Saturday, October 1, 2011

Bromo & Ijen


 We set off the next morning to Mount Bromo on the first of our long bus journeys.  We were joined by our Swiss friend Chris who had mentioned that he was doing the same tour as us.  The minibus was full and the A.C. didn’t work, it was a hot sweaty arduous 10 hour bus ride.  We finally got to our Hotel at around 9pm and managed to get dinner just before they closed the restaurant.  We got an early night, not relishing the fact that we were due to get up at 4am for sunrise. 

We had organised a jeep to take us to a view point of Mount Bromo for sunrise, after which we would be taken down to the smoking crater.  As soon as we got in the jeep we realised that everybody else had the same idea.  There must have been over a hundred jeeps ferrying everybody up to the view point.  The early morning silence was broken with the sound of noisy engines.  When we arrived at our destination we were met with a legion of tourists vying for space on a purpose built platform.  Nev was horrified, and I was a bit disheartened by the sheer number of people we had to share the sunrise with.  We found a path leading off from the platform and climbed up toward the top of a nearby summit.  Some other people had the same idea, but we climbed faster and further and finally found a secluded spot from where we could take in the scenery in peace.  Chris had managed to join us, he took longer than us to find the path and was out of breath and sweating when he caught up with us after jogging all the way up.  Although Nev might not think so, when we witnessed the awe inspiring sight of Mount Bromo complete with a huge crater bellowing smoke out of it, the trip seemed worthwhile.  It was a bit overcast so the sunrise wasn’t one to remember, but the scenery was unforgettable.  There was a mountain range of volcanoes both active and extinct along with deep valleys and jungle, it was simply an outstanding sight.

The Bromo Viewpoint
Spectacular Bromo

After our secluded sunrise came the disappointment.   We had a strict time limit to enjoy the view, which was maybe 45 minutes.  It took us a while to climb and get away from the swarms of tourists so we only had about 10 minutes to take in the scene and get a few photos before we had to head back down again.  We then got back in the jeep and were herded like cattle to the crater.  There were steps all the way up but they didn’t seem wide enough for two way traffic.  We had to queue for a long time before we got to the summit.  Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to walk all the way round the crater so there were a cluster of people at the top peering into the volcano and taking their photos before heading down.  We finally made it to the summit peered into the crater which was pretty cool, but the whole enjoyment had been taken out of the experience due to the mass of people.  Nev wasnae a ahappy chappy, as he is anti-tour.   I can see he point on something like this, people being herded round to see a sight with a time limit then onto the next thing, then the next thing.  There is no real sense of enjoyment due to the strict time restraints it’s all about ticking boxes.

Human Traffic

The Smoking Crater

After Bromo we went back to our Hotel for breakfast.  We then packed our bags, we knew we had about an hour before our bus was meant to be leaving to go to our next destination so we decided to have a wee lie down.  After 10 minutes we heard a knock on our door, and were told we were leaving now.  The whole morning was hurried and for us to be leaving early capped it all off.  We were starting to become pretty grumpy, especially as we knew we had another 8 hour cramped bus journey ahead of us.

We arrived at our Hotel at around 8pm.  The Hotel was attached to a coffee plantation and I decided to buy some Kopi Luwak.  It’s famed as being the most expensive and best coffee in the world.  The coffee beans have actually been passed through the digestive system of an animal that looks like the cross between a cat and a big rat.  They are passed through this creature relatively unharmed and then collected again from their droppings.  I haven’t actually tried any yet, but the process of being passed through the digestive system of these creatures adds a completely different taste and takes the bitterness out of the coffee.  I’m saving if for Christmas along with my scrumptious port that I bought in California. 

We had some dinner and a few beers and got an early night as we were due to get up at the ungodly time of 3:30am to set off for Ijen.

We set off for Ijen and to our surprise found that there weren’t too many buses at the car park.  Maybe this is due to the fact that it’s a bit of a climb to the top and it might put a lot of the older tourists off. 

Ijen is another volcanic creator but with a difference.  At the creator there is a lake, famously quoted as being the most toxic lake in the world.  I later found it has a PH of 0.5, so it’s basically a lake made up of very strong sulphuric acid.  Along with the lake there are substantial sulphur deposits.  These deposits are almost 100% sulphur and are valuable and used in many industries.  Because of this they are mined by local Indonesians who walk up and down the summit at least twice a day carrying baskets with as much sulphur as they can cram in.

When we started walking up we noticed a few of the baskets laden with sulphur at the side of the path.  Myself and Nev had a go at trying to lift one, we failed miserably.  They weigh between 80-100kgs, I have no idea how the sulphur miners do it especially as the terrain they have to deal with is sandy dusty earth. We were slipping about all over the place in our shoes and these guys stomp up and down in flip flops.  It’s also incredibly bad for you health as the sulphur deposits are created by funnelling the volcanic toxic gases through the rock.  The gas emitted is H2S or Hydrogen Sulhpide, which is the second most poisonous gas known to man.  The health risks are immense I heard somewhere that the average life expectancy of the sulphur miners is around 40.

Trying and Failing to Lift a Basket
It was a nice climb up to the top, before we went down to the lake’s edge we trekked up to viewpoint.  The lake looked eerily green with smoke rising from it, it really was other worldly.  We then left the viewpoint to go down to the lake.  What we were met with was like something from another planet.  Giant lumps of luminous yellow sulphur, thick plumes of smoke belching out from beneath the rock and a crazy lime green lake in the middle.  Watching the miners at work was extraordinary, they had little to no breathing protection and some were in amongst the toxic gas plumes hacking away the luminous yellow rock, while coughing their lungs out.  The big chunks were then cut into smaller more manageable pieces in order for them to fit in their baskets.  Along with the people working among the smoke, there were dozens of workers carrying their heavy burdens up the steep rocky path up. 

Myself and Nev at the Most Toxic Lake in the World

Ijen Craziness

Miners Hard at Work
I felt pretty awful watching the working conditions these guys had to put up with to eke out a living.  After working in the oil industry I know a lot about the dangers of HS2, and it was clearly obvious they were working way above the safe limit.

After spending some time at the lake taking it all in we decided to head back up and start our decent.  At this point the wind had changed and the plumes of gas were being pushed into the rock face and immediately into our path.  It wasn’t an enjoyable climb, the H2S burnt like hell when you inhaled it, and as we were climbing we were inhaling deeper into our lungs.  I wet my jacket and put it over my mouth after some advice from one miner.  This helped a bit, but some of the people in our group were really struggling, one girl looked as though she was at the point of collapsing walking through a particularly noxious cloud.   Again, I don’t know who the workers do it, and I felt sorry for them. 

After Ijen we got back on the bus, next stop Bali.

No comments:

Post a Comment