63) The sulphurous world of Mount Bromo

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September 3rd 2005

Published: September 25th 2005

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Stephan and Klaudia

Tengger Caldera

Mt Bromo crater is the grey cone in the left background, Batok cone in centre

We left Yogyakarta with a pinch of regret, it had been such a pleasant place to stay. But once again we were wanderers, new environments were ahead, and this thought also excited us. We learnt that there were six passengers in the minibus, but we were the first ones to be picked up and thus could secure the best seats. The second couple was picked up in Yogyakarta’s second tourist agglomeration close to the train station. But where was the third couple? The driver had some trouble finding them, looking for them all over the second place. After a couple of phone calls and further investigations it turned out that they were waiting in a hotel close to ours, so we speedily headed back, having in the meantime lost almost one hour of precious time. We cannot understand why they leave only at 9 a.m. when the journey is that long. Although we were in the minibus for practically the whole day, nothing extraordinary struck us apart from the fact that Java is very densely populated - in fact more densely than the Netherlands, Europe’s most densely populated region - and that we were most of the time stuck in heavy

Waiting for the sunrise at 2,700 m

The Indonesians were muffled up like skiers, not accustomed to the relatively low temperatures

traffic. We had been told so by many fellow travellers before but experienced it for the first time on our own, having avoided the roads on Java so far, except the short excursions from Yogyakarta. Already for a considerable time before arriving at Mount Bromo, we had spotted volcanoes all along the main traffic artery through Java which we were taking. As a matter of fact, the whole Indonesian archipelago is crossed by an impressive volcanic ridge, many volcanoes are extinct but a high number is still active, remember Krakatao? We first stopped in Probolinggo, the nearest big town on the main road close to Mount Bromo. There we proved that we had paid for then trip, chose a hotel and changed driver. One more hour of driving lay before us. All the way up from the bottom of Mount Bromo, the small road was lined with settlements, many of them looking like Indonesian holiday homes. These settlements actually grew more and more touristy the closer to the top we moved. We should soon find out why. Our hotel Café Lava looked very nice and also had hot water although the contrary had been stated. That was quite a relief

The first light

At first, the sky turned purple...

since we would not have appreciated a cold shower in the cool mountain climate at 2400m. We had quick dinner with the French couple who stayed at then same place. That evening we went to bed quite early, our next day would start at 3:30 a.m. (for the sunrise) and furthermore we were quite nauseated by the sulphurous vapours that filled the air. The local people preferred the clean air of the green slopes to the devilish evaporations on top of the active volcano. Klaudia was far from chiding them, she had a huge problem with breathing and hoped it would be better in the morning.

We did not sleep particularly well, it had simply been too cold with just one blanket and our summer pyjamas. When the wakeup call came, we were quickly on our feet and dressed even more quickly, finally we were warm! Only then did we realise that somebody had knocked on our door one hour in advance, when we were ready to go it was only 2:45! We did not know what to do in the hour left, so we cuddled up in one bed under two blankets and were finally not freezing. Of

Here comes the sun

...then grey with the first glimpse of gold

course we fell asleep again and would have slept in had the French couple not woken us up in time. We crept into the rickety jeep with sleepy eyes but very excited about our first sunrise of the whole trip. Before ascending the Gunung Pananjakan viewpoint from which one had the best view of the plain dotted with volcanoes forming the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, we had to cross a wide stretch of sand called ‘sea of sand’. We could also have skipped the jeep trip and the viewpoint, and instead crossed the sea of sand on foot and then watched the sunrise from the edge of Mount Bromo’s crater, but that seemed to be less spectacular though cheaper, and we were supposed to climb the active volcano anyway afterwards. But we had not booked the jeep with the travel agency, they had definitely overpriced it (IRP 50,000) and instead directly negotiated with the driver and thus got it for IRP 30,000 per person. Even if this alternative had not presented itself, there are plenty of jeeps and motorbikes available, the population lives on tourism to a very high extent. It’s always worthwhile shopping around and not simply accept the first

Freezing Klaudia

She did as all the Indonesians around us. When in Rome...

offer. You have no problems detecting that you were approaching the viewpoint, suddenly trinket and food stalls mushroom up, they are open very early for business. We were not aware that we had chosen a particular date, namely a long free weekend around the important day of Mohammed’s ascension, until we saw the crowds! Actually we first spotted the sheer amount of vehicles parked closely packed at both sides of the narrow road. There were definitely 200 of them and considering that a jeep or minibus can hold up to six persons easily, you know what we are talking about… Upon our departure we furthermore saw that many motorbikes had arrived or were arriving to pick up those Indonesians who had ascended the same way! It was dark, it was chilly, we were wearing several layers of clothing (t-shirt, sweater and jacket, we did not have more warm clothes), but for the freezing Indonesians used to high temperatures, all kinds of winter jackets, scarves, gloves and caps were offered for hire. And the local people were muffled up, they looked as if they were about to step onto the next skiing piste, only the snow and the skis were missing!

Sunrise over the Tengger Caldera

Hazy view on the volcanoes that we had just started to discern

We managed to find a spot with perfect visibility but it was not so easy to secure it. Daylight slowly started creeping in, the sky changed colour, from dim purple to all shades of orange, by and by we could discern the landscape beneath our feet, Mount Bromo’s wide crater and several other volcanoes in a perfect conic shape. To tell the truth, we thought Mount Bromo to be the beautiful cone close to it, Mount Batok, only when we had left the viewpoint we found out the truth. But this ignorance did in no way spoil the beauty of the sunrise, from complete darkness until the moment when the first rays of the newborn sun gilded the trees. We were no longer freezing nor sleepy, nature’s beauty simply filled us to the rim, there was nothing else to be wished for.

Ready to climb the 200-odd stairs leading up to the crater, we climbed into the jeep buzzing with energy. We would have managed without problems, had the jeep not deserted us. All of us had scoffed at another jeep that had broken down ahead of us and blocked the road, now it was our turn. The driver

Trees before a colourful sky

The colours in the sky changed incredibly fast

somehow managed to make it run again, but not for long, the second time he needed the assistance of another driver, and the clock kept ticking. We had to be in Probolinggo by 10 a.m. in order to start the second part of our trip to Bali on a public bus. Would we have the time to walk around the crater’s edge and stare into the fuming underworld? All of us kept wondering. When the jeep was miraculously brought back into life, we could only advance at snail’s speed, otherwise it was too dangerous for the engine which kept producing troublesome exploding noises. In the end we hardly had half an hour left, the Dutch couple took a small horse to the bottom of the stairs, but both the French and us declined to do it all in such a rush, actually we soon gave up the idea of seeing the crater. Klaudia could hardly breathe with the sulphur around, her heart was beating very fast and she had problems to move. When all of us were in the jeep again, it gave no sign of life at all and the driver walke away without a word, probably either to

Hello sunshine!

Let's greet the newborn sun

get a mechanic or an alternative means of transport. The Dutch stayed behind in the jeep waiting, but the others decided to walk back to the hotel, it was supposed to be at rather close distance. We were overtaken by some jeeps, but all of them were packed, and never our jeep came our way. When we were halfway up the steepest part, a jeep with the Dutch couple inside stopped, and one person could get in. Klaudia did, the others kept walking. The Dutch had told us that they had had problems with transport ever since they left heir country, and it was no different this time. After a couple of metres the jeep with them and Klaudia inside also broke down, and they were forced to walk after all. If Klaudia had known how near the hotel was, she would never have climbed into the second jeep... Anyway we could enjoy our breakfast in peace, and it turned out to be the best we had had in Indonesia so far. We had already pondered the idea of taking the bus a day later, as we had sort of an open ticket, and the good food made the decision

Golden sunlight

The first sunbeams filter through the trees

even easier. We were not willing to eat humble pie, after all we had come all the way from Yogyakarta to peep into a crater!

Klaudia had to have a rest, the sulphur had made her quite light-headed, but Stephan was set upon exploring the beautiful surroundings of the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. He came back very enthusiastic and dragged Klaudia along to show her what he had seen. So we set out for a long hike along the volcano’s caldera, surrounded by lush green trees, shrubs and beautiful flowers, accompanied by the sweet singing of birds. We constantly had breath-taking views on the plain beneath our feet, Mount Bromo, other volcanoes and in the distance the equally well-known Mount Semeru which emits clouds of steam every 10-15 minutes. Klaudia spotted a shrub carrying the first black berries of the season, and since she had seen locals eating them, nothing could keep her from filling her tummy with these sweet delicacies. And as she is able to give an account of all this, they were not poisonous... We had admired the sun rise this morning and were determined to see it set as well, so we stayed around for a

Smoking Semeru

The highest volcano in the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park (3,676m) emits such clouds every 10-15 minutes

rather long time. The sunset was much less spectacular than the sunrise, there were simply too many clouds in the sky. Still we lingered until we could hardly discern the path, our attention had been captured by mysterious lines of fire in the distance. Small fires kept burning on the ground in semi-circles, and others flickered up from time to time in a vertical line. We racked our brains what this could possibly mean and came to the romantic conclusion that we were watching lava streaming down a cleavage in one of the volcanoes nearby. Maybe we had inhaled too much sulphur during the day... Later on somebody offered a more prosaic explanation, namely that a farmer was burning his field on the slope of a hill. After long and intensive consideration we have come to embrace the latter explanation. Sorry folks, no lava this time, maybe another time in another region of the world. We ordered dinner in our hotel since we had much appreciated the breakfast, the service was very good and the staff nice and attentive. Where we met three Mexican friends, after hearing them speak Latin American Spanish we addressed them. We chatted with hem for

Batok volcanic cone

The extinct and deeply eroded, ca. 150m high Batok volcanic cone inside the caldera (Bromo on the left in the background)

hours about all topics that came into our minds, them being very interesting persons, an author, an editor and a university teacher of English. Apart from practising our Spanish we spent a delightful evening and our only regret is that we did not exchange addresses, believing that we would see each other again next morning.

As Klaudia could not stand the sulphur very well, Stephan intended to go up to Mount Bromo for another sunrise on his own. He did not set an alarm believing that again people around would be woken up at 3:30 a.m. but he was mistaken, everything was quiet and so he woke up only at 4:30. This was quite late for the sunrise but he would not let go and hired a horse from the hotel to the sand of sea, close to a Hindu temple standing isolated in the middle of the sand. The Café Lava and other tourist places are situated on the rim of the Tengger caldera, a caldera being a volcanic feature formed by the collapse of a volcano into itself. Calderas may be filled with water, creating crater lakes, the word caldera comes from a Spanish word meaning ‘cauldron’.

Mount Bromo's crater

Should you have problems detecting it, it is the one hiding coyly in the background

From there you first have to make a steep descent before reaching the sea of sand and climb up again to the edge of Mount Bromo’s crater. Stephan was fascinated by the small horse’s agility at walking the very steep road in the dark, furthermore he was glad to be on horseback because this way he was not obliged to use the same paths as the vehicles and did not have to swallow the sand after them. Climbing the stairs was by itself not very physically demanding, but unfortunately the wind blew the sulphur precisely onto the stairs, which made Stephan’s lungs burn and breathing rather difficult. But he did not give in and was rewarded with fresh air as soon as he had reached the crater. This morning Mount Bromo looked very deserted, all the Indonesians had got back home and Stephan was almost the only one up there. He walked around the crater’s edge at leisure, admiring the almost lunar scenery and taking loads of pictures. He came to talk to a Frenchman about photographic techniques and the pros and cons of digital cameras. We enjoy meeting others when travelling, you meet people of all walks of life

Volcanic panorama

The light grey one to the left is Mount Bromo, the brown cone is Mount Batok

and many nationalities, which makes it a very enriching experience.

Although this sunrise was not as wonderful as the one the day before due to many clouds, Stephan came back to the hotel fascinated. After another copious breakfast we got into the minibus that would bring us to Probolinggo, happy about having seats because we had had some doubts that it would work out. On the way down we were even happier about our decision to stay, the landscape is just overwhelming! Forests all around you, as well as fields of different crops, mainly vegetables since rice does not grow at such an altitude, on even the steepest slopes; in addition to that, nice small settlements with beautiful traditional houses. We were rather sad to arrive on the big city and even wished we would have stayed longer around Mount Bromo and made more elaborate hikes. In our opinion, the Indonesian tourism industry makes a big mistake in rushing foreign tourists through Mount Bromo in so short time, there is more to see than a volcano’s crater! The big AC bus to Bali was a bit late but this was no problem, and we really had seats on it,

Sand Sea

The flat bottom of the caldera, called "Sand Sea" and Bromo in the background

good organisation after all. The only flaw was that merely two minutes before the bus’s arrival we were informed that we had to pay for lunch that had been prepared for us, there was no way avoiding this. From the six of us, two revolted against the price they considered too high, and refused to comply. We agreed with them to a certain degree, but were fed up with fighting. What really annoyed us was the cowardice, they always take you by surprise and leave you with your back to the wall, as if they were not sure of themselves and their cause. The food was not good but edible and we had to eat anything after all, so we soon forgot about this unpleasant event. What counted most was that the bus took us to the ferry to Bali.

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