We woke up early, then depart from Jember at 02:30 in the morning. It took almost 3 hours to go to Ijen Crater. Ijen crater located in the middle of Jember and Banyuwangi, but Banyuwangi is nearer than Jember. So it's better if you stay at Banyuwangi.
Credit:
Wikipedia
The Ijen volcano complex is a group of stratovolcanoes in the Banyuwangi Regency of East Java, Indonesia. It is inside a larger caldera Ijen, which is about 20 kilometers 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-kilometer-wide turquoise-colored acidic crater lake. The lake is the site of a labor-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. 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.
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. 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. In 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 crater was measured to be 0.5 due to sulfuric acid.
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| The path to the peak |
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| view while hiking |
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| view while hiking |
After a while, we arrive at Pondok Bunder Kawah Idjen. This is the first post, so you can rest in here.
After rest for a while, then we continue to hike.
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| The path is getting slipier |
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| view while Hiking |
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| We are getting near the peak |
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| Almost arrive at the peak |
After a while, finally we arrive at the peak. From far away, you can see a beautiful scene.
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| Ijen Crater |
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| Ijen Crater |
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| Sulfur Worker, they climb and go down twice a day |
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| when it's dark, on the spot that release the smoke, there's blue fire |
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| We can't go down there because it's dangerous |
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| Enjoy the scene... |
After a while, the sun is getting hot. And it's almost 10 a.m. So we decided to go down.
When we go down, it's more slippery than when we go up. So, you have to becareful. And it's more tiring because we need to break our foot, and it hurts the knee. But it's faster than when you go up. We only took 1 hour to go down.
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| The Ijen Crater Basecamp |
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| Sulfur Stone |
Today's journey only go to Ijen Crater, because it took a lot of time and energy. So, we go back to Jember to rest.
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