About Nungnung Waterfall (Air Terjun Nungnung)
The Nungnung Waterfall (or Air Terjun Nung Nung) was perhaps one of the most impressive waterfalls that we’ve encountered in Bali thanks to its unusually tall, high volume, mist-producing plunging flow.
It’s widely reported to be about 50m tall in the literature (though I saw another source saying it was 80m tall), which made it one of the tallest permanent waterfalls in Bali.
In addition to its height, apparently its high elevation position downslope of the Danau Beratan Lake also made it one of the highest elevation (if not the highest elevation) waterfalls in Bali at 900m.
In order to witness this hidden waterfall, we had to go on a pretty strenuous upside down hike that descended some 486 steps over 125m of elevation loss within roughly 750m or so.
While the distance was modest, this steep path was full of hazards as the concrete steps were very slippery in spots, especially where the path sloped (as opposed to steps).
The conditions were exacerbated given that it had rained overnight prior to our visit in mid-June 2022, which was apparently still the rainy season on the south-facing slopes of Central Bali.
From the car park (see directions below), we managed to get an early morning view eastwards towards both Mt Agung and Mt Batur (before the clouds rolled in again).
The price of admission to the Nungnung Waterfall (the ticket kiosk was right by the car park) was IDR 20k per person as of our mid-June 2022 visit.
Then, we descended a steep road 150m to its bottom where there was an ornate start of the steps leading to the Nungnung Waterfall flanked by some warungs to the left (keep right to descend the steps).
Then, we proceeded slowly for the next 750m or so down a seemingly endless series of steep steps that were steep enough to force us to go sideways in several spots.
It didn’t take long before we were pretty much surrounded by a high elevation jungle with a few strategically-placed shelters along the way.
In a couple of spots, there were some deformations to the railings flanking the many steps along the way, and that was due to the odd rock falling downslope (not a surprise given how steep the terrain here was).
Eventually at the bottom of the descent, we crossed a footbridge over the Ayung Stream, which appeared to be sourced from seepage beneath the Danau Beratan Lake as a spring.
Once across the bridge, the path flattened out momentarily and followed the east side of the stream upstream before making its final descent across from a side waterfall and ultimately arriving before the Nungnung Waterfall.
Although you can view the Nungnung Waterfall from the east side of the Ayung Stream, there was a bridge that allowed us to go to the other side and get closer to the blasting mist zone fronting the waterfall.
There was also another path past some rubbish bins beneath the steps leading closer to the side waterfall nearby.
While it might be tempting to swim in the large plunge pool before the Nungnung Waterfall, the high volume of the Ayung Stream and the confined mist along with threat of rockfalls made it not a good idea during our mid-June 2022 visit.
So once we had our fill of this secluded waterfall, we then had to get back all that elevation loss (apparently upside-down hikes were quite the norm throughout Bali’s waterfalls) to regain the car park.
All things considered, we may have walked about 1km round-trip (the GPS went crazy given the lack of satellite visibility throughout the excursion), and we spent a little under 90 minutes away from the car.
Authorities
The Nungnung Waterfall (or Air Terjun Nung Nung) resides in the Badung Regency by the Pelaga Village near the lakeside town of Bedugul in Bali Province, Indonesia. It may be administered by the Badung Regency local government. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website.
The Nungnung Waterfall is located less than 22km southeast of the town of Bedugul.
Since we were driven to the trailhead for the Nungnung Waterfall from Ubud, I won’t bother with giving driving directions, but you can look at the embedded map above for your trip planning needs.
It took about 70 minutes for our driver to drive 35km from Ubud to the Nungnung Waterfall car park without traffic (due to our pre-dawn start).
For geographical context, Bedugul is about 29km (around an hour drive) southeast of Lovina, 46km (over an hour drive) north of Ubud, about 60km (about 90 minutes drive) northeast of Kuta, about 51km (under 1.5 hour drive) northeast of Canggu, and about 55km (under 1.5 hour drive) northeast of Seminyak.
Note that you’ll want to take the drive times with a grain of salt mostly because the traffic situation (especially in Southern Bali) is pretty bad and unpredictable.
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Video starting from the footbridge and sweeping for the falls before going over a different spot for a direct look at the falls
Brief sweep starting with a side waterfall in the distance then panning over to the mist zone and the main waterfall
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