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.