I recently complete the test run of my #AdventureQuest program in Bali – a 7 day adventure around the islands waterfalls, mountains, rainforest, and canyons in the spirit of adventure and the native american vision quest.

Part of Adventure Quest will be run out of Bali Eco Stay, one of the top eco lodges in my favorite area of Bali – the Mt. Batukaru region.

My intrepid group of explorers (Loren, Heidi, Kirsty, and myself) stayed at the waterfall Bungalow at Bali Eco Stay for four days while we did daily adventures in the area.

The bungalow overlooks the main waterfall on the grounds, and has a trail the runs right down to the water. At night the sound of rushing water lulled us quickly to sleep.

The first evening we did a sunset walk in the surrounding rice terraces. The next day we did a full day hike up in the rainforest of the

The main area of the bungalow made for a good central meeting area and yoga platform – we tested doing some yoga and meditation at various times.  It seemed that before breakfast was the best time to work that in for the day.

The Eco Lodge industry has a problem with perception that because it is eco, the facilities will be basic.  That’s what I expected, but I turned out to be dead wrong. I would put Bali Eco Stay up there with some of the most luxurious places I’ve stayed.

Each day we went down to the waterfall next to our appropriately named villa for some swimming in the pools and soaking up the sounds. On our last day there we ended up hiking back along the river to make it home from a hike before the sun set.

One of the tricky things about planning a big adventure for a group of people is that everyone likes to move at their own pace.  I know I have a tendency to try to over schedule everyone, so on this trip I made sure to leave plenty of time for reflection and recovery in between activities, and chilling at the bungalow or around the grounds was easy.

The staff was incredible – they took care of one of our team when she crashed on her motobike.  They gave her a ride back to the lodge when she fell and then made herbal compresses for leg. They were awesome about brining desserts to the room (get the chocolate and fruit!) and keeping us stocked with mosquito incense.

Both the upper and lower areas of the waterfall bungalow have nearly 360 degree views of the surrounding rainforest and rice terraces. It’s tempting to stay around the grounds of the lodge the whole time, but we were there to do some exploring of the surrounding rainforest. We did the full day trek up Mt. Batukaru, and the best part was probably learning all the edible plants from our guide Kadek.  If the rain holds off we will do the entire Batukaru summit and camp out on AdventureQuest.

Much of the surrounding area is food forests with cacao, bananas, coconut, durian, and papaya trees.  Bali Eco Stay grows heritage res rice on the grounds, they raise their own chicken and fish, and the fertilizer those animal generate helps with the vegetable garden.  All this led to the best Nasi Goreng I’ve had in Bali!

Here is the founder, John Blundstone giving us a tour of the grounds.

You can check out Bali Eco Stay on their website or on Tripadvisor.

If you want to join me on AdventureQuest in August or September, reserve your spot now!