14th January 2024 - Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park

Bromo

Stair case up to Bromo's rim

ArtOtel menus

Brunch

We arrived last night in darkness, ate late and headed to our clean but sparse room. We were slightly set back from the road but this did not stop us from hearing cars leave at 3 am which is for a standard trip of the crater which involves driving to a view point to watch the sunrise with 100s of other people and capture pictures of the crater, Gunung Bromo and the distant puffing Gunung Semeru. 

We're not fond of organised trips as we're anti-social; and there have been a few middle of the night starts to see, for example, the geysers at El Tatio or the Salar de Uyuni, that have then dragged on to interminable days to justify the price of the tickets. Curmudgeonly or what? When we did finally awake, we discovered that we were on the edge of the huge Tengger crater, near Cemoro Lawang. 

The crater of Bromo was puffing beneath us, improbably close to the linear town. Two other volcanoes had also arisen out of the crater, Kursi and Batok. The former with its ridges, reminded Joan of a giant Rolo.

So, remembering that it's a holiday, we had a late start and walked to the nearby Arthotel where were ate a breakfast outside with views of the hills. More fried tempeh may have been involved. 

We listened to our host at Cahyo Homestay Bromo and decided to hike across the Tengger crater to the vaping Gunung Bromo in the afternoon. There were plenty of jeeps and horses around to give us a lift but the walk was flat and easy. Bromo was belching smoke and there was a staircase rising to its brim. You can climb to the rim but given the recent tragedy on Mt Merapi, we were convinced about Indonesian Health and Safety so looked from a distance!

Seemingly here's a local festival where valuable offerings are made to the mountain by locals and these are thrown into the smoking caldera. Some souls descend into the crater to try and catch them with nets for themselves. Occasionally this doesn't go well...... Not far from Bromo was a temple building that looked like it was made from pumice. On the way there were huge, beautiful bell-like yellow flowers. Retreating back to the town, we tried to look for an ATM but none were working. We bought some Bintung and ate at the Lava view again. 

 We asked our host to sort us a taxi for the next day. It really was a surreal landscape and mesmerisingly beautiful. So much worth the effort to see nature at its most magnificent!