Bromo (Monday 11 July)

It’s a 4.00 am start! We head up to Bromo in jeeps (short wheel-based Toyota landcruisers). We climb as far as we can go and then start walking – in pitch darkness. The aim is to get a view of Bromo under the half-light of a sunrise. There are many other tourists here doing the same. Locals are there in force with horses on hand for anyone who might want to do the last stretch to the lookout on horseback. A few take up the offer. My relationship with horses goes way back and memories of those experiences are rarely positive so i have no problems declining the offer! The horses here are small are more pony like than horses. It is a novelty though for some of the tourists. I stumble my way in the dark to the viewing spot.

Now we wait. There are visitors from all over the world including some annoying young poms. I think I’m the only Australian and apparently Aussies are rare here. I have no idea why. They get as far as Bali and that’s it! Nick was told to be wary of young Australians on Bali. They are some long-tern feral Aussies that cheat and steal from tourists there to fund their bohemian lifestyles – not a great reputation to have!

Sunrise is spectacular. Bromo is in the background spewing out clouds of dust. The fine dust covers everything, even where we are, miles away. The views are truly stunning and can only be explained through photos.

We then pile back into our jeep an aim for Mount Bromos active crater, across a bare plantless dusty landscape. Again we park and start walking and again the horses are on offer. It’s quite a comical scene. We pass a Hindu temple before walking up the stairs to the crater edge. There are people already up there and from where we stand, are silhouetted against the grey ash and smoke. Suddenly a huge bubble of smoke rises spectacularly. It looks like it will engulf the closest spectators but doesn’t.

It’s enough though us on edge! We get to the very narrow lip and inside the crater is a huge, perfectly round hole from where the smoke is belching. And the sound – so eerie! You can hear and feel the gurgling, bubbling and occasionally a dull roar as Bromo mumbles away to itself.

You can’t see the lava because it is deep in the crater and is shrouded in smoke but you can hear it slaping around. The sound is inconsistent. An extra loud rumble makes us wonder if we have seen enough! This is an eye to the centre of the earth!

To slip here is a one-way ticket to certain death and here we were, a bunch of tourist jostling for a vantage point on the very thin lip of the crater. Throw in some vertigo and I’ m seriously edgy! Has anyone ever fallen in? It wouldn’t be hard! Just awesome! Yesterday’s arduous bus ride is well forgotten. Mount Bromo is truly worth it.

It’s back on the crowded van and we are spirited away to the next adventure – Ijen Plateau. It’s another 6 hours in the crowded van over rough roads. We are up in fertile mountains and this region is famous for it’s arabica coffee plantations. We arrive at our destination in Bondowoso (I think) around 7pm. Sadly it’s dark so there is little opportunity to have a look around this pretty place. It has a coffee processing works here where the coffee is washed and dried.