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Published: March 20th 2013
This was a real adventure… and quite dangerous one.
We set out from Pemuteran early in the morning: half an hour drive to the ferry, an hour by ferry to Java and then 1,5 hour jeep drive to the crater. The ferry trip took a bit of courage. It was full of locals and almost all of them were smoking. The only place with fresh air was the upper deck. The ferry itself was going by some strange route. It would actually take about 15 minutes to get from Bali to Java if go straight. But this was not the case. The ferry was drawing zigzag and circle patterns on water, sometimes turning back to Bali. We thought the ferry captain was drunk. But our driver explained that the ferry was just waiting for a free place to moor, because there are not enough piers.
When we finally got to Ijen volcano, it was about 9.30am. Porters with baskets full of sulphur across their shoulders were going down from the crater one by one.
It took us about 45-50 minutes to go up to the crater. Usually it takes longer, but there is one trick that I’ve learnt
when trekking in the Himalayas. Never feel discontent or self-pity that it’s hard to walk – and it will no longer be hard. When I look around admiring the view or when I imagine that the earth is a living creature and it enjoys people walking on it – it gets easy to walk and I don’t even notice the distance.
The forest on volcano slope was green and the sun was shining but as we got closer to the crater the landscape changed. The sun got closed by smoke clouds and the trees had fewer and fewer leaves.
On the edge of the crater the scene looked truly infernal. Bare crooked trees and bushes, roots snaking along the ground, sulphur-smelling fog everywhere. We couldn’t see anything in 10 meters.
It became difficult to breathe because of high concentration of sulphur in the fog, the throat was burning, so we had to put on masks soaked in water. Dry masks give poor protection from sulphur smoke but when the mask is wet, you even almost don’t feel the smell.
So we were contemplating the diabolic surroundings when a sulphur carrier like a ghost appeared
out of the fog… “They go in there?!!” – I thought. “They go there every day? What a hell of a work!” And the thing that surprised me most – he was not wearing any mask! He didn’t even try to cover his face with the cloth hanging around his neck.
When the wind blew away some of the fog, we started the descent to the crater. My friends had already been there before and knew the way. But anyway the path was easily seen because many porters were going up.
There were huge sulphur stones everywhere – mostly grayish-yellow, some of them green, some even white. The way was steep but quite easy. While we walked, the fog cleared, and we saw the lake of amazing bright-green color. And smoke going from its shore. And some activity around the smoke source. Yea, that was the sulphur mine.
At the sulphur mine That was unforgettable experience to see how liquid sulphur flows right out of the ground – bright red or boiling dark brown. And it gradually changes color as it cools down, becomes light orange and finally yellow.
The workers
made special pipes, and sulphur flows from underground through them – so it would be convenient to collect it. Sulphur streams form small pools and as they become cool, hard and yellow, they break pieces off and load them into baskets.
They also made kind of smoke deflectors out of metal tanks. So the smoke, bursting out from underground, goes mostly up, not all around. But sometimes smoke clouds cover almost all the place because of wind.
Again I was surprised that only one of the workers was wearing a respirator. All the others were not, and would only bite a piece of cloth and breathe through their teeth when smoke covered them. I can’t imagine what they must feel and what a mess they must have instead of lungs. When by accident I had a breath without mask I felt my nose and throat burning.
One of the workers showed us that it’s possible to put your hands into the lake with no harm. I thought it would be dangerous but it turned out that the concentration of sulphuric acid in the lake is quite low. The hands were just a little itching after
that, so we washed them with water from our bottle. The water was very hot and the lake surface was steaming.
These workers also earn money by making small sulphur souvenirs. You can ask them to make a special stalactite souvenir for you and watch how they make it. If you give them 1-2$ for that, they’ll be happy )
While we were taking photos and enjoying this unique experience the wind changed and
the sulphur mine together with the path started to fade in smoke. We spilled water on our masks and started to climb out of the crater, but the smoke became more and more heavy. At first I thought we could run away from it, climb up faster than it would cover us completely. But it got difficult to breathe in the mask: fast climbing requires more oxygen. And it was impossible not only to take the mask off, but even to stop pressing it tightly to the face. If there was even a small gap, the smoke leaked under the mask and the throat was burning again. I got really scared.
Soon I was out of breath and had to climb
up very slowly, stopping to catch the breath after every 2 steps. I was almost in panic. How long will the path be covered? What if the wind doesn’t change?
Later I understood that trying to run from the smoke was my mistake. Of course it got difficult to breathe when I tried to climb as fast as possible! I should have walked slowly or even stop. The wind changes often there. In 10 minutes after this happened the path was clear again. There was no need to panic.
Eventually we climbed out of the smoke, the wind blew it away, and we had a chance to see the green lake from above before we left.
The safety rules in case you want to descend into the crater: 1.
Put on a mask and take a bottle of water with you to make it wet when it gets dry. Dry mask gives poor protection from sulphuric smoke.
2. The stones in the crater are covered with sulphur. If you touch them, or if you touch pieces of sulphur, or put your hands in the water of the lake –
don’t touch your eyes after that!
3. When you are down near the lake,
do not inhale the smoke coming from the pipes – the concentration of sulphur there is so huge, you can get your lungs burnt
even in a mask!
On our way back we saw a group of porters having a rest. They asked us for cigarettes. Do you get the irony? They have their lungs burnt by sulphuric acid every day and it’s not enough for them! they smoke!
My thoughts about sulphur carriers They do have the worst job I’ve seen, probably the worst one in the world. Every day they carry extremely heavy baskets up from the crater to the volcano edge and then all the way down to the road. They inhale poisonous volcanic smoke day by day. It makes them get old faster than all people do. The guides say that they don’t live more than 40-45 years, because their lungs are burnt and eroded by sulfuric acid. And they get paid no more than 4-5$ a day for that!
But you know, I don’t feel sorry for them at all. Nobody makes them do this,
they choose this life themselves! They don’t do their best to find another job, don’t try to move to some other place.
Of course you may say, their life is so hard, they are so poor, they do this so their families could survive and don’t have any choice. But try to put yourself in their place – would you under any circumstances go for this job? I wouldn’t. There is always a choice. I would find another solution; I would do anything not to have to slowly kill myself like they do.
And the fact that they smoke and don’t even try to cover their faces when going through clouds of volcanic gas – it all shows they just don’t give a shit about their life. And in the end they also don't care about their families who will lose their fathers/husbands sooner than normal.
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Anastasia78
Anastasia78
Great blog!
Really well written and informative. Love the photos too. I look forward to following your many adventures! Keep up the good work! :)