BANTIMURUNG CASCADES

Its name comes from a local expression membanting kemurungan, translated as a place where you get rid of sadness. Indeed, the place is tranquil, with a few butterflies fluttering amid lush vegetation, a few steep limestone hills, and bewitching waterfalls some fifteen meters high. If you follow a path upstream, you'll discover even more beautiful waterfalls, ideal for swimming (beware, it's very busy at weekends, as many locals come to spend time with their families) Once you've crossed the small river and taken the path and stairs built into the hillside, you'll eventually arrive, after a 20-minute walk, at the entrance to two "tunnel caves". The one on the right, extremely long and very sparsely equipped (a light bulb every 50 m, but a wooden passageway makes exploration easier), is nevertheless well worth a visit. Take a good flashlight to spot the stalactites and other draperies; it's a bit like our first cave discoverers in the Causses must have felt.

Transportation. From Makassar, take the bemo to Maros and change for Batimurung (just under 1.5 hours). You're right next to Gua Leang Leang. Of course, you won't want to miss the park's incredible reinforced cement gateway monument, featuring a 15
m-high monkey, an artificial masterpiece in very poor taste, between whose legs buses and cars pass.