Mount bromo is a 6 hour drive from Surabaya. After leaving our hotel in Surabaya at 10 am, we reached Cemero Lawang ( Hotel Bromo ) by 7 pm – we had made a pitstop at Madakaripura for a couple of hours enroute. Bromo was about an hour from our hotel.
Hike to Ijen crater
So it begins early in morning…as in 12:30 am departure from our hotel. We reached the parking spot at 1:30 am where we met up with our local guide – Erol . Though the hike is doable alone, taking a local guide is highly recommended. Erol had arranged for gas masks and torch to carry along.
A trek of 3 km lay ahead which for the first time hikers can be a little exhausting as the climb is quite steep. Don’t be scared right away. It took us about an hour and half to reach to the top of volcano. If you are a slow walker it might take 2 hours but not more than that. The first 2.5 km are the hardest, with the last 500 m being a simple level walk. There is a small canteen halfway up the hill where we stopped for a 10 min break. All along the route we had miners going up for company. Some were willing to take up tourists in their wheelbarrows for a charge.
As we approached the edge of the crater, we felt the need to put on our gas masks as the sulphur gases started taking over. Once we reached the top, we got our first sight of the blue flames swaying far away and deep in the crater. For a better view, we had to descend further 1 km down the crater. The blue flames disappear once the sun rises and given that it takes about 30-40 mins to descend the rocky path, one should try at be at the top by 3:30 am. As we made our way down, we could see miners carrying loads of sulphur on their shoulders. Each miner carries upto 70 kgs of sulphur in one go. Tough job, I must say.
TWO LOST FEET 