Mount Ijen

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It's a 1am start for a 1 hour drive up in a Jeep with MrYono to Kawah Ijen. The walk trail is steep, slippery and it's dark. Fortunately there is a nice moon and its not too cold. The says sign says it's only 3kms, but I doubt that.

There are no porters on the trail as yet, and we just a few tourists. We reach the crater rim about 1000mt climb about 3:30am. From here its a straight drop 300mts into the crater floor and where they mine....or more correctly hack out the sulphur with picks.

The sulphur deposit glows bright blue as if it's on fire - hence the name fire and brimstone! Lake Ijen is turquoise and very acidic, but in the moonlight of 4am it also glows eerily. It's an amazing

It's another kilometer around the rim of the crater to the opposite side giving a better view of the mine and lake, but go too far and you'll overcome by the sulphur fumes.

The sun is rising behind us lighting up Mt ?? and the savanna we crossed yesterday. As we start down the hill the porters are carrying their loads of sulphur up out over the rocky, shaly rim that and down the very slippery 3ks to the unloading area. The sulphur is remarkably heavy and in their two baskets which hang from either end of a bamboo pole is between 50 and 80 kgs. These quite small but obviously tough little men haul this out for 700 rupees a kg.......about $6.00 a trip.

We have trouble hauling ourselves and a 2kg pack up the hill and then it's somewhat worse coming down because it's so slippery.

Breakfast is a box supplied by the hotel and cup of a tea from and the little waring and we're off back down the hill, past coffee plantations, cigarette paper trees, clove trees, and a bullock team in the rice fields.....yah!!!! always wanted to see that.

Shower and pack and we're off for the 8 hour trip to Mt Bromo and another early start. The 'Java Banana' is cool new but hotel built on the side of the crater. The ingenuity of these people is amazing!

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Photos

"Blue Fire" in Ijen Crater at 3:30 am
Heard of 'fire and brimstone' from the sulphur mines? well this is it - the sulphur is on fire and belching horrid smoke.

Ijen Crater Lake
Even though the Lake is a gorgeous aqua, it is incredibly acidic. (Sulfuric Acid 0.5 pH - worse than battery acid ). The plume you see is steam, hydrogen dioxide from the burning pits, and of course hydrogen sulfide.