Under the Volcano

Trip Start Nov 01, 2006

115

179

Trip End Oct 31, 2007

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Where I stayed

Lava View Lodge Probolinggo

(Probolinggo hotels)

Flag of Indonesia Cemoro Lawang (Mount Bromo), Indonesia
Saturday, May 26, 2007

The Java of my dreams has always been a place of perfect conical volcanoes, lined up one after the other, as you head west to east. This search for volcanoes was, together with the historic architectural centres of Borobudur and Prambanan, the main reason for my wanting to come here (and hence for dragging Rach along too), instead of just heading straight for the touristic bliss of Bali and Lombok. In the long haul from Jakarta at the far west of the island to Mount Bromo close to its eastern edge there have been more than a few moments where we wondered if we had done the right thing. Java is not - by comparison with the other SE Asian countries we've visited - an especially easy country to travel in. It doesn't get many tourists (relative to other parts), it's hugely overcrowded, there's a lot of hassle, and it's very hard to come by all those little comforts which - after nearly 7 months of travelling - I can safely say we need (I'm talking about things like internet cafes; clean, well-kept guesthouses; and the occasional break from having to have rice at every meal)

01 Fronting up to Bromo

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And then today it was all, instantly, made worthwhile.

Inauspiciously perhaps, our alarm woke us at 3.45am. We put on all the clothes we had with us and our so far rarely-seen walking shoes and stepped out into the freezing night. The village of Cemoro Lawang is over 2000m in altitude and nights are cold. We crept out of our guesthouse and headed down the path towards the ash plain below Mount Bromo. We passed a small hut where a man was working - unenvied hours - whose job it was to collect our admission fees for the Bromo National Park. We continued down the path, our small flashlight our only source of light, until a convoy of jeeps overtook us hurtling downhill with their cargo of somewhat wealthier tourists. The jeeps bathed us - momentarily - in powerful lamplight and for a split-second we could see down the pathway before us. And then they were gone and all was darkness again.

Once onto the so-called Sea of Ash we searched the night for the marker stones that would lead us to the foot of Mount Bromo. Turning our attention back away from the wash of stars overhead we eventually found an uneven line of stones ahead of us and followed them. Behind us the faintest of glows appeared above the mountains as the dawn followed us to the volcano. A few carelessly laid (or moved?) stones nearly took us straight up the gully-filled slope of the mountain to the left of the main path but we realised the mistake, retraced our steps, and ignored the local horseman who appeared out of the night and, in chagrin at our refusing to hire him as a guide, pointed us in what - we later realised - had been completely the wrong direction

02 Ground turned gold (at Bromo, sunrise)

. In the growing light of day we finally found the 250-odd fixed steps leading up to the crater's edge and we puffed our way up, fighting off the strong sulphur fumes.

As we peered over the dubiously fixed fencework into the yawning crater below smoke billowed up towards us and we edged back nervously. Suddenly Rachel was tugging my arm. I turned and there was the sun itself, appearing over the mountains to the east. In minutes the ground around us turned gold and the neighbouring volcanic mountain of Batok, to our left as we faced the sun, lost its sepia tones and became a lush green. Sunrise over Bromo - simply stunning.

Later that day, after returning to our guesthouse for a leisurely morning's reading and a little sleep for Rach, we wandered up the hill towards the Lava View Lodge (the sister hotel to the Lava Cafe, where we were staying). Just beyond the lodge there is a viewing platform with panoramas across the Sea of Ash to the summits of Bromo, Batok and - behind them and more distant - Semeru, Java's tallest volcano. As we watched something in the scene changed. It took a moment to see what it was and then my jaw dropped as out of the top of Semeru rose a perfect, vertical cloud of smoke and ash into the blue sky above. We had arrived in the land of volcanoes. (T)