Where natural wildlife still sheltered in an overdeveloped island and a glimpse into the hard life on top of the world…
The night has just settled in Denpasar when our group of 8 started to get together in downton Denpasar. Time shown 10PM when we finally start the journey towards eastern tip of Java. The three and half hours drive through one of Bali’s main roads brought us through the villages and cities of three regencies before we arrive at Gilimanuk, Bali’s ferry port and hub to Java. Time has shown an hour after midnight. There wasn’t too much passengers tonight and we could board the ferry directly. Before long, our ferry has departed.
One thing for certain on Indonesia’s ferry services, you can’t have exact timing on the waiting time or the ride itself. What’s normally took 45 minutes, today it took an hour just for the cross not the unloading.
Setting foot in Java and the long drive has driven our appetite back to life. Craving for some street food, we head to the nearest food stalls less than a minute drive from the harbor. Deep fried catfish and chicken, known as Lalapan Lele/Lalapan Ayam, the ladies can’t say no to a very early morning treat.
As our trip’s main goal was the sunrise experience at Ijen Crater, we had the entire day to kill and checking in early in the morning meaning cost for for an extra night, we decided to drive a little further out of Banyuwangi to visit Baluran National Park. For some domestic travelers, this national park is known as Indonesia’s savannas safari place. The national park located around 90minutes drive towards north (turn right) from Ketapang harbor.
The national park often refers as Indonesia’s Serengeti due to its flat surface and savanna roamed by endemic animals such as bull and deer. Beware though with your belongings, the macaque monkeys here are quite naughty (borderly annoying, for me at least).
Within the park, you could also explore the coastline, which some friends said (is quite a vista), and stay overnight. There is a camp ground as well if you want to set up tents here.
When the sun reached its peak, we set our course to the hotel to rest, with a stop to have a belly filler lunch :). A warung just a shy off from the port was chosen for an easy access so that we could have enough time to rest.
I won’t be recommending the hotel we stayed in as its too basic and simply you could afford better options on slightly higher prices:
Santika Hotel Banyuwangi: http://www.santika.com/indonesia/banyuwangi/hotel-santika-banyuwangi/
Mirah Hotel Banyuwangi: https://www.mirahhotel.com/
In the evening after a quick bite at Banyuwangi KFC outlet, the one and only in the city at the time, we headed out towards the crater.
It took approximately 2hours drive as we need to change our ride from city SUV to a 4WD to take us to the trekking starting point.
Mount Ijen
This 2,779 meters height mountain is an active volcano and one of the most productive sulfur mine in the country and is part of the composite volcanoes group of the same name.
It is inside a larger caldera Ijen, which is about 20 kilometres wide. The Gunung Merapi stratovolcano is the highest point of that complex. The name “Gunung Merapi” means “mountain of fire” in the Indonesian language (api being “fire”); Mount Merapi in central Java and Marapi in Sumatra have the same etymology.
West of Gunung Merapi is the Ijen volcano, which has a one-kilometre-wide turquoise-coloured acidic crater lake. The lake is the site of a labour-intensive sulfur mining operation, in which sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. The work is paid well considering the cost of living in the area, but is very onerous.[3] Workers earn around Rp 50,000–75,000 ($5.50–$8.30) per day and once out of the crater, still need to carry their loads of sulfur chunks about three kilometers to the nearby Paltuding Valley to get paid.[4]
Many other post-caldera cones and craters are located within the caldera or along its rim. The largest concentration of post-caldera cones run east-west across the southern side of the caldera. The active crater at Kawah Ijen has a diameter of 722 metres (2,369 ft) and a surface area of 0.41 square kilometres (0.16 sq mi). It is 200 metres (660 ft) deep and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre⋅ft).
The lake is recognised as the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world.[1] It is also a source for the river Banyupahit, resulting in highly acidic and metal-enriched river water which has a significant detrimental effect on the downstream river ecosystem.[5] On July 14–15, 2008, explorer George Kourounis took a small rubber boat out onto the acid lake to measure its acidity. The pH of the water in the lake’s edges was measured to be 0.5 and in the middle of the lake 0.13 due to high sulfuric acid concentration (Wikipedia).
I for one preferred the views and scenery offered by Bromo – Semeru – Tengger National Park, but there are some spots in Ijen that make a great photo hunting session, if you are lucky not to be bothered by other trekkers.
The Famous Blue Fire
Ijen is one of two only places on the planet that people could see the blue fire. But it took great physical effort and at times gambling with your health and life to go through the sulfuric smoke by the lake to see this magnificent natural wonder. I would suggest bring your own oxygen mask to help you breathing down the crater.
Since National Geographic mentioned the electric-blue flame of Ijen, tourist numbers increased.[7] The phenomenon has occurred for a long time, but beforehand there was no midnight hiking. A two-hour hike is required to reach the rim of the crater, followed by a 45-minute hike down to the bank of the crater. The blue fire is ignited sulfuric gas, which emerges from cracks at temperatures up to 600 °C (1,112 °F).
The flames can be up to five meters (16 feet) high; some of the gas condenses to liquid and is still ignited.[8][9] It is the largest blue flame area in the world and local people refer to it as ‘Blue Fire’ (Wikipedia).
Tips:
Avoid traveling on holiday season and weekends as you might be swamped by the local travelers visiting the volcano.
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