 |
| Mt Bromo - the small smoking one |
After my very interesting trip to see the sulphur mines at Mt Ijen on the Island of Java in Indonesia, my next stop was to visit Mt Bromo. This is another spectacular group of volcanoes in East Java, not too far from Mt Ijen, and well worth a visit.
We ( my driver and I) departed from Mt Ijen and drove to a small town close to Mt Bromo. I staying in a lovely small guest house and in the evening we visited a home (a friend of the tour guide) for a wonderful home cooked Indonesia meal. Really most enjoyable and an interesting experience.
 |
| Village close to Mt Bromo |
The next morning was a very early start to get to the view point for the icon early morning photos of Mt Bromo. This is truly an amazing sight and even the best of photos do no do justice the the amazing sceptical as it gets light. There is a massive old volcanic crater. Within the old volcanic crater are three newly formed and still forming active volcanoes. Mt Bromo (the smaller of the volcanoes) is constantly smoking. This is not actually a constant eruption. The volcanic caldera is filled with water and the molten lava is causing this water to continually boil and what we see is, in fact, steam coming out of the volcano. All of the volcanoes in the ancient crater are still very active and there are regular eruptions. After spending some time jostling for position to get the best photos, it was time to move down into the crater.
 |
| Three volcanos in the ancent creater - the new generation |
It is possible to climb up to the rim of Mt Bromo to look into the caldera. The parking lot is quite some distance from the volcano and there are many horses which you can rent to get to the stairs to climb the volcano. The main reason that the car park is so far away, is because the volcano stirs out the occasional rock or two! The area around the volcano is a strange, other worldly place. Volcanic eruptions in the area are quite common in the area and there are many large rocks to really large rocks (the size of a small car) which have, in the past been blown out of the volcanoes in the area. These are the so called lava bombs which are now on the news with the eruptions in Hawaii.
 |
| Temple in the old creater |
 |
| Horses to get you to the volcano |
 |
| Other worldly landscape blow the rim of the creater |
 |
| Offering to the Volcano god |
Once at the top of the stairs, you reach the rim of the crater. This pretty much goes straight down. A perfectly round hole in the ground. You can hear the boiling water at the bottom of the crater and there is the constant flow of steam. Like a massive kettle on the boil and the automatic switch to stop the kettle has broken. At the base of the volcano, there are people selling offering to the volcano in the form of flower arrangements. Many of these offerings have been placed at the rim of the volcano. Obviously, these offerings have not appeased the volcano gods.
It was fascinating to be so close to this incredible force of nature. Fortunately, there were no new eruptions while I was on the rim of the crater!
 |
| The boiling cauldin of Mt Bromo |
On the way back to the airport to catch my flight back to Jakarta and then back home, we passed another interesting volcano. This was a mud volcano. Instead of hot molten lava, this volcano pumps out mud. It has started erupting a few years ago and is still pumping out mud. A massive plane of mud has been pumped out. This has completely covered a number of nearby villages.
 |
| Mud from the Mud volcano |
Indonesia is on the ring of fire and there are many active volcanoes on the various islands. I am fascinate by volcanoes and I would just love to see lava. It would be a great time to go to Hawaii now to see the lava flow heading into the sea. Guess I will just have to keep that on the bucket list.
 |
| Lone horseman in a lost land |
Comments
Post a Comment