Blahmantung Waterfall (Air Terjun Blahmantung)

Pujungan Village / Pupuan District, Bali, Indonesia

About Blahmantung Waterfall (Air Terjun Blahmantung)

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

The Blahmantung Waterfall is said to be one of the tallest waterfalls in Bali, which certainly compelled us to target it on a trip to the island.

However, there was a bit of misinformation surrounding this waterfall on the internet, which actually landed us a serendipitous experience with the Blahmaning Waterfall.

Blahmantung_206_06252022 - Blahmantung Waterfall
Blahmantung Waterfall

Nevertheless, when we finally did get to experience the Blahmantung Waterfall, we witnessed something that seemed to be getting a bit more attention from foreign tourists.

Yet we also walked on a lesser-known path that allowed us to experience other waterfalls in the area in the same excursion.

By the way, these waterfalls included the Blemantung Waterfall (which locals said was called Rajapala Waterfall) as well as the Bidadari Waterfall.

In any case, from what I could tell, the Blahmantung Waterfall certainly was one of the taller free-falling ones that we’ve witnessed in person as it appeared like it plunged 50m (though I’ve seen some claim it’s 100m tall).

Sekumpul_244_06212022 - Is the Blahmantung Waterfall taller than the Sekumpul Waterfall?
Is the Blahmantung Waterfall taller than the Sekumpul Waterfall?

If you buy the latter figure, then that might put it even taller than the Sekumpul Waterfall which was said to be 80m tall (though it too has been claimed to be upwards of 100m tall).

Regardless, I appreciated the more intimate experience that we managed to get with this waterfall, which really felt more rewarding than the direct out-and-back excursion that we saw other foreign tourists do.

In this write-up, I’ll describe how we did the full excursion though if you’re only interested in the direct out-and-back hike to just the Blahmantung Waterfall, then skip to the last section.

How To Find The Blahmantung Waterfall

The primary reason why I tend to think the Blahmantung Waterfall had its share of misinformation on the internet is that GoogleMaps has multiple waypoints for it.

Blahmantung_277_06252022 - By the starting point of the Blahmantung Waterfall, there was this small waterfall, which is kind of an indicator that you're in the right place if you see this
By the starting point of the Blahmantung Waterfall, there was this small waterfall, which is kind of an indicator that you’re in the right place if you see this

So if you end up routing to the wrong waypoint, then you end up doing what we did and arrive at the Blahmaning Waterfall thinking it’s the Blahmantung Waterfall.

The key thing to remember regarding the target waterfall is that it’s near the village of Pujungan, which is just to the east of Pupuan Village (also the name of the district the falls is in).

It’s for this reason that you might also see the Blahmantung Waterfall called the Air Terjun Pupuan (or Pupuan Waterfall).

The Blahmaning Waterfall is actually closer to Tinggarsari Village so if you find yourself on a side road that passes through this village, be aware that you’re likely NOT going to the Blahmantung Waterfall!

Blahmantung_288_06252022 - Looking back at the context of a rice field with a narrow road and our parked vehicle in front of the start of the Blahmantung Waterfall hike
Looking back at the context of a rice field with a narrow road and our parked vehicle in front of the start of the Blahmantung Waterfall hike

We’ll detail a bit more about the driving directions, but just realize that the village you’re nearby pretty much tells you everything you need to know about not confusing the waterfalls.

Trail Description – The Rajapala and Bidadari Waterfalls

From the start of the hike, we passed by a short side waterfall next to the trailhead before descending for about 200m towards a trail fork.

At this fork, there was a steep, narrow ramp going up to the right, which turned out to the be direct trail leading to the Blahmantung Waterfall.

However, we kept to the left to continue the descent which eventually bottomed out at around 500m from the junction.

Blahmantung_259_06252022 - This was the trail fork where the narrow path on the right went to the Blahmantung Waterfall while the wider path on the left went down to the other waterfalls
This was the trail fork where the narrow path on the right went to the Blahmantung Waterfall while the wider path on the left went down to the other waterfalls

Down at these depths, we started to notice a tall waterfall, which Gaia GPS labeled as the Blemantung Waterfall.

This was an impressively tall waterfall dropping in at least two noticeable tiers upwards of 30m or so, but it seemed to have been intervened with to feed an irrigation ditch and weir further downstream.

Roughly 200m from the weir or dam control shelter, there was a steep path that rose up towards the top of the cliff before descending across a footbridge right in front of the upper tier of the Blemantung Waterfall.

Up here, we spoke to some locals who were doing trail work, and they said that this waterfall was actually called the Rajapala Waterfall, which meant something like “king”.

Blahmantung_043_06252022 - Context of some irrigation infrastructure fronting the Blemantung Waterfall, which the locals here also called it the Rajapala Waterfall
Context of some irrigation infrastructure fronting the Blemantung Waterfall, which the locals here also called it the Rajapala Waterfall

This detour was about 250m each way (or 500m round-trip), and it probably was the most strenuous (or at least sweatiest) part of the hike so far.

After having our fill of the Rajapala Waterfall and rejoining the trail, we then hiked roughly another 200m towards what our guide called the Bidadari Waterfall, which is Balinese for “angel”.

This stretch of the walk included a couple of unbridged stream crossings before going past a trail junction and skirt a small dam or diversion wall before reaching a shelter fronting the modestly-sized waterfall.

The Bidadari Waterfall was more of a cooling off spot as opposed to a swimming hole because its plunge pool was shallow.

Blahmantung_124_06252022 - This was the Bidadari Waterfall (or 'Angel Waterfall') which was the other off-the-beaten-path waterfall that would be missed if you only went to the Blahmantung Waterfall and back like most of the foreign tourists did
This was the Bidadari Waterfall (or ‘Angel Waterfall’) which was the other off-the-beaten-path waterfall that would be missed if you only went to the Blahmantung Waterfall and back like most of the foreign tourists did

Once we had our fill of the Bidadari Waterfall, we then went back to the nearby junction and climbed up through a coffee plantation before rejoining a more established trail, which went towards the Blahmantung Waterfall.

Trail Description – The Blahmantung Waterfall

According to my GPS logs, the trail we were on rejoined the Blahmantung Waterfall Trail about 600m to the east of the trail fork we skipped earlier on and about 200m west of the waterfall itself.

In the first 200m of the ramp from the trail fork, the trail sloped pretty steeply as it made its way up towards a coffee plantation with some fruit trees being grown.

The path was concrete (probably meant to be for scooter traffic), but it has the unintended effect of being quite slippery when wet (especially with the combination of rain and humidity).

Blahmantung_254_06252022 - This slippery concrete slope was very tricky, even for our local guide Dendi, who slipped but didn't fall when descending this part of the Blahmantung Waterfall trail
This slippery concrete slope was very tricky, even for our local guide Dendi, who slipped but didn’t fall when descending this part of the Blahmantung Waterfall trail

This was especially the case when Mom and I had to descend it on the way back, but this is something to be very careful of.

Anyways, continuing beyond the coffee plantation, the track eventually approached a prayer-only shrine followed by a shelter before ending right at the plunge pool of the Blahmantung Waterfall.

The boulder-fringed plunge pool itself was quite sizable though it was surrounded by very steep cliffs, which made me very aware of the rockfall danger.

Of course, no one was swimming here during our late June 2022 visit because of the sporadic rain squalls that came and went throughout.

Blahmantung_203_06252022 - Context of Mom checking out the tall plunge of the Blahmantung Waterfall
Context of Mom checking out the tall plunge of the Blahmantung Waterfall

After having our fill of the Blahmantung Waterfall, we then hiked the remaining 1-1.2km or so back to the trailhead.

Overall, Mom and I spent about 2.5 hours away from the car, which included the time spent chilling out at each of the waterfalls.

However, it could easily be half that amount of time and distance if we only targeted the Blahmantung Waterfall without doing the other waterfalls.

Authorities

The Blahmantung Waterfall resides in the Tabanan Regency near the village of Pujungan in Bali Province, Indonesia. It may be administered by the Tabanan Regency local government. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website.

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Content is for subscribers. See Membership Options.

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Tagged with: pupuan, tinggarsari, pujungan, blahmantung, off the beaten path, mistaken identity, google maps, googlemaps, misinformation



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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
Read More About Johnny | A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls.