In 2015, a French backpacker in Bali seeking adventure off the beaten path found his way to Beji Guwang, a canyon hidden in Sukawati district, about halfway between Sanur, a popular beach resort, and Ubud, the spiritual capital of Bali. There he embarked on a short trek that took him along a river with three distinct river canyons edged by tropical jungle and towering limestone cliffs. Each canyon had its own character, its own challenges, swimming holes, different sized waterfalls and dramatic rock formations carved by water and time. After sharing his experience on social media, he christened it ‘Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang,’ and the secret was out. As word spread, more and more tourists came to trek through the canyon and amenities popped up: a cafe, swinging ropes, staircases and a visitor centre with changing rooms, toilets, shaded rest areas, a ticket box and authorised guides. But over the last decade, the face of tourism has changed tremendously in Bali. Beach clubs have overtaken temples as the most popular attractions. Many of the millions of people who visit the island every year come to shop, workout at gyms, dine at fancy restaurants or to party till dawn, rarely leaving the built-up areas of the south. With all these new distractions, Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang was forgotten. When I visited with a friend on a sunny Tuesday afternoon earlier this month, we were the only ones there. The visitor centre looked sad, like an old campsite in desperate need of a paint job, with cracked footpaths and staff standing around with nothing to do. “This is going to be crap. Should we leave?” I said to my friend. She nodded: “Yeah. It looks pretty rundown. But we came here so let’s do the trek anyway. It’s not long and I read that they have some places where you can swim and jump into the river.” After getting a couple of tickets, we met our Balinese guide and followed him down a set of moss-grown steps to the bank of the river for what we assumed would be a walk along the edge of a river canyon. We were wrong. Very wrong. The trek goes right through the middle of the canyon — you walk ‘through’ the river! — making it more of an upstream paddle and swim at times than your run-of-the-mill trek. But some parts of the river are too deep or dangerous to wade through because of rapids. That’s when our guide really showed his worth, leading us over boulders and along the edges of moss-grown cliffs where we crawled along like mountain goats to reach the other side. At other times, we formed human chains or pulled ourselves along traversing ropes to get to the other side. We high-fived ourselves after surmounting each wet and rocky challenge, and laughed like hyenas every time someone fell into the soup or got swept downstream. We even got to swing from vines. The river section of the trek is only about one kilometre long. But with three canyons and a few rest breaks in between where we soaked our weary bodies in natural jacuzzis, it took the better part of two hours to complete. And just when we thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, it did. The return journey to the visitor centre — a footpath that winds its way through emerald-green rice fields — was cut straight out of a postcard. Little kids flew kites and splashed around in irrigation channels. Straw huts and farmers pockmarked the fields. To the north we saw forested foothills and, towering above them, Mt Agung, a 3000m cloud-ringed volcano. To the south was Bali ‘s coastline, the sparkling blue ocean and the Nusa Lembongan, an outlying island. You’d be hard pressed to find a more beautiful place in Bali. The trek at Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang is not for everyone. It’s definitely not for kids, not for anyone who’s afraid of heights or anyone who can’t swim. But if you’re physically fit and tired of the typical tourist spots in Bali, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s as close as you can get to feeling like Indiana Jones in Bali while still making it to the beach for a cocktail at sunset. fact file

+ Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang is at Jalan (street) Sahadewa, Guwang, Sukawati. Open 8.30am to 4.30pm. Guided treks are $23 per person. balihiddencanyon.com