Thursday 2nd November

Another interesting breakfast, found a square of banana cake made with pandan. Sticky and sweet, and green, it was quite tasty. Checked out of the hotel, but asked them to keep our luggage as while we were staying elsewhere tonight we would be returning tomorrow and staying one more night. Not at all complicated. Thankfully the reception staff weren’t fazed and took our big rucksacks.

Armed with day bags and gear for a one night sleepover we waited for our drivers to arrive to take us to Sukamade Beach. Tonight we are hoping to see green turtles! Rian rocks up to the hotel lobby, ah excellent, I didn’t realise we had booked this trip with the same crowd as Ijen.

Leaving Ketapang, we drove for about two hours on nice asphalt roads. Stopped off at a small side of the road “restaurant” for lunch, called Warung Mulyo. The food choices looked terrifying and none too appealing to (fussy) me; however I didn’t dare insult the lovely older lady who was so proud of her array of choices and looked on so enthusiastically as to what I wanted. Okay, first things first, let’s identify all these bad boys. Ahmm...

“What’s this?”

“Jackfruit.”  (largest tree-borne fruit in the world, species of tree in the fig, mulberry, breadfruit family)

“This?”

“Catfish.”  (bottom-feeder!)

“This?” 

“Chicken liver and intestines.”  (awful offal!)

“This?” 

“Squid.”  (rubber!)

“This?”

“Tofu, very spicy.” (spicy rubber!)

 “This?”

“Chicken with boiled eggs.” (might be a goer!)

“Spicy?”

“A little bit.”  (maybe not...)

Hmmm, top row looks to be meat free, might be a bit safer. I can identify corn fritters, nice, okay, I’ll definitely have some of that. Rice. Yes please! Load me up. I’ll also grab a boiled egg. Some of the slightly spicy chicken. And heck, let’s attempt the jackfruit too. My entire plate, plus a bottle of coke, cost me €1.50.   

Leaving the restaurant we passed by a truck that was making and selling dumplings. We pulled it over and all hopped out to grab a treat. I opted for the chocolate one, and can report, that it was super sweet and very tasty.

We lost the lovely tarred roads, and hit the muddy trails that would be our terrain for the next two hours. Our drivers were very good and crawled over the bumpy, muddy, boulder filled mountainous trails. Banbang, my driver was sitting upright hunched over the wheel with both hands firmly affixed to it for the entire journey. It required a lot of concentration. Despite the infinite care, we were still shaken about a bit; not that that bothered me in the slightest. Baby turtles would be the reward. I was happy out.

Rian had asked if we wanted to break up the trip by stopping at a nice beach called Green Bay before reaching our accommodation. Sure, that sounded perfect. Our 4x4’s pulled into a cove and we all hopped aboard a local fisherman’s boat and headed out to sea. It was only when Rian offered to take my mobile phone and put it in a waterproof bag, before donning a poncho that it clicked we might get wet, very wet!!! Sitting at the front might not have been so smart. Although being at the front meant I couldn’t actually see how far we lurched outta da water with each oncoming wave, having no point of reference ahead of me. Tony, who sat at the back of the boat said it was a very high swell. Fisherman had a lobster and a pufferfish in the hull of the boat, he offered to sell it to us for dinner. We declined his offer as we weren’t sure if our accommodation would be best pleased with us rocking up with our own food, going, “here, clean and cook this for us”.

Very smooth beach landing into Green Bay. There were two girls waiting to catch the boat back, and once they left we had the place to ourselves to wander. Beach was a lovely soft white sand. Sea was a bit rough so none of us opted to go swimming. Watched some grey monkeys in trees then trekked through the forest to another beach called Stone Shore, as the name suggests there was no sand and it was comprised entirely of stones. Looking down the ground was literally crawling. Tiny hermit crabs were all over the place, scurrying here and there. Fascinating. However my allure to stay and watch them was short-lived. I heard the terrifying buzz that instils terror into my heart. Mosquitos!!! Slap, slap, slap. They were everywhere. And me with no bug juice as it was back with the 4x4’s. Feck!!! Cue some fast walking through the 1km forest path trying to get to the end of the trail before being munched to pieces. Slap! Satisfyingly I managed to get that bugger, although the amount of blood residue on my palm suggested he had been gorging himself for ages before I spotted him. Grrrr!

Made it back to the vehicles and continued our drive to Sukamade. The sun was beginning to set as we came into a clearing. Folks! It was so lush and prehistoric looking I actually would not have been in the slightest bit surprised if a herd of brontosauruses lopped gently into view. It was like a scene from Jurassic Park (minus the dinosaurs, sadly). Absolutely stunning. God I’m loving Indonesia. It is just a beautiful part of the world.

We arrived at our accommodation as darkness fell. The guest house is about a 20 minute drive from the beach. Research mentioned that the accommodation at the conservation centre while at the beach, was very basic, you’d be sleeping on a mattress on the floor, sharing bathroom facilities and the cleanliness of the sleeping area seemed highly questionable (too many reviews mentioned bed bugs). Plus the area was filled with mosquitoes. Ah yes, staying 20 minutes away in a slightly better quality accommodation was fine by me.

Our host provided us with a delicious dinner spread of a tasty vegetable broth with pasta, mie-gorang, corn fritters, chicken legs, rice, cooked vegetables and fresh fruit. Finger licking good. My room was clean and I had four single beds to choose from. We were provided with a towel and a woollen type blanket for the bed. Geoff and Jenny swapped rooms with Robin as their bathroom was missing a toilet seat, and he kindly offered to change since his was intact. The swap meant that his new bed was decked out in Strawberry Shortcake covers. I had to investigate on hearing. Talk about a childhood throwback. Funny stuff.

At 8pm we left to go to the conservation centre. There we met a ranger called Eko. He talked us through what they did at the centre and explained how the night would go. So every night of the year turtles appear on the beach to lay eggs. The rangers take some of the eggs and incubate them in their hatchery to protect them from predators and give them a greater fighting chance at survival.

Eko would bring us to the beach, we could use flashlights for the 800m to get there, however, once the beach was in sight we had to turn off all lights and make sure all camera equipment had flash and screens disabled. We also were to keep quiet and not make any loud noises, turning off sound on mobiles. Turtles are very sensitive to light and sound and encountering either might disrupt their activity, making them choose not to lay their eggs that night. If we found a nesting turtle we were to keep out of her eyeline, only approaching from the behind or sides, nowhere near her head. Our group just consisted of the six of us, Rian and one other couple (who were in their twenties I reckon).

Once we reached the beach Eko told us to hang tight as he checked out the beach to find a laying turtle.  We sat on the sand and waited. The couple sat away from us and were laughing and joking and using their mobile phones, taking selfies with lights. Oh dear! Rian popped over to them and reminded them of the no-light rule.

Luckily it was a full moon and the sky was clear. It was incredibly bright. The stars were out, but the brightness of the moon meant there would be no chance to see amazing stars. Not that I was complaining, a bright moonlit beach meant we could see so much more, if there was going to be anything to see. We quietly joked that wouldn’t it be funny if as Eko went off up the beach a turtle came out instead where we were waiting. And yup, you guessed it, that’s exactly what happened.

Tony was the first to point to a black shadow in the surf. Was it a stone? Had it been there before? Wait, is it moving? Cue lots of strained eyes all trying to figure out if we were looking at a turtle emerging from the sea. And we were! Rian ran off up the beach to grab Eko. We all stood up and watched the lumbering black figure slowly advance towards us bit by bit.

Eko and Rian came back, and Eko informed us that chances were that that turtle was merely scouting, trying to find and decide on the best place to lay her eggs. He didn’t reckon she was coming in to nest. He had however been on the walkie-talkie with other rangers on the beach and they had come across a large green turtle who was making her nest, about 1km up the beach. So off we went. As we made our way up the beach we came across three other turtles emerging from the waters. Incredible!

Green turtles must leave the water and crawl up onto the beach to lay their eggs. On finding a suitable spot the female begins nesting which involves digging a deep hole using her strong flippers to flick away the sand. She lays her eggs in the hole and then covers it over again to keep them warm and protected from predators. Once fully covered and satisfied with her work she returns to the sea, not going back again. Motherhood is not part of these creatures behaviour.

By the time we got to the turtle she had just finished digging her nest. Firstly, she was huge! So much bigger than I expected. Eko shone a light on her rear so that we could see her laying her eggs. It was a fairly magical sight to watch her spew all the eggs out into the sand. She did so in bursts. And as she laid them, Eko sneakily swiped them out from under her. 128 eggs was what she laid! Incredible. What a sight to witness.

 My only grumble was that the unknown female was a selfie addict. For most of the laying, she had her mobile on a selfie-stick and was doing silly poses that you couldn’t help but being distracted by. Sure, take a picture or two, but then stop, and just witness!! With your own eyes, not through a lens! It grated on every single one of our nerves. She also had to get so close to the turtle. She was practically in the hole at one point. Again Rian had to step in and point out how perilously close she was to falling on top of the turtle, sand gives way very easily. That was my one misgiving. I wish the ranger had been stronger and told her to cop on. That being said he was busy fishing out all the eggs.

Once she finished laying them, the turtle began her arduous task of covering the hole to protect her eggs (which were no longer there!). It just seemed like such a futile effort. The poor thing was exhausted from the ordeal of depositing all the eggs and now she was going to spend over two hours covering an empty hole.

 Eko picked up one of the eggs and let me hold it in my palm. See how fragile the shell is he said. The egg was about the size of a large golf-ball but felt very light. I very gently tipped the shell with my fingertip, and was astonished to see how it popped a wee dent into the shell. You could sense the fluid on the other side of the egg. It was soft-shelled and felt paper-thin; for some reason I’d imagined it would be hard like that of a hen’s egg. Despite the softness of the egg, it can take the baby anything from 1-4 days to hatch out of the shell. Once we all had a chance to hold the egg it was returned to the batch, wrapped up and taken back to the hatchery.

For the next two hours we sat and gazed, watching the female turtle use her strong front flippers to shovel large amounts of sand behind her, filling the hole she had created, protecting her (stolen) eggs. It was spell-binding to watch. So, so magical!!

Granted that spell was broken every so often by the young girl who continued to frustrate us all. At one point she pulled out a sarong and sat directly in front of the turtle. We all tutted but Eko was chatting to the other guides and said nothing. However the turtle stopped filling the hole and remained motionless for a long time, obviously sensing a potential threat.  After quite the standoff Eko did approach the girl and get her to move to the side. While she did, she was still far too close to the turtle’s head by my reckoning. Such blatant disregard just really irked us all.

At 11pm Eko told us that we would have to go soon as they are not allowed to keep people on the beach past midnight. We all wanted to stay and watch the turtle return to the ocean, but we had more than our fair share of viewing time, so begrudgedly we started making our way back down the beach. Eko told us that ten turtles had been spotted tonight. Four of them laying eggs and six scouting.  I was surprised to spot two other turtles a couple of hundred metres apart, well hidden in the sand, but you’d just catch a flick of flying sand and the odd flipper peaking out. Amazing!! This definitely is up there with my most incredible experiences.

Earlier in the week Lu had been trying to recollect a song she knew (The Hole in the Ground by Bernard Cribbins); this was the most apt place ever to sing it softly. She only knew a few lines; but so did we because she recalled it so much in recent days, Hehehe! “There I was, a-diggin’ this ‘ole, ‘ole in the ground, so big and sort o’ round it was, and there was I, diggin’ it deep, it was flat at the bottom and the sides were steep”.  We’re bonkers and giddy, but it’s the earworm for tonight!

The rain began to fall as we made our way back to the 4x4’s. Luckily it was a just a light downpour. We got back to the guest house just before midnight only to discover there was no electricity. Ah yes, I remember someone mentioning that earlier today. I did pack a small LED lantern, where did I put it though. It would have been smart to have set that aside somewhere accessible before heading out this evening. But then I’d have to claim to be smart for that logical action...  

Wednesday 1st November

Early breakfast at 8am, came across an unusual looking fruit, similar to a fig with a sharp tip, so inquisitively I picked it up. Skin was brown and scaly, like that of a snake. Not sure how to approach it I began hacking it with a bread knife. After halving it awkwardly (and nearly losing a finger) I found that the skin peeled away very easily from the pulp. Without the skin, it looked like three cloves of garlic, and in the centre of each clove was a hard inedible seed (like an avocado). The texture was crunchy kinda like a crisp apple, yet the taste was acidic and dry, a bit like a funky pineapple. So weird! I ended up having to Google to find out what it was, low and behold it is affectionately known as Snake Fruit (officially it is called Salak). It is native to Java and is a species of palm. Different, very different. I ended up farming out segments to the rest of the group as I couldn’t manage eating an entire one.

Lu came across Coco Pops and was all thrilled with life. Coco Pops are her favourite food you see. Not mash, not feta, not green beans, but Coco Pops! Hehe, what is she like, every day brings a new favourite food. I have her sussed though! Her favourite is actually food itself. Boom!!!

Ah we do love to poke fun at each other. The guys have been unmerciful in their glee at my poor pronunciation of certain “th” words. Relish any excuse to get me to say ‘three’, ‘thirty’ or ‘third’. I’ve given up trying to catch myself and correctly pronounce them. I can handle the mockery; my shoulders are broad enough. Plus I’m now painfully aware that I use the old English term “ye” a hell of a lot. It’s not the done thing I’m told. Nevertheless I just cannot abide using the word “you” as a plural, even though I know it is grammatically correct, it just sounds wrong. So it’s “ye”, “ye”, “ye” and I just can’t help myself anymore. On reflection, I do use it extensively!!

Lounging by the pool was the order of business for the afternoon. Thankfully I am not feeling any ill effects after yesterday’s exertions. Imagined I’d be crippled. Even my toes have forgiven me, and thankfully the nails seem fine, woo hoo!! 

Tuesday 31st October

On reaching the base of the mountain, we traversed up twisty, steep and narrow roads; no, they weren’t roads, they were trails - barely room for two Jeeps to pass for most of it. Luckily all the traffic was going up at this early hour. Arrived at the Paltuding drop off point around 1:30am. As soon as we left the jeeps we were accosted by guys selling water, gloves, hats, magnets, trinkets and renting out jackets. Robin bought a nice woolly hat with an Ijen logo emblazed on it. Jenny rented a jacket as she didn’t have any suitable warm clothing. We all purchased some gloves, just because it could be cold at the top and we might be hanging around for a while waiting for sunrise, plus they would come in useful for grabbing onto rock faces without cutting fingers.  All kitted up, we headed off.

Kawah Ijen Volcano is among one of the must see sights in Indonesia according to Trip Advisor. It is an active volcano with a lovely turquoise blue caldera lake in the crater. Its highlight is what is known as the “Blue Fire”. Exposure of the volcanic gases and the molten sulfur with the air creates an incredible eerie blue combustion flame visible in the dark. Heights of up to 5 meters can be reached!

The hike was tough but manageable. It was only 3kms in total, but the kicker was a 500m ascent and around a 20 degree incline. Slow and steady was the order of practice. No point tearing off at full pelt.  The main problem was that the ground comprised of loose gravel and scree-like soil. Slippery and hard to get grip in places.

Tony had told us that if the trek was too much there was an option to pay the miners $50 and they would pull you up (or bring you down) in their small two wheeled trolleys. “Taxi, taxi” was all we heard from them. They crowded around slower walkers like vultures, creeping out from the shadows with their calls “taxi, taxi” when you stopped to catch your breath. Robin had joked that he might avail of the service later on; Geoff took great joy in telling him “It’ll only cost $50...and your dignity!”. He’d never live it down if he succumbed. We did spot quite a few older Asian people being hauled up the trail. Watching two poor miners pulling a trolley with ropes around their bellies, like animals, felt a bit slave-esque to me. That being said, the money they would make from that trip would possibly be more than the haul of sulfur they might mine that day. Maybe we should all be doing it?

On the way up Rian told us that in peak season you could find maybe 500 tourists heading to the summit at night. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy when we did it, so you could take your time and not feel pushed or harried along to keep up with the crowd.

At one of our rest stops Rian gave us a bit of local folklore about the region we were in, Banyuwangi, and how it got its name.  He told us how banyu means water and wangi means fragrance, so the region is known as “the fragrant water”.  As with all good folklore the story started with, “Once upon a time...”. I can’t remember the names, but the gist is as follows. Handsome Hand of King marries most beautiful woman in all the kingdom. King lusted after her. Sent Hand off on perilous mission. Hand succeeds. King attempts to force himself onto wife. Hand returns home to witness wife in King’s arms. King lies and says she seduced him, lusting for power. Hand driven mad with jealousy, pulls out knife. Wife swears by the gods that she’s not guilty, beseeching them that if he killed her, her blood would smell of sweet flowers, proving her innocence. Hand kills wife. While washing knife in river he notices that blood smelled of a sweet fragrance, a testament to his beloved’s innocence.  Nice! Right? The scent supposedly seeped into the river water and to this day people still claim to be able to smell the sweet fragrance.

Walking up to the summit it was impressive to look back, into the pitch darkness, and simply see all the little circular dots of lights from the zigzagging torches to show how far we had come and how many switchbacks we must have traversed (but didn’t realise without any visual reference points). We came across many resting miners at the top, they were all keen to show us their loads, and try and sell us tiny trinkets of sulfur.

Rian told us that we could either rest at the top and wait for the sunrise or we could head down into the crater to try and see the blue flames, a 45 minute trek. Jenny decided to stay at the top, but the rest of us opted to go downward. Terrain was a mixture of rock, handmade steps and scree, while all the tourists were going down, all the miners were coming up with huge loads on their backs. We did our best to jump aside and hug a rockface so as not to impede their progress.

On reaching the bottom we were very lucky to witness the blue flames. It was a bit surreal. The flames weren’t plentiful but it was enough to give us the idea. Rian said that the gases often condense into liquid sulfur which continues to burn blue as it flows down the slopes, this gives the impression of flowing lava. I only witness flames, but it was still quite the sight. Some poor tourist shone a fairly powerful light at the flames for a very long time thus rendering it impossible to see the blue hue. They received a snarky “Turn off the light you dick!” from a loud booming disgruntled Aussie voice that reverberated around the crater...hmmm...I wonder who that could have been! Hehe!! Thankfully the yell had the desired effect and the light disappeared post haste, thus bringing the blue hues back into focus for the rest of us. Every so often the wind would change direction and the sulfur fumes would envelop us; nasty rotten egg smelling! Nice!!! Gas masks on, but that didn’t make for easy breathing. As soon as the vapour cloud would pass I whipped off the apparatus.

 

The sky started turning amazing pink and purple colours. Sunrise! We were not going to make it back up to the top in time so we stayed down in the crater instead. As light crept in, the sulfur clouds began to clear and then the lake magically appeared. I had been so distracted by watching the blue flames that I’d almost forgotten about the lake. It kinda snuck up on me! Its gorgeous, murky turquoise colour was a result of the extreme acidity and high concentration of dissolved metals in the water. Swimming is not advised as you can imagine! Well it is the largest acidic lake in the world.

While the sights were incredible, it was also a humbling experience seeing the miners working. The men do two daily trips up the volcano, down into the crater, fill their twin bamboo baskets with up to 90kg of sulfur, balanced on their shoulders, and then begin the tough ascent out of the crater, load their trolley at the summit and finally traverse down the slippery switchback slopes to the local refinery at the entrance. I was agog to see some miners in flip-flops! None had gas masks, most using wet cloths to protect their noses and mouths. All of them were smoking like chimneys, but this was for good reason apparently. The clove-like cigarettes (called kretek) helped them to handle the sulfur filled air. Many would stop along their trek up the crater and try to sell us small sculptures made of sulfur. I purchased a small rose shaped mould from a young mute lad who was keen to show me the bruises and dents in his shoulder blade from carrying the ridiculous weights of sulfur. I had to ask Rian what the sulfur was used for as I was clueless: a cosmetic ingredient, and also used in insecticides. By the way, the going rate for sulfur is about 5c-7c per kilo! So that’s around €6.00 for a 90kg load!! Since most miners do the trek twice a day, they earn about €12.00 – I am so freakin’ privileged...

 

Climbing back out of the crater was grand. I’m good with up. Up is doable. Where I do not do well, is the descent. That’s never fun. My poor toes were being pounded into the tops of my runners. Each step was ouch. I feared for the safety of my big toenails!! (Most of you will be aware of how I lost both of these over 5 years ago trekking in Torres del Paine – they did grow back, but I feel like I am in danger of losing them again today...). When I wasn’t thinking about my toe nails, I was doing almighty acrobatic wobbles, and hilarious cartoon-like dual hand circular spins trying to retain my balance as I slipped and slithered down the scree surface. I lost track of the amount of times I nearly careened into Robin. (My ploy might have been for him to cushion my forward acceleration if that so happened, however as it was I should have been more worried about falling backwards!). “Bend your knees and lean forward” he told me. Easier said than done, it seemed counter-intuitive to lean forward, so I kept subconsciously leaning backwards, over compensating my centre of gravity. In the end I adopted a zigzag downward approach that lengthened the descent tenfold but helped in the deceleration. Fun times! Still, at least I had appropriate footwear!! I saw guys in loafers and girls in espadrilles and ballet pumps! BALLET PUMPS!!!! I despair about many young people, and the lack of common sense these days – despite its name, it’s a lot less common than you might imagine...

Anyway, I decided to hang back and wait for Jenny and Geoff, needed to give my toes some respite. After waiting a nice amount of time there was no sign of them, no doubt they might have had the exact same idea. I continued down the trail and came across Tony who was chuckling away to himself. What was so funny I asked. He told me that Robin had caved, paid a miner and hopped into a trolley heading down the hill. All it cost him was his dignity, but he was prepared to pay that price. Really? Hmmm... I can’t quite believe it. Tony pulls out his camera and shows me a photo of Robin grinning on a trolley. Hmmm... Now I know Robin might have been severely tempted, but there’s no way he would tolerate the abuse Geoff and Tony would give him. Nope, I’m not falling for that story. Fess up Mr. Hays! I smell a rat. Sure enough, Robin came out grinning from behind a ditch. A more believable story might have been he turned his ankle on the way down and needed the lift. Hehe! Tis a fab photo though. The Prince of Guernsey in his chariot. 

When we all got back to Paltuding base camp at 8:30am Rian gave us the option to stop by a coffee plantation and a waterfall. We were all tired and the idea of missing our (inclusive) buffet breakfast was quite distressing, so we politely asked to return to the hotel.

We rocked back to the hotel at 9:30am, just enough time to catch the end of the breakfast. Most of us didn’t bother returning to the hotel room, just headed straight for the food. No consideration of the other poor guests as we absolutely reeked of sulfur, but thankfully couldn’t smell it ourselves.

There was some weird green sliced pan bread on offer at the bakery section. Obviously made from pandan, I grabbed a slice out of curiosity. No discernable taste from it, purely an unusual colour. After food it was a case of return to the room, shower and try and get rid of the smell, then sleep for a couple of hours.

Woke around 2pm and headed to the (deserted) pool. Chilled there for a few hours, until the sun started dropping from the sky around 4pm!! Wow, it gets dark over here quite early. There is an hour time difference between East Java and Bali. Still evenings were longer across the water. It’s also noticeably less humid and cooler over here than in Pemuteran.  Not quite jumper weather, but there’s a definite temperature drop – only a few degrees, but noticeable.

At dinner we learned that the hotel was celebrating its 23^rd Anniversary, there was live music and we were given a few slices of chocolate cake. Tonight is Halloween and as you can imagine there is no reference here of it.