Bromo 11/2/12 - 12/2/12

Mount Bromo is the most well known of Java's volcanoes so we decided to break up the next leg of our journey by making a stop off there. We travelled from Jogyjakarta by minibus which took a total of 12 hours, even though we had been told by the tour guide that the journey would take nearer 8 hours. We're now used to the fact that in Asia, you're told the time you want to hear, not what it will actually be! For some reason we swapped minibuses about an hour outside of Bromo. The minibus had 9 seats, but by the time we'd picked up some additional random locals, there were 12 of us crammed in, plus bags! It was a snug fit as we climbed a series of winding roads up the mountain!

There are a couple of small mountain villages at the base of Bromo to pick from and we chose Cemoro Lawang. We arrived at the hotel at around 10pm and the first thing we noticed was how much cooler it was - we even had to wear a jumper for the first time since New Zealand! Not ones to miss an opportunity, the locals were very persistent in trying to sell us wooly hats, although it really wasn't that cold! They would even come up to the restaurant window and peer through mouthing the words 'you want hat'!

We were given a wake up call at 3.30am and collected from our hotel by a convoy of jeeps. After waiting around for no reason in particular, we eventually got going. The purpose of this early morning trip was to see the sun rise over Mount Bromo. We drove for half an hour up hill to the best vantage point, along with all the other jeeps. We left the jeeps and then walked the last 15 minutes by foot. At about 5.30am the sun rose and it was well worth the early start! In the distance we could see Mount Bromo with smoke rising out of it.  Jenna said it was her favourite moment of Asia so far.

After taking it all in for 45 minutes, we then walked back to our jeep and drove back down the mountain towards Mount Bromo. We parked up and walked across the 'Sea of Sand' to the base of Mount Bromo. The landscape was like nothing we had ever seen before and for some reason we imagined that this was what Mongolia would look like! We then walked up quite a steep slope and a couple of hundred steps to the volcano's crater. This was quite a tough walk, and so once again the locals saw a way of making money! There were literally dozens or horses waiting to take tourists up the steep climb. 'You want horse, you want horse'. We were offered so many horses it was unreal. We were even offered horses as we neared the top, by this time I was just ignoring the offers! You don't mean to be rude, but I must have politely shook my head and smiled 'no thank you' 50 times! Jenna felt very sorry for the horses as to be fair, it looked really tough work for them.

Now if you were to walk onto the rim of an active volcano back home, you would expect all sorts of safety precautions. In fact you wouldn't be allowed to do it full stop. But not here! As you can see from the photos, the rim was no more than half a meter in places and we were free to walk wherever we pleased. One wrong step and you would fall into the volcano! It was an amazing experience, to be so close to an active volcano and to peer down into it. Jenna was upset there was no lava again, but I think it was safer without!

As we waited to get back into our jeep, we saw two of the horses having a fight which was pretty scary. The owners couldn't do a thing other than throw dirt at them to try to calm them down. It was pretty vicious. We then drove back to the hotel and ate breakfast on the terrace which overlooked where we had just walked. It was a really memorable trip and the landscape was incredible.