After the comfort of being in big cities like Jakarta and Yogjakarta, it was time to challenge ourselves a bit more. We headed to East Java, where Gunung (‘Mount’) Bromo and Kawah Ijen were awaiting us.
Gunung Bromo
Our first stop was Probolinggo, the main gateway to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Probolinggo itself isn’t worth lingering any longer than necessary, but Mount Bromo …. what a magical experience.
In order to be in time to watch the sunrise over Mount Bromo and the caldeira, we had to leave our homestay at 2.30 am. After a 1,5 hour drive, we reached the drop off point. From that moment, it was up to us to hike up the hill (King Kong hill) and find the best spot to watch the sunrise. Most travellers tend to go all the way to the top of King Kong hill to get the best view, but we weren’t feeling like sharing this moment with the crowds of tourists. We found a quiet spot halfway up the hill, where we based ourselves under the starry sky to await the sunrise. We shared the spot with just one other couple, who appreciated the amazing view just as much as we did.
After watching the night turn into day, we decided to continue our climb and hike up the rest of King Kong hill. We reached the main viewpoints, where masses of people were pushing in front of each other to have their photos taken with Mount Bromo in the background. We mentally highfived each other for the peaceful spot we had found earlier, and continued all the way to the top. It was quite a challenging climb to complete after a sleepless night, but the panoramic view we got at the top more than made up for it.
We reached the top at the right time, as well: by this time, most people had already started their descent, which made it easier for us to snap some pictures without any other people in it.
Although we initially planned to hike all the way down from King Kong hill to the crater of Mount Bromo (which would have taken us about 1-2 hours), a friendly local with a motorcycle managed to lure us on the back of his motorcycle to drive us there. And what an adventure that was! By the time we had circled down the hill and reached the caldeira, the driver turned into a motorcross champion who sped through the thick layer of ash covering the entire caldeira. Initially a bit shocked, but then (mostly) thrilled, we held on tightly as we crossed the desert-like landscape, towards Mount Bromo.
The landscape of the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park is truly unbelievable. Near Mount Bromo, the desert of ash turns into a lunarlike landscape with deep grooves from where lava used to flow. Although we have never actually walked on the moon (could be our next trip, who knows?), we imagine that walking around Bromo is as similar as it gets on earth (except there’s oxygen, and daylight, and a slightly stronger gravitational pull).
After pretending to be walking on the moon for a bit, we climbed up to the crater of the volcano. It was the first time either of us stared down a volcanic crater in real life, and I must say it’s pretty impressive. The smell of sulphur, the steam coming out, and the idea that every once in a while, lava comes spewing out and destroys everything in its path. Nature can be very beautiful, but pretty scary too. This is especially true in Indonesia, a country with 127 (!) active volcanos and approximately 5 million people living in danger zones.
Our visit to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park is undoubtedly a highlight of our trip, so far!
And then…..
Kawah Ijen
Time for the next volcano! We headed to Banyuwangi, a town at the far eastern-tip of Java. People generally come here for two reasons: to organise a visit to the Ijen-volcano and to catch a ferry to Bali. Those were exactly the things we did, in that order.
We booked a private tour to Ijen through our lovely homestay, and tried to get a couple of hours of sleep before embarking on our next adventure. This time, we had to leave the comfort of our homestay at 12(!) am.
The Ijen volcano is famous for its sulphuric acid lake in the crater. This turquoise-coloured lake is 1 km across and is the largest highly acidic lake in the world.
As if that’s not enough reason to visit, the Ijen crater is also one of the two places on earth where you can spot the ‘blue fire’. This blue fire is visible at night and is caused by sulphuric gas being ignited by the heat of the crater, which creates blue flames above the lake.
We were driven to the starting point of the hike, where we were provided with gasmasks to wear around the crater (to protect ourselves against the toxic sulphuric gasses). Now the climb could begin!
To get to the edge of the volcanic crater, we had to walk up a very, very steep hill for about 4 km (which took us about 1,5 hours). But climbing to the edge of the crater was only the beginning! After reaching the top, we had to descend about 800 m down again to see the blue fire down in the crater. The climb down was quite a steep journey over gravel and rocks, and took about 45 minutes. It was also super crowded with people, which wasn’t particularly pleasant.
After finally making it down to the blue fire, what we found was a bit disappointing. There were some small flames, but in general it wasn’t spectacular. It didn’t help that many tourists were spoiling the view by constantly shining their torches on it and taking pictures of it with the flash on (I am still not over this). We decided to not spend too much time down there and we made our way up again to find a good spot to see the sunrise.
A blogpost about Ijen would not be complete without mentioning the sulphur miners who are mining sulphur in the crater day and night with a pickaxe. These men walk up and down the volcano and the crater multiple times a day, trying to get as much sulphur down to the foot of the volcano as possible. It’s an extremely physically demanding job, considering that each time they make their way out of the crater, they carry 70-90 (!!!!) kg of sulphur on their backs. On top of that, they are not wearing any gas masks, and some of them are walking on flipflops. We learned that the miners are working for a Chinese mining company, that pays them only 1000 rupiah (about 0,05 euro) per kilogram of sulphur.
Despite all the hardship that comes with this extreme job, the men seem to be in a good mood. They smile at all the tourists gazing at them and in exchange for a bit of money (which only seems fair), they stop and pose for pictures. To make some extra money, they are selling pieces of sulphur carved into little figures.
Another way they make some extra money, is by wheeling exhausted tourists up or down the volcano in little wheelbarrels. It looks as ridiculous as it sounds, but hey, if it works for both parties, why not?!
At one point during the morning, our tour guide half jokingly said that it is a good thing that people are walking up the volcano in the dark, for they would lose hope if they saw how steep the path really is. When we were walking back down in daylight, we couldn’t help but agree with him. We were surprised that we walked all that way up without too many problems, in the middle of the night. I can’t speak for others, but I would have definitely despaired a little bit if I had seen the path that was awaiting me!
When we reached the bottom, we felt a little bit proud about how well we did (we didn’t have to be wheeled up/down in a wheelbarrel!). But then we saw the miners dropping off their sulphur and getting ready to go back up, and we realised: they are the real heroes in this story.
Next stop: Bali!
A fascinating trip Daniel – looking forward to Bali.