Climbing up to the crater of Mount Ijen – the active volcano in the farthest east of Java island – was certainly one of our top priorities when we traveled to the Indonesian island of East Java. To make things easier for us, we asked the guest house – the Arabica Guest House – to arrange the transportation to the foothill of the mountain and it turned out to be so hassle-free. We left very early, at 1.30 am so that we could climb up to the crater in time to catch the famous Blue Fire, the fire that gushes out from the rock crevasses at the crater which can only be visibly seen when it is still dark. We requested for the hotel to prepare a little bit of meal for us so that we’d have some energy to do the climbing.
We arrived at the starting point of the trail to Ijen Crater when it was still very dark and not a single human was at sight. Our driver had to knock on the door like a hundred times, running from one house to another before somebody actually responded. Ijen was out of any phone coverage so doing a pre-arrangement with any of the tour guides at the foothill of the mountain was not quite possible. The guides had to be prepared all the time just in case somebody suddenly turned up with a bunch of climbers like we did. Continue reading
