We left at 1 am in the middle of the night in a jeep to the base of the Ijen Crater. It was a steep 1.5-2 hour hike uphill 2368m to the rim in the pitch black using torches and not having a clue where we were, walking in the cool mountain air; other people seemed much more prepared than we were with hiking gear and head torches, and here we were using our phones as torches and Michael was wearing shorts and flip flops! Walking uphill at altitude was noticeably different to at sea level, and I realised just how quickly my lungs became tired which in contrast to in the gym was long before my legs ached!

Once at the top it was around an hours descent down into the depths of the crater via rubble and rocky paths, wearing gas marks to protect ourselves from the sulphurous gas being released (which we could smell before we even reached the rim of the crater). It was really something looking back up and seeing so many torches forming a winding trail from the top to the very bottom, in the middle of the night inside a volcano! So surreal.

At the bottom we got to witness the Blue Flames which were phenomenal. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it with your own eyes. The blue fire is ignited sulphuric gas which escapes from cracks in the crater and burns at around 600 degrees Celsius. Heaps of sulphuric gas comes billowing out of the crater as Ijen is a source of elemental sulphur and now the site of a massive sulphur mining operation. We saw so many Indonesian men trekking down the crater in the dark of night with baskets and then hiking back up with the baskets full of sulphur rock. It was actually really sad to discover that they get paid 50,000-75,000 Rupiah a day for this work (about £4) which involves two trips in the night into the sulphur riddled crater (many without masks) to return with between 75 and 90 kg of the element, and then once out of the crater walk the 3kms to the next village for weighing of the sulphur and payment. I felt extremely sorry for the poor miners; there are 200 of them and they extract 14 tons of sulphur per day and mostly probably before the sun even comes up!

We watched the sunrise at the base which revealed the beautiful turquoise blue acid lake right at the bottom of the crater that we had no idea was there as we couldn't see it at all in the dark! The colour was gorgeous and it just looked so serene in a cloudy mist of blue surrounded by cliffs of crater rock. It was only then that we could see what we had climbed down in the middle of the night! Jesus Christ I couldn't believe I had done it. Once back at the top of the crater it was even more shocking to see what we had trekked before descending into the crater. We were fully up in the mountains above the clouds, walking along the edge of a volcanic crater. It was astonishingly beautiful. The past 24 hours had just been unbelievably incredible. I won't ever forget Java that's for sure!

Michael, Emily and I hopped on a ferry to leave Java for Bali and after arriving and having some much needed Nasi Goreng we managed to get a minibus to take us all the way to Ubud with 4 French people we had met a few days earlier for really cheap. Writing this current blog kept me occupied for most of the journey, alongside gazing out the windows at the stunning Balinese countryside; it's super hard to describe just how amazing these sights really are.

After arriving in Ubud and luckily stumbling across the nicest home stay, we freshened up and went for some relaxing evening cocktails at a rooftop bar overlooking the tiny pretty town. We ate some Balinese tapas and chatted away all evening about all the incredible things we had done the past week. We made a great travel trio and it will be sad splitting from Michael. I'm so glad I have some time to really explore Ubud, it's such a wonderful town and truly the cultural hub of Bali.