Indonesia: going down an active volcano's crater to see the Blue Fire
- Where To Go Next By I&P
- Dec 10, 2022
- 7 min read
The goal of the day was to see the Kawah Ijen volcano, on the east side of Java Island, famous for the Blue Fire, the result of a high quantity of very hot sulfur methane (+600C) igniting when it comes in contact with the air. There are only 2 other places on Earth where you can find the blue fire: Iceland and Ethiopia.
To get to the Ijen volcano from Bali, we first need to get to Banyuwangi, the closest town to it. And here begins our long journey from Kuta to Gilimanuk to catch the ferry and cross to Java island.
From our hotel in Kuta, we took a Grab to Terminal Ubung where all the buses depart to Gilimanuk. There are plenty of air conditioned mini buses, some in better condition than others, that depart once they're full.
The fares vary from 60k IDR to 80k IDR, depending on how well you can negotiate with the driver (only speak directly with the driver and no one else).
After leaving Denpasar's urban area, the minibus took the Nasional 1 straight to Gilimanuk. It was a pleasant ride as the road is in good condition and you could see the various landscapes, towns, jungles, rivers, rice fields, and views of the ocean.
The only weird moment was the payment collection, which happens in the middle of nowhere, 1h before reaching Gilimanuk, so make sure you remember how much you agreed to pay the driver.
After 4h, we finally arrived at the ferry terminal. We had to buy the ticket from a guy at the entrance of the terminal who clearly inflated the prices (but that is to account for the "administrative fees", so the locals say).
We could not buy the ticket at the official ticket booth, because there was no one there, and even the official ferry company staff told us to buy the ticket from this guy.
There's an app called Ferizy where you can buy the tickets online but, once again, this app is only available if your Play Store is set to Indonesia.
The price was clearly stated on a big banner at the entrance of the terminal (9650 IDR/pax), however, we could see that this guy was using the Ferizy app and then printing out the QR code on a portable printer. So we obviously paid for the app's processing fee and his own for absolutely no reason.
The terminal still had ticket booths and even machines so what happened here? Why are we buying a ticket from this random guy using an app?? It's getting more and more frustrating to watch these scams take place and not being able to do anything about it.
The boat ride was cooling but took a little bit longer than usual because the captain had to wait to dock the boat - there are so many ferries in this strait!
Once we arrived on the island of Java, in a town called Ketapang, we wanted to use Grab again to go to our hotel. Our Grab was so scared to pick us up there that he asked us to pretend we were not waiting for a Grab, and urged us to get in quickly. Once again the taxi lobby is very much active here.
If we summarize our costs to go from Kuta to Banyuwangi (in IDR):
Taxi to Ubung from Legian using Grab - 65k IDR (we wanted to try Blue Bird taxi but the app was estimating a cost of 100k IDR)
Bus to Gilimanuk - 60k IDR/pax
Ferry - 17k IDR/pax (includes all "administrative fees")
Then grab to hotel - 70k IDR
A total of 290k IDR to go from Kuta to Banyuwangi for 2 people (19 USD), which is pretty good.
Once at the Homestay, we discovered a very well decorated space with a beautiful common area. The room was more open to insects than we would have liked, but as someone said, it is part of the charm of enjoying a quiet stay in the middle of the jungle. 🐜🦟🦎
So we decided to go rest as we would need to be ready at 12:30am to climb up Kawah Ijen. However, we forgot that there are a lot of Muslims in Java, and the call for prayer of the nearby mosques did not help our rest.
After some sleep and an instant noodles, we left at 12:30am with our guide and driver and arrive at Ijen's entrance at 1:30am. We had to wait until 2am to enter but it was important to get us used to the altitude as we were already at 1300m above sea level. If you don't do that you may run the risk of feeling dizzy and nauseous during the hike.
In the parking area, you had multiple small shops selling food and tea and had makeshift fires to help everyone stay warm.
At 2am, we started the hike to Mt Ijen's crater, a long 2-hours nighttime hike lit only by the hiker's flashlights. The first kilometer was okay but the second one was brutal. It's just a steep slope that seemed to go on forever.
Some locals offer to pull you up on a trolley (it takes 3 people to pull you up) for 1M IDR but we still made it to the top by ourselves! 🥳
Once there, to approach the solfatara where you can see the Blue Fire, we started a 30 mins descent into the crater through a very difficult path of loose rocks, under the guidance of Ali Baba, our notorious guide.
A side note on Ali (@ali_the_tour_guide). This forty year old man has been a guide at Mt Ijen since 2006 and the first guide to bring tourists to the Ijen crater at night to see the Blue Flames in 2012. We were impressed by the number of guides and miners saluting Ali. Everybody knew him!
He told us a few facts about the area and the miners:
when he first brought tourists down the crater, the miners were very upset and some even physically threatened him. In time, they found a compromise and now, it's the most popular tour in the area;
sulfuric gas escapes through cracks on the ground and is condensed in ceramic tubes into molten sulfur. This liquid sulfur is then collected (and potentially shaped) by miners before it solidifies;
miners do extremely difficult work, going up the mountain with their trolley, mining sulfur, moving it despite the smoke and the acidic lake, carrying it up the crater, and then down the mountain again. We could see how difficult their job is, as they were carrying their loads of 80kg through the lake and up the crater;
there were 360 miners before but the number went down to 50 - the others decided to tend to the tourists instead (as guides or pulling them up or down the volcano in their trolleys);
the oldest miner still working is 74 years old and the strongest one can carry up to 120kg at a time. Each miner would take up 2 loads at a time, up to 3 times a day;
miners have died here, either because they would panic inside the smoke and run into the Blue Fire, or because of unexpected eruptions creating chaos and a tsunami inside the acidic lake;
1 tourist, a French woman, fell off the path and died while climbing down the crater in 2012;
French used to represent 70% of the tourists after a program of Nicolas Hulot showing Kawah Ijen premiered. He went on a boat in the middle of the acidic lake;
because of the high number of French tourists at the time, a lot of locals still have the habit of speaking a little bit of french among themselves.
Going down the crater with a flashlight was an experience in itself, but it was definitely worth it when we saw the Blue Fire burning in the night - a truly unique experience!
We were extremely lucky that the wind was pushing the sulfuric smoke to the opposite side of the trail and we did not have to rely on gas masks (provided by Ali) when going down the crater.
But close to the Blue Fire, in the solfatara, the smoke and the odors of sulfur were too intense and we had to wear masks. Those 20 cm flames were dancing just in front of us surrounded by the smoke, the tourists taking pictures and the miners working.
I wanted to take a picture close to the Blue Fire, and asked Ali to help me with it. We went with the flow of tourists to get closer through a tiny, overcrowded path between the mountain and the acid lake... when suddenly the wind shifted.
Immediately, even with the mask, I breathed in a very concentrated amount of sulfuric gas, and my eyes started to tear up, impeding my sight. My only thought was that I needed to flee this area. I turned around but I was blocked by 4-5 people still trying to get in but already considering turning around as the smoke had enveloped them as well. I panicked and pushed them to get out. After a few steps, I was out of the smoke. Turning around, I tried to locate Ali but I could only see other tourists and guides still trying to get out, crying like me due to the smoke. After a few long seconds, I could see Ali emerging from the smoke (with our phone).
What a relief! We walked away to remove the masks and breathe. Ali proposed to go back as the wind shifted again, but I refused. Sometimes, it is just not worth it! Just being there, seeing it from afar and feeling the warmth and the smell is enough.
As the sun was rising, the Blue Fire disappeared but we could finally admire the light blue acidic lake, which is the largest acidic lake in the world. Miners still go in the lake to bring the sulfur back but they need to wash off immediately after. Ali told us that, whenever the lake turns grey/white, it means an eruption is imminent.
We waited for the wind to become more stable to go back up and Ali showed us one of the places where the molten sulfur pours out from the tubes. Worried that the wind would turn again, we continued back up through this rocky path and, after reaching the top of the crater, we went further up again for a great viewpoint of the blue acidic lake and the smoke from the sulfur mine.
It was a privilege to be able to see this unique phenomenon with our own eyes. I am also grateful to feel okay after those few seconds in the sulfuric smoke and we are both happy we can still climb mountains in the middle of the night. 😄
After Kelimutu earlier in our trip and Ijen, we think we saw enough sunrises on volcanoes for a while. The rest of the day, we rested, enjoyed the Homestay and tried to find a laundromat at our next destination because our clothes stank of sulfur.
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