Java

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Hello All

Since we last wrote, we have become Auntie and Uncle - Baby Girl Hobbs (no decision on name yet as far as I have heard) arrived two days early on 1st November. And she's gorgeous!!

Meanwhile, we have been touring around East Java. We flew straight into Yogyakarta from Sulawesi, avoiding spending any time in Jakarta which doesn't sound like a very pleasant place for a tourist.

Yogyakarta was great and the base from which to visit the ancient Buddhist temple at Borobadur and the ancient Hindu temple at Prambanan. Both were impressive, although Prambanan was badly damaged by an earthquake in 2006 and was being given some major repair work. We arrived at Borobadur at 6am, just as the sun was coming up, and it was very atmospheric in the early morning light, with the mist swirling all around us and the hundreds of Buddhas. The rice paddy countryside on the way there was also very pretty.

After Yogyakarta, it was time for some volcanoes. We travelled to a village close to Gunung (Mount) Bromo, and got up in time to start walking at 4am, in the dark. The route crosses a 'sand sea' - a caldera plateau made up of volcanic ash - and we quickly got lost in the dark, along with a group of Indonesian students from Surabaya! But as the sun started to light the sky, we found our way across via a slightly roundabout route and walked up the steep slopes of the Bromo crater, which emits a continuous plume of steam. The mists were sitting on the plateau, but from above we had views across to the other, bigger, volcanoes all around and spent a few hours wandering around the rims of the huge craters.

The next morning we walked up another volcano, Gunung Penanjakan, a longer and harder climb starting at 3.30am, but worth it for the views of all the volanoes including Bromo. The biggest, Gunung Semeru, has a minor eruption every 20 minutes, so we saw a few of those!

And then it was on to the third volcano we had decided to climb - Kawah Ijen. We stayed overnight in a coffee plantation, where we had a tour of the factory and sampled some of the local brew, then set off for another early start at 4am. This volcano has a sulphur mine in the side of the crater and there were lots of miners trekking up and down the volcano carrying heavy loads (70kg) of bright yellow sulphur in baskets on their shoulders. The crater itself is filled with a hot turquoise lake which was amazing to see. We also had views all the way down to the coast of Java.

After all that culture and exercise we have returned to Bali for some beach time, and are now in Lovina on the north coast. Only one more week in Indonesia before our visas run out and we move on to Oz and NZ.

Lots of love to everyone
Kirst and Tim xx

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