Geography

Bali is a small fertile island midway along the string of islands which makes up the Indonesian archipelago, stretching from Sumatra in the north-west, to Irian Jaya, on the border of Papua New Guinea, in the south-east. Bali is volcanically active and extremely fertile. Bali has an area of 5620 sq km, measures approximately 140 km by 80 km and is just 8 degrees south of the equator with lots of mountains, volcanoes and lakes, all surrounded by huge areas of rice fields and of course, the beach areas. About 70% of the island is agricultural ground, 22% consists of forest and 8% is left uncultivated.

Gunung Agung, known as the 'mother mountain', is the highest of the volcanic mountains at 3142 m. Another worth visiting is Mount Batur (1717 m) with its huge mountain lake. These mountain areas have a wet climate most of the year, with very cold evenings and nights, when temperatures can drop to 8 C occasionally; the lower areas of Bali have basically two seasons, wet and dry.

South and north of the central mountains are Bali's fertile agricultural lands. The southern region is a wide, gently sloping area where most of Bali's abundant rice crops are grown. The south-central area is the true rice basket of the island. The northern coastal strip is narrower, rising more rapidly into the foothills of the central range, but the main export crops - coffee, copra and rice - are grown here. Cattle are also raised in this area