Bantimurung: a waterfall, a cave and a lot of butterflies

Bantimurung is the easiest big day out from Makassar: a river gorge in the karst, a waterfall that drops in tiers over a lip of rock, and a park that has been a picnic destination for generations of Makassarese. It is 45 km north of the city, and on a Sunday it is busy in a way that is part of the experience.

The waterfall is the draw, but the national park around it is bigger than most visitors realise. The Bantimurung-Bulusaraung park protects a large area of limestone karst, with caves, a lake and walking trails, and the butterflies that made the place famous in the nineteenth century are still here, if harder to find than the signs suggest.

The waterfall and its stairways

The main fall drops perhaps fifteen to twenty metres in a wide curtain over a rock lip, into a pool that is shallow and cold. Concrete steps lead down from the entrance, and a path continues behind and around the fall, so you can walk a loop and get wet at several points. At the foot of the steps there is a row of stalls selling noodles, rain ponchos and plastic bags for phones, and a basic changing area.

The water is at its best in the wet season, when it spreads across the whole lip; by the end of the dry season it can be a trickle and the pool is low. Sandals with grip matter more than anything else you bring, because the steps and the rocks are slick. Swimming is allowed near the fall, but the pool has a slippery bottom and no lifeguard.

Why Wallace wrote about the butterflies

Alfred Russel Wallace, the naturalist who worked in the archipelago in the 1850s, collected in these hills and wrote about the butterflies in terms that have stuck: this was, in his telling, a kingdom of them. The park still has a good number of species, including birdwings and swallowtails, and the wet season is the better time to look.

The butterfly house near the entrance is a small enclosure with pinned specimens and a garden; the wild ones are more interesting. Look along the riverbank and the forest edge in the morning, and keep still. The pale yellow butterflies that gather in groups on damp sand are the ones most visitors end up photographing. Numbers peak after the first heavy rains, when the nectar plants flower, and fall away towards the end of the dry season.

Caves and Danau Toakala

A short walk from the fall, Gua Mimpi is a limestone chamber with stalactites and a resident population of swiftlets. A guide with a lamp is needed and is usually waiting at the entrance; it is not a show cave, and the steps inside are steep and wet.

Further into the park, Danau Toakala is a small lake set among the towers, reached by a trail and a set of steps. It is quiet, green and good for a swim, with a warung or two at weekends. The walk takes about half an hour from the car park at a gentle pace; ask at the gate about the state of the path. Take a torch and shoes you do not mind soaking, because the trail crosses a stream in a couple of places.

A day out with children

This is one of the few places in South Sulawesi that works with children without much planning: a short walk, a waterfall, a shallow pool and monkeys. The long-tailed macaques around the entrance are bold and will take food from a hand or an open bag; keep snacks out of sight and do not feed them.

Take towels, a change of clothes and shoes that can get wet. The paths are stepped, so a pushchair is not practical and a carrier is better for small children. The park is quietest early on a weekday and at its most festive on a Sunday, when families arrive with rice boxes, guitars and inflatable rings. There is a picnic area near the river, and the shallow water below the bridge is where most of the small children end up.

Tickets, guides and getting back

Entry is charged per person and the rate differs for Indonesian and foreign visitors; expect a few tens of thousands of rupiah each, plus parking and a small fee for a cave guide. Tickets are bought at the gate, and there is no advantage to booking ahead.

Bantimurung is 45 km from Makassar, an hour to ninety minutes by car, and most people come with a driver for the day and stop at Rammang-Rammang on the way back. Public transport means a bus to Maros and then an angkot or ojek; it works, but it eats the day. Leave the city by seven to be at the fall before the coaches. Allow three hours for the waterfall and the cave, and a full day if you add the lake.

• Go on a weekday morning if you want the fall to yourself.
• Take a dry bag for phones; the spray reaches the steps.
• The cave guide is paid separately, in cash, at the entrance.
• Combine with Rammang-Rammang, which is on the same road back to Maros.

Questions people actually ask

Is Bantimurung good with young children?

Yes, with supervision. The walk from the gate is short and stepped, the pool is shallow, and there is plenty to look at. The macaques are the main hazard, since they grab at food and bags, and the rocks near the fall are slippery.

When is the waterfall at its best?

In the wet season, roughly November to April, when the water spreads across the full width of the rock lip. In the late dry season the flow drops to a fraction of that. The trade-off is that wet-season afternoons often bring heavy rain.