A ‘hidden gem’ of Java, Purworkerto was a town we stumbled across from this blog. It seemed like it had a few things to do and we had time, so why not? The tricky thing about hidden gems is that the tourist infrastructure isn’t there, so often you need your own transport and a decent idea about what you want to do… and that first one isn’t us and the second, we mostly have that covered.

So we decided that we’d have a day going to one of the many waterfalls and then head to the recently renovated hot springs. Simple plan, and getting a Grab to the first waterfall (Curug Bayan) was fine. It was a very accessible place with food stalls, you could paddle your feet (no swimming allowed) and there was even a professional photographer to take your picture in front of the falls (very reasonable at 50c per photo)

After a paddle and a drink we decided to head to the hot springs (Pancuran Pitu)… and this is where the fun really began. Firstly, Grab’s mapping tool is pretty bad and we’d had trouble before with locations but we couldn’t find the hot springs on the Grab map (even after comparisons with the same area on Google maps). A chat with some helpful locals revealed their skepticism in us getting a Grab to come out to where we were, let alone get to the hot springs. After about 20 mins we gave up and went to the back up plan of another waterfall where you could swim.

When the Grab eventually turned up we were pretty relieved, and it’s quite possible we actually passed the hot springs on the way to the other waterfall. We got dropped a little away from the actual falls this time, which meant a 15 min walk through the countryside and M chatting to some very friendly youths from a local scout group.

This waterfall has many levels and therefore MANY steps. And did I mention the heat & humidity? So many steps down that you are already cursing having to come back up as you go down. At least there was a halfway pool where locals were jumping in from the platforms on either side (not for us!).

Finally at the bottom, there was quite a crowd to see the lovely waterfalls:

What all the blogs and Google reviews failed to mention was the massive steel pylon/bridge that is across the valley…

Due to the crowds we made our way to the far side, past the stalls and Esti found a nice, calm pool to relax by.

We started taking a dip but then, for a reason we couldn’t understand, we had to get out of the water for about 10 minutes. No idea why, but it wasn’t just us – it was everyone – so maybe it was some religious thing? There was no panic or danger (that we could tell). Very strange.

Obviously after all this adventuring, we needed to eat so we went up all those steps, and along the road to find pizza – yes really, the kids found a nearby cafe that served pizza. It was quite fancy and had a great view of the countryside. The pizza was pretty bad though.

The trick from there was to get home. After a couple of driver-cancelled Grabs, we walked down the road a bit to some food stalls (funnily enough a Japanese themed food court called “Shibuya”). Again, chatting to some locals who express their skepticism with getting a Grab, but after one more driver cancellation we hit the jackpot and finally get our ride home!