Banyuwangi & Kawah Ijen & Bali

Fish drying in Banyuwangi, East Java

Banyuwangi is one of two options to visit the Kawah Ijen crater and said to be nothing more than a hub. We actually enjoyed Banywangi, very few tourists, good atmosphere. The beach (facing Bali) has a huge potential, but it is full of trash (looking inside a fisherman's net, there were 3 cans or plastics bags for each sardine)...the locals don't make any effort, although they are the first victims of the pollution.

We were planning to rent motorbikes to climb up to the start of the short trek (as suggested by the Lonely Planet), but this proved to be impossible for two reasons: 1) noone would rent us a bike 2) 99% of tourist use a tour package, which goes via Bondowoso 3) the access road is currently being repaved and you have to walk through the jungle for 2Km to reach the second strech of the road.

After one day of reflexion, we understood that the only way we would go there would be by renting a car + driver (actually two cars and drivers, for the two streches of the road). We negotiated a fair price.

We left at 1200 to make sure we would see the "blue flames", lit by sulfur workers to avoid breathing to many toxic fumes. We arrived to the top before any workers (or tourists!) and were a bit concerned that the crater might be closed to workers and tourists as it had been a couple of months earlier. Although we had asked the locals/looked on websites, we learnt subsequentely that there was currently "red alert", forecasting volcanic activity within the next two weeks. Luckily, we saw a few other headlights which guided us to the right path.

The guide of the group we met would not let us go down to see the blue flames, but an old miner insisted to take sven down (and hence make a couple of rupiahs). The views were amazing, though the fumes made it hard to breath and sven did not spend long down there!

Braving the very active crater to get close to the "blue flames" at 3am

Blue flames again

At 5am, the first workers come back on the rim of the crater with a load of sulphur (for sugar processing and cosmetics)

Panoramic photo from the crater rim: this acidic lake is 200m deep!

Coffee bean picker on the way back to Banyuwangi

The following morning, we left for Bali, which we crossed along the north coast to avoid the crowds. Two nights in Lovina, one in Talemben where we snorkelled over the Liberty, a US Navy WW2 wreck.

Playing volleyball in Talumben, Bali

Tired by the riding..

...though Eva quite enjoyed it!