located near the train station which is more or less in the center of the town.

Once at the hotel we were guided to our room and received a tiny surprised. No bed sheet. Well to be exact, half of a blanket (Yes, yes half don’t ask me why) We were expecting a bad hotel. The hotel in the area don’t have a great reputation. Since it’s one of the closest town to the Bromo volcano, the hotel don’t have to make an effort to have clients. Therefore, all hotels are pretty expensive and kind of shitty (sorry for my language) But hey, there was a breakfast included! Not the finest, but it was accomplishing its purpose! Anyway we slept with our towels as blankets and we didn’t took shower (no warm water…) and honestly it was still worth it to be able to admired the amazing sceneries of that area.

Now to get to the volcano and the waterfall we didn’t want to get a tourist bus, so of course we rented a bike! (Here more information about renting motorbike) In this case we searched a little for a guy that was allowing people to go around the volcano with the bike (there’s a lot of sand and dust, it’s not great for motor…) We finally found one and after getting lost to get to his shop and we were able to rent a bike.

Now we began our journey to the waterfall with our trusty google map. But that trust will misguide us greatly. The route itself was filled with fabulous mountain views and field view all the way. As we were getting closer, according to google map, we were using weirder and unusual streets. They were slowly becoming motocross track more than roads. We kept going up and up and the road was becoming more sandy with a few scattered patch of asphalt. We stopped mid mountain because I had a butt cramp, yep butt cramp. Rock and bump on the road gives an amazing result to my butt. During our stop someone passed by and stopped to talk to us. He kept repeating that we were in the wrong way and to we needed to follow him. At first we were ignoring him a little telling him we were fine and that we didn’t need help. The guy didn’t really spoke english but keep telling us we were in the wrong way for the waterfall. We tried to look on google or use google translate but of course we were in the middle of nowhere so no cell reception. Eventually, he look in his tank to see if he had enough gaz, then ask his girlfriend to wait on the side of the road. We thought that it was a too good of a staging to be a scam so we followed him. As we were getting back down the road with all of its rock and sand it was getting harder for Alexis to keep the control of the bike.

Eventually the front wheel got stuck on the side of a rock, which make me move too much and pushed Alexis. All of this lead both of us to flip over the motorbike. Yep, our first accident! Not in traffic, but in the middle of nowhere. But don’t worry there was plenty of spectator since a car was coming toward us. By some miracle, I ended landing on both of my feet in the middle of the road on the only spot of asphalt. I do have a really good guardian angel. My bear didn’t have the same luck. Well he didn’t help his luck either, wearing flip flops and a top tank to do motorbike… So as he was trying to land on his feet, flip flop one flew one way and they flip flop two flew the other way and Alexis rolled over in the rocks. And my heart spot, in my head we were already in an hospital. But Alexis do know how do fall properly so he got away with very few scratches and bruise. Once he got his flip flop back, he got the bike back and we were ready to leave again. Except that the guy ask me to get on his bike to avoid another accident… That was the most stressful ride of my life. I wasn’t planning on riding a bike behind someone else since I was wearing really really short short. Well after 30 min ride on a small side road in the middle of nowhere we ended up at the beginning of the trail for the waterfall.

In the end, the guy asked us for 50 000 ruppia, but in exchange he managed to allow us to get to the entrance of the trail with our own motorbike. Normally you are not allowed to do so, you have to pay a “moto guy” to transport you to the entrance where you will be charge another 45 000 ruppia. Just a warning, they will annoy you to get a guide and to buy a pocho or other waterproof accessories. You don’t need a guide to get to the waterfall, it’s pretty easy to find. If you don’t want to be wet, then buy them, since you will have to go under the waterfall, yes under!

You need to walk 1 km to get to the actual waterfall from the main entrance. Part of that walk will be in a river and climbing the side of a rock (wet rock). Once you have climbed the rock in question, you end up in the middle of the waterfall. There is literally water falling everywhere around you. It feels like you are in a hole in the middle of a river. Once we finished taking picture, we went back to our hotel completely wet and bit bruised but amazed by our experience.