Mount Bromo & Ijen Crater tour

I don't know why we were ever worried about booking on a tour - maybe we felt that along with the cost, we weren't really 'backpacking'. But we have absolutely no regrets for spending the money, the tour was amazing and one of those 'once in a lifetime' type things (well, for now anyway!).

So, we were picked up at midnight from our hostel, as we were going straight through to Bali, we had to check out of our room at midday, so unfortunately weren't starting the tour particularly refreshed. The few beers probably weren't adequate preparation, but they certainly helped pass the time! There were 12 of us in total on the tour and unlike anywhere else in Asia so far, they didn't cram us all into one minibus! As most of our sleeping over the next 48 hours were going to be done on the road, the group had been split into 2 big minivans…plenty of room to stretch out for a few (bumpy) hours of kip.

The drive to the Bromo National Park was just over 3 hours and although we were quite excited, managed to get a few hours of shut eye. Around 3am, we were transferred into a jeep to take us further up a mountain where we were going to walk for about an hour up to a viewpoint to watch the sunrise over Mount Bromo (active volcano, last eruption 2016). Luckily I'd bought a pair of jeans in Yogyakarta - it was freeeeezing!!! It was quite strange arriving in a little village at 3am with everyone up and about, selling their wares. There are so many tour groups coming through everyday, they must do quite a good trade. But I must admit, I did feel a little bad for the residents as we thundered through the darkness in our little jeeps…on the flip side though, it's creating jobs in the poorer communities. The jeeps dropped us off and we began the dark cold climb up the mountain to the view point. As we were in a group, we all had to stick together (there were a lot of other groups and it would have been quite easy to get split up), it was tough going to keep up with everyone (altitude rather than lack of fitness….obviously!) and by the time we got the first viewpoint, I was more than happy to sit there and wait…but no. Another hour or so up hill (so glad it was dark and couldn't see the drop off the hill!) and we made it to our viewpoint where we were greeted with a warm cup of coffee and a lady selling woolly hats - yes please!!

It was very cold and the sun took it's time in rising, but it was absolutely spectacular. We were high up above the clouds and looking down on Mount Bromo, smoking away in all it's glory. We hung around until the sun was up and took many many pictures before getting a lovely little surprise - the jeeps had driven up to the top to meet us, saving us the walk back down! Next stop was the Sea of Sands and Mount Bromo itself.

By the time we'd descended to ground level, the clouds hadn't cleared so it was almost other worldly entering the sea of sands - I'm not sure how big the area is, but we walked for a good couple of kilometres through soft sand/volcanic ash to reach the base of the volcano. Again, there was a good trade around there and we were told that the parking area for the jeeps had been moved further away to allow local farmers to offer up horse rides to near the top of the mountain. We declined taking a horse, the more we saw of them, the more they looked all rather unhappy about ferrying tourists up and down the hill. Anyway, we set off, walking in the general direction of the crowds, not being able to see too far in front. We were all given face masks to protect us from the ash being spewed out by the volcano, but to be honest, it wasn't that bad and they mainly just made our faces sweat (even more!). This was a tough climb and although there were steps…they were buried under rather a lot of volcanic ash, so it was more like trying to walk up a very steep slippery slope - thankfully there was a handrail to help drag yourself up. Once again above the clouds, we found ourselves staring into the mouth of hell itself (well, ok we couldn't see any actual lava, but it was down there alright). The noise was incredible, like a really deep rumbling in it's belly which would on occasion stop for a few seconds then start up again - that was a little unnerving. Thankfully the cloud of smoke and ash wasn't blowing in our direction so it was quite clear up there, but I still didn't fancy a walk around the crater, even the wide area we were standing on felt far too small for me - on one side, a roll down a very long slope (albeit it would be a soft landing) and on the other side, certain death. Hmm.

By the time we got back down, the sun was beginning to clear though the low cloud and we started to get a real good look at our barren surroundings. And finally, at 9am after climbing a mountain and a volcano, it was time for breakfast!

We were swiftly transferred back to our vans and some well needed sleep for a few hours as we continued east and with a stop for lunch and a quick dip of our toes in the Java sea, we arrived at around 4pm rather tired and weary at our surprisingly lovely hotel (complete with swimming pool and spa) for the night….well, here I use 'night' in the loosest sense.

Unfortunately, the tour did not include seeing the blue flame in the Ijen crater, but this was something we could pay extra for and hire a local guide. As a group, we decided that it would be silly not to, so we sent our guy off to find a local guide, which, as luck would have it, he found. The only slight issue being that if we wanted to get down to the flame, we had to leave our hotel at midnight again! We met up with our Dutch friends Caroline and Oli for a celebratory beer and snubbing the expensive hotel food, we ventured out to find some dinner - aptly, we found a little stall called Netherlands, so it seemed like a good choice. But they couldn't speak English and we had no idea what they were selling - so we ordered 4. They turned out to be really lovely savoury pancake/omelette type things, but 2 would have sufficed! All the extra food helped settle us down for bed at the rock and roll time of 7pm!

They say that the body works best on blocks of 4 hours of sleep, helped slightly by the coffee, when the alarm went off at 11.15pm (the same night), I was full of beans! Loaded back into the van for another 2 hour drive to the crater where we were introduced to our guides, given gas masks and shown the way. Our guide came with us as far as the top of the crater and he walked the 3km very steep uphill walk in just shorts, flip flops and most of the time, smoking a fag (he's a 20 year old student who does this on the side for extra cash)!! So anyway, yes, the 3km walk up to the crater was a killer but then quickly followed by 1km climbing down into the crater. We were surprised at how many other tour groups were there and if I'm honest, a little disappointed. With the extra cost per person, we'd have thought there wouldn't be too many people around, how wrong we were. The climb down was slow going with all of the others coming back up and thankfully the wind was on our side, blowing the toxic sulphurous smoke the other way. By the time we got to the bottom though, it was definitely time to mask up! The blue flame was cool, although not as big as we'd expected and also there was a lot of smoke, so at times, you couldn't see anything. We then got taken down to the lake which is apparently (or so we heard from another tour guide) 200 metres deep and within an hour would have taken the skin off your finger, it's that acidic. Just as we were heading down though, the wind changed and we were surrounded by the smoke, trying to calm the internal panic was a bit of a struggle, it's not natural to be standing in smoke and not running the opposite direction! It wasn't pleasant and even with the gas masks, we were all suffering a little bit. I was quite glad when it was time to climb out, whilst it was a cool experience, it's not one I'm up for repeating in a hurry. And then to top it all off, the fog lingered for quite a while that morning, so we weren't able to get a view of the lake in the daylight from the top of the crater. Never mind, we'd had a pretty good run for our money so far and there were plenty of images on google to look at of it! Again it was very cold at the top and as soon as a few lips started to turn blue, we gave up waiting for the fog to clear and started the descent - almost as difficult as they way up in some respects! And finally, breakfast!!

Before we knew it, we were back in the van and on our way to the port, nice and early as well, around 10am. With no trouble at all, we got on the next ferry leaving (price was included in the tour), hopped off 30 minutes later, but actually an hour later (Bali's an hour ahead) and made for a bus heading east. Time to relax on a beach for a few days and rest our weary souls.

Cost of the tour - 1.4million Indonesian rupiahs per person

Cost of the blue flame - 150,000 Indonesian rupiahs per person

Cost of seeing sunrise over an active volcano, climbing said volcano and hearing it spew out ash and smoke and then see one of only 2 sulphurous blue flames in the world (even if it was a bit smelly and horribly smokey) - all before 9am each day - priceless.