In 1989. Australian Nigel Mason and his Balinese wife Yanie set up Bali’s first and foremost white water rafting company, called Bali Adventure Rafting.

By 1992. Other adventure activities were added to the tour portfolio, beginning with Mountain Cycling, followed by Jungle, Rice Paddy and Village Trekking. By this time, the company’s identity expanded to encompass the new products, becoming Bali Adventure Tours (BAT).

1994. BAT had launched Bali Day Tours Transport as a strategy to make tour operations more self-contained and efficient. Today, BAT is able to transport its own customers in company owned and operated, air-conditioned vehicles all equipped with radio control. Yanie took the retail aspects of operations a step further in 1995, opening the 'House of Yanie' gift shop, located in Kuta Square.

1995. BAT operations consolidated under one roof with the opening of Adventure House on the Jalan Bypass at Pesanggaran (between Kuta and Sanur). This multi-million dollar, four-story structure became known as The” BAT” Cave as it houses state-of-the-art communications, dispatch, reservations center, operations headquarters, repair and maintenance workshops and a helipad at the rear.

1996. BAT started The Elephant Safari Park in historic Taro village, adding a completely new dimension to the organization. The park contained 9 Sumatran elephants, a sub species of the Asian elephant. These gentle pachyderms were brought from Sumatra, their last natural stronghold in Indonesia to be relocated in the tranquil Balinese countryside.

1997. 8 more Sumatran Elephants were rescued from Sumatra and the arduous task of bringing them to Bali, without causing undue stress for these beautiful Pachyderms began. The journey involved 6 days non-stop traveling, with a 10 vehicle convoy, the journey involved 1000's of kilometers by road, plus 2 sea crossings, Including 1 vehicle who’s sole purpose was to procure fresh food and water everyday along the way.  Among the 7 Elephants was 2-year-old Ramona who in later years turned out to be a very accomplished painter, with some of her artworks sold by Christies in New York.

2000. Constant improvements have been made to The Elephant Safari Park, both for visitors and resident pachyderms. The latest advancements include complete water treatment and waste disposal systems and a large 200 seat restaurant, a park gift shop, and museum
.
2001. BAT introduced helicopter tours - the first of their kind in Bali complete with their own helipads linking their numerous operations together. The purchase of state-of-the-art American built Robinson R44 helicopters brought flight prices to an affordable level for tourists.

2002. Unfortunately the Helicopter Tour was suspended after the Bali Bomb and is yet to be re-instated.

The Bali Bombing
The bombing had a disastrous effect on Bali Adventure Tours activities with up to a 98% loss in visitors doing tours directly after the tragedy. The next 2 years would prove to be a test of sacrifice, hard work, and great determination on the behalf of all staff and management to survive this catastrophe.

2003. This was an extremely difficult year with major outgoing in expenses and very little incoming revenue.  Recovery started towards the latter part of the year.

2004. August: Bali Adventure Tours upgraded their fleet of vehicles with the purchase of ten new 11 seater buses and four new 6 seater buses so as to maintain our high standards of safety and comfort for our guests.

2004.September: Work commenced on the spacious new breeding area for the Elephants,  and at the same time updating and modernizing the infrastructure of the Elephant food area, waste & rubbish removal, plus the implementing of a brand new Elephant Manure Processing Plant in Renon, Denpasar where the Elephant waste will be turned into an environmentally friendly fertilizer.
Features of the new breeding area will include, public access and viewing area, one of the deepest Elephant wading ponds in South East Asia. Plus the planting of over 200 trees including 30 different species of palm trees, landscape gardens and free roaming area for the courting couple.  The Park also set about beautifying the area with thousands of native & imported orchids.

2004, October: 10 new elephants were saved including 2 baby elephants, 2 year old Debby & 4 year old Ryan and transmigrated from Sumatra to join the Elephant Safari Park family thereby making a total of 27 elephants.  This journey was documented by an Australian film company to be released later as a 1 hour television feature.

2005.In keeping with the commitment of Bali Adventure Tours to the development of new products for the tourism industry in Bali, the company commenced the building of our first class overnight stay accommodation project at The Elephant Safari Park. Which will include a full range of rooms from VIP to Standard so as to suit any budget.  A Swimming Pool and a fully licensed bar overlooking the Elephants and the Park will further enhance the park.  The project is due for completion in 2006.
As a component of the Elephant Park, the Masons created an Elephant Foundation, in an effort to encourage conservation and education about this rapidly vanishing species. With a part of park fees benefiting the fund, the foundation intends to contribute to the rescue and conservation of wild elephants in Sumatra.
One step in the education program is the publication of a book about the Elephant Safari Park to be launched in the future. Some of the elephants are also involved in creating elephant paintings at the park, with proceeds for the sale of the paintings also going towards conservation.

Company Owners Profiles

Nigel Mason
Born and educated in England, Nigel Mason spent his early years in Egypt. Bitten early by the adventure bug, the 15-year-old left England in 1959 with the “Big Brother Boys Movement” to work on a farm in Victoria, Australia.  For the next four years, he traveled Australia, cutting timber and sugar cane, picking fruit, hunting kangaroos, and helping construct the Sydney-Melbourne standard gauge railway line. He learned to enjoy scuba diving and snow skiing in his spare time, as well as playing classical guitar.

Nigel landed in sales and moved into the recording music industry for a few exciting years, rubbing shoulders with world famous EMI Label artists - including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Chubby Checker and Roy Orbison. He launched his own ‘bottled garden terrarium’ business and later a landscaping operation but returned to music - this time in retail with the large Brashs chain of music stores.

In 1980 he gave up the ‘rat race’ and flew off to Bali with a couple of old hippie mates and was captivated by the island. He survived by doing small exports to Australia before meeting his future wife, Yanie in 1983.  Since arriving in Bali, Nigel has established numerous business enterprises, his first being Yanie's Restaurant. He later built the first White Water Rafting operation and added other adventure activities as he went along, including his own transport company. The Elephant Safari Park and helicopter sky tours are more recent additions to his stable of companies both being firsts for Bali.

Outside business operations, Nigel is well known for his outspokenness, a ‘fight for right’ attitude, and his Harley Davidson. He spends leisure hours with his wife and two sons, often working together in his ‘Mangrove Project’, planting saplings to conserve eroding wetlands. Over the past four years, the Masons have planted over 100,000 mangrove trees behind their Pesanggaran Head Office and re-established the area to its former state and ecosystem. Nigel’s work with elephants has led to his appointment as an advisor and consultant to ‘Flora and Fauna International’. He is a long-time, active member of Skal International tourism industry organization and is a well renowned member of the Bali community.

Yanie Mason

Made Karyani “Yanie” Mason was born and raised in Legian village, one of seven children in her family. She spent her childhood in a very different Legian and Kuta than we see today, long before electricity, roads or tourists. In fact, she didn’t own her first pair of rubber thongs until she was 11 years old. In those days, life was quite a struggle for the average family and Yanie learned to be tough. With an inquisitive mind, she always was questioning things she saw around her.

When tourists began to trickle into the village, Yanie learned to supplement the family income by selling anything possible to tourists, be it a flower she’d picked from someone’s garden or soft drinks on the beach. In fact, the first English phrase she remembers learning was: “Allo! You wan coll dring?”

Yanie was a straight-A student, always at the top of her class, especially in English. She was the first girl from Legian to enter university, where she was still studying when she met her future husband, Nigel. While studying, she was the general manager’s secretary at the then-newly opened Intan Cottages Hotel.

Yanie is probably best known for the famous “Yanie’s Restaurant & Bar”. But, she also is known as a woman who stands up against injustice and whom has fought for recognition as who she is and what she believes in. She has become recognized as one of Bali’s top businesswomen, while managing to mix a happy family life and raise two sons in a blended Balinese-Western culture. Yanie has gained respect among the Balinese and the expatriate communities, both of which have watched her climb the ladder of success over the past 15 years.

In her leisure hours, Yanie enjoys gardening, Balinese and modern dance, and badminton on the family court.  An example of Yanie’s continued community involvement; she is an active member of the following organizations:

• GAHAWISRI – Water Sport Association of Indonesia

• B.I.W.A. (Bali International Women’s Association)

• W.I.P.I. (Wanita Industri Parwisata Indonesia), a division of I.F.W.T.O. (The International Federation of Women’s Travel Organization).