Harau Canyon, Sumatra, Indonesia

5Katja_nsk 5:00 PM Oct 27, 2012

Great for views, relaxing, walking or hiking
Harau Canyon or Harau Valley is one of the great hiking places in West Sumatra. It is very quiet and beautiful, with curious landscape where vertical cliffs contrast with rice fields. There are only two homestays in the area. We spent there 2 days and could have spent more; we did two hikes arranged by our hosts, ABDI Homestay. First day we went to the waterfalls. There are four of them and the first three you can find without a guide, I suppose. They were nice, but crowded (as it was Sunday); there are some snack shops and small restaurants around them. But the best waterfall is the fourth one which is deeper in the jungle and harder to find without a guide. There is a small pool with refreshing water good for swimming. It is not far away from ABDI, walking slowly and taking lots of pictures, it took us not more than 1 h to the jungle waterfall. Our second hike was to the cliff top, and this was for a whole day (6 - 7 h) with lunch. First we walked along the road which is not so nice, although we could still admire Harau Valley views. We walked past Echo Homestay and further down the road. Very near to the road our guide Ricky spotted Siamang monkeys in the trees and we went to the jungle. They were a group of five or so, we were lucky! We also saw some other monkeys. After that we followed the trail up, it is fairly easy hike, just do it slowly and you will get there! There is a gambir plantation on the top but nobody was there at the time of our visit. On the top we had lunch (of fried rice) with a view of magnificent Harau Valley and then proceed to the natural "swimming pool" of a river. It is a bit away from the main trek. This pond is very deep, maybe around 4 m, and you can jump from the 1.5 m (?) river edge or a tree trunk lying across the river. You can also just go down to the pond but it is more fun with the jump and I am happy I did it! We descended by a different trail and I could see why we did not go up this way. It was much steeper, wooden ladders and ropes were put at some points, and you need to be extremely careful not to slip and fall on descent. On ascent it would be more physically demanding, but if you are fit, than it is a faster way to the top. Apparently there is much more to explore in Harau even without going up! If you want to get to Harau from Bukittinggi by car you can go to Bedudal Café, we had a good experience with them!

5Bidule05 5:00 PM Mar 3, 2021

Isabelle (France)
We visited Harau canyon in August 2019. The landscape of the valley is beautiful with steep 100 meters high red-orange rocky cliffs. At the bottom, there are river, many rice fields with people and Indonesian buffaloes working in the fields. We also visited the Sarasah Bunta waterfall. This beautiful waterfall is located in the Harau valley nature reserve, and the access is very easy. This atmosphere of the site is peaceful, with a natural swimming pool. The landscape is also very fine with steep rocky red-orange cliffs, withn colors sparkling in the sunlight lights!!! Wonderful!!!