Ijen Crater

Today I got to do a little detour and hike up to the Ijen Crater!  

I woke up at 2:40 am so that I could be downstairs for my taxi at 3:00 am. We drove back up the hill towards the site area and then my driver let me off at the starting point so I could meet my guide that had been arranged by one of my pals yesterday.

I met Mehta the guide and a colleague from yesterday, and we starting hiking up the trail in the dark.  It was fairly crowded as the gate had just opened at 4:00 am and people race up there to watch the sunrise.  I didn't care too much about racing up to see that but it was still pretty early when we got up there, about 05:30 am.

As we rounded the final hillside, the Sulphur smoke was billowing over the saddle and across a strange landscape. At last we got to the crater lake, which is the most acidic lake in the world at a pH of 0.02! 

We spent about an hour up at the crater admiring the view from different perspectives and taking loads of photos. The smoke was coming from the sulphur vents which are right down at the lake level.  At night the burning sulphur appears as blue flames, and this is what draws tourists from all over the world to this place. Awesome!  I didn't get to see the blue flames since it was already daylight when we got up to the crater. But it was amazing to see the geothermal site in the distance where we were yesterday on the site visit.