These waterfalls, 42km from Makassar, are set amid lushly vegetated limestone cliffs. Looking up, it’s straight out of Jurassic Park, but then you scan the ground level and it’s a classic objek wisata (tourist object), crowded with day trippers on weekends, and peppered with litter and concrete. Upstream from the main waterfall there’s another smaller waterfall and a pretty, but treacherous, pool (take a torch to make it through the cave en route).
It's a highly scenic spot matched by a high entrance fee for foreigners; it feels a bit like daylight robbery, until you consider your contribution might help keep this place from being ground up for cement factories.
Bantimurung is also famous for its beautiful butterflies; however, numbers are plummeting as locals trap them to sell to visitors or export on the black market.
Catch a Damri bus or pete-pete (10,000Rp, one hour) to Maros from Makassar Mall bus stop in Makassar, then a pete-pete to Bantimurung (10,000Rp, 30 minutes).
