The view of the valley in the morning (5am)The trip started bright and early and we drove for hours, only stopping for the bathroom and when getting lost on the way. We arrived just before sundown far far away in the Ijen area at a little home stay hotel. The car ride actually went by fast, as we kept ourselves busy playing games, puzzles, listening to music and napping. Good company makes the trip fly by. Also, usually when we hire cars there are 7 of us crammed into every possible seat to make it cheaper, but only 4 of us went this weekend, so we had room to spread out and really enjoy the trip.
Hooray for acidic sulfur lakes!
Once at the hostel, we walked around the little town set up next to it and looked around at the local scenery. In the area are lots of agro-tourism places and farms where the tourists can sleep and enjoy lazy afternoons in a semi-cooled atmosphere. We hung out at the hotel, played cards and had some dinner before an early bedtime.
The yellow color is sulfur that has crusted all over the place over the years
We woke up at 330 to some coffee and tea and a snack before driving 40 minutes to the entrance of the hike up the side of the crater. It's not a particularly hard hike, and its uphill the whole time. You see some miners also making the trek. Its about an hour or so to the top, where the wind really picked up and we were being blown around. By this time, we had befriended a miner, who was 25 and had been working there for 3 years. We spent the whole walk up chatting with him and asking about his life and working in the mines. Its really hard work, and dangerous, and extremely bad for your health as you are inhaling toxic fumes and the sulfur burns your eyes and lungs, and they do this trip multiple times a day, for weeks and years at a time with only a week off holiday every couple weeks.
Our guide being bad-ass with his gas mask
At the top of the hill, you see how the edges of the crater have gone barren to the toxicity of the sulfur, and can see down into the crater. There is a lake there, which is as warm as a bathtub, and an area where the steam is billowing out. We then climb down into the crater for about 25 minutes to the bottom, where we can see the men mining the yellow rocks and using gas masks and masks in feeble attempts to keep the smoke out of their eyes and mouths.
A death cloud taking my unsuspecting friends
As I mentioned, it was windy, so on the way down it was a nice easy walk, the wind blew everything away from us, and you could hardly smell the sulfur. Luckily, the winds changed, and the clouds floating over the turquoise waters turned, and soon we were enveloped in a cloud of toxic smoke. Your eyes start burning worse than if you rubbed an onion in them, and you have to cover your mouth with a piece of wet material (shirt, scarf, hat). Anything to stop the sulfur. You end up holding your mouth so tight you forget to breath, and when you gasp for air, it chokes your lungs and you start coughing uncontrollably. But, the winds change again, and soon you are enjoying the views, watching what is going on, and almost forgetting about the near pass-out/vomit episode you just had. Then the winds change again. Its a scramble for cover, behind rocks, away from the wind, anywhere you think it may help. We spent about 25 minutes doing this happy/hell change due to the prevailing winds, until we all hit a stage of near vomiting and an inability to see that we aborted the plans and escaped to higher grounds.
My eyes after the event (and after the hour hike down)
It was really cool and I wouldn't have changed the experience for anything. It was worth my eyes burning an additional 2 hours and feeling nauseous for the drive back to the hotel. The miner we befriended was really great, and funny and gave us all the information he would with his English, and even game me a piece of sulfur he broke off from the mine when we arrived at the bottom.
Some Sulfur art the miners make to sell
We then checked out a local waterfall, which wasn't too bad, before we started our 8 hour drive back home. Once again the trip went pretty fast, and we napped as much as we could, because we were all exhausted after the early wake up, hike and sulfur attacks. It was another great weekend, and I cant believe I'm doing so much stuff out here. In a couple days I continue my trips, but this time have 9 whole days of vacation, and a group of us are heading into the jungle for animal sightings and trekking. It should be a lot of fun!
The waterfall near our guesthouse
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