Seloliman Nature Reserve and Mount Bromo

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On Saturday the 9th of July, the group were packed, fed, watered and ready to go by 8:30am!! Not my usual Saturday morning but this is far from normal life.
As I have come expect, no journey is short and this coach trip was no exception. The only difference was that the coach was comfortable and, at every possible opportunity, people would get on the coach and walk up and down the isles selling there wares. This consisted of mostly snacks and drinks but there were the occasional newspaper. After buying a large pack of coconut sugar coated peanuts (yum) and finding that the middle few layers were cardboard (D'oh), I learned a valuable lesson; check what you buy is what you think it is before the woman gets out of sight - It was only about 65p so I wasn't too bothered.
Lunch was had at a pitstop and we finally arrived at the Seloliman nature reserve about 8pm where we were shown straight to our rooms.
The accommodation was really cool (as you can see from the photos), each room was a single room bungalow with a double bed and 2 singles in each room with mosquito nets built in.
The bathroom consisted of a garden with all the fixtures and fittings out in the open with a retaining wall being the only thing separating us from the reserve - In addition, my bathroom had a complementary guard frog to protect our soap.
Being out in the wild, it wasn't long before one of the girls required some manly assistance............... as there was only Simon and I, I stepped up to the challenge..........They had a big, hairy spider in their room which and fast as you like! I had been told it was harmless but after seeing it I was not too sure about that! I managed to trick it into running into a glass with a feather duster and, after giving it the name "Barry", I released it outside.
The remainder of that evening consisted of a video about the reserve, buffet and more bintang.
After a couple of callouts for removing an ugly worm from one of the girls room and trying to find another "Barry" in the other girls room we retired for the night to the sound of the wild (Crickets, bird songs and other foresty sounds) - it's amazing how that manic, sporadic sound can be so relaxing.
Another early start the following day, preceded by a shower with butterflies flying around you and a picturesque view from the cabin of the surrounding mountains, meant that we could do a tour of the nature reserve, local rice paddies and local village before the sun got too hot.
During the reserve tour, the guide talked us through the history of the reserve, it's pupose and all the services they provide to the local community including electricity generated by a hydroelectric plan.
The highlight of the local village walk was most certainly a visit to the village coffee shop (or the house of the lady who provides the village with coffee). She was a 92 year old woman who lived in a bamboo shack. She was quite amazing, the energy she put into crushing the coffee beans with a piece of bamboo would put most western middle aged people to shame and, to add to that, the coffee was great!
After lunch our guide made us Sultan's tea which was, from memory, a combination of rose wood, ginger, lemon grass, nutmeg and a couple of other ingredients where we carried on the discussion from the tour about Jamu - herbal medicine.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent in a minivan which took us to a hotel called "Yoschi's" at the base of mount bromo. The temperature was much lower at this altitude and the village surrounding the hotel was how I expect Tibet would be like.
That evening I was reminded of home by the curry I ordered for dinner tasting like chip shop curry sauce however that reminder was quickly dispersed by the hotel owner (who is a Shamen) and his band taking to the middle of the restaurant and playing a mixture of Raggae, pop and local music. They were pretty good!
The next morning, our door was knocked at what seemed to be 5 minutes after I got to sleep. It was 3:10am and we had just over three quarters of an hours to get ourselves together and have something to eat and drink before we headed out in the 4x4s to Mount Bromo.
Once the 4x4s had bounced us to the base of the viewpoint we fought our way through people offering us horses to take us up to the view point. The path consisted of a ledge which was dodgy for people to walk up, let alone horses; so I took my chances with my feet..
The summit of the viewpoint was littered with stalls selling coffee, snacks and battered bananas to which I took up the first and last of.
Watching the sunrise over mount Bromo (the smoking one) and mount Semeru (the one to the right of Bromo) has to be the single most breathtaking view I have ever experienced! The pictures, as epic as they are, do not do this moment justice and it is something I will never forget!
Once the sun was up, we made our way down the viewpoint and hopped back into the Jeeps for the pile inducing journey across the ash desert to the base of mount Bromo.
We were very lucky with this trip as the volcano usual only emits a small plume of smoke. Today, however, it was really showing it's power.
We were hesitant to climb it but the wind was blowing the ash away from the designated climbing area so we set off up Bromo.
At the top we were greeted, strangely, by what sounded like the sea.......this was in fact the sound of the lava flowing around inside the volcano.
Without the health and safety legislation we have back home, and without a safety rail, we quite easily could have fallen into the obyss of this not so dormant volcano!
On the return down the volcano I decided to take up the offer of a pony ride once we had reached the more flat section.....................10 minutes, 1 sore ass and a very tired little pony later I was back at the Jeep kinda wishing I had just walked.......All this and it was barely 9am!
After breakfast back at Yoschi's we loaded our bags on the minibus and started the 3 hour +/- 3 hour (Indonesian estimation) journey to Lovinia!

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Photos

Seloliman Nature Reserve Accomodation
Basic

Inside Mount Bromo
Shame we couldn't see lava through the smoke