Dangerously Beautiful Ijen Mountain

Indonesia is known as ring of fire because has a lot of active volcano spreading on its region. The unique part is some of the volcano has stunning view to see the sunrise. People already know well that Bromo Mountain as the most tourist destination (and of course the famous one) in East Java. But this province also has one of most attractive yet dangerous places in the world called Ijen Mountain.

What makes this active volcano become one of the negotiable part of your visit in Java? Located in between Banyuwangi and Bondowoso region, Ijen Mountain actually a complex group of stratovolcanos.This active volcano is dangerous because itconstantly spewing sulfur smoke. The crater called KawahIjen is the largest acid lake in the world. You will be amazed by its stunning turquoise color of the lake surrounded by the beautiful mountain. Don’t forget to mention the most incredible  blue fire, the main attraction to this volcano.

Blue fire is a refer to blue flame according to local people. The blue flame is ignited sulfur  gas, which emerges from cracks at temperatures up to 600 degrees Celsius. The flames can be up to 5 meters and of the gas condenses to liquid and is still ignited. This unique phenomenon is really rare in the world, luckily it can only be seen in Indonesia and Iceland. Not only famous for its blue fire, Ijen also has wide caldera called Kawah Ijen. This most largest acid lake in the world has breathtaking view. Aturquoise acidic lake surrounded by many yellow sulfur cracks venting volcanic gases at a breathtaking speed. The plume of sulfur gas smoke can be rising high and at times appear to be coming close to us. In order to reach the famous lake, we need to wake up early and climb to the top then descend into the crater.

Usually people will start to trek around 1 AM in the morning because it takes 3 km to reach the point. This journey is indeed another adventure. As we do the night trekking, we will walk completely in the dark. If we are lucky the night sky and the stars will accompany us on the way to the top. Once we reach the top, we go descend into the crater to get closer with blue fire. It will take around 45 minute walk on rocky, narrow, dustypath. Be more careful with your step as you will start to smell the sulfur even stronger. It’s not allowed to get so close with blue fire as it will be very dangerous. Those giant blue flames are really magnificent view. Take your time to see this natural yet rare phenomenon to rest a bit. Then we can continue our journey back to the top to see the golden sunrise. There are some reason why Ijen is considered to be one of the most beautiful place in Indonesia, one of them are the sunrise view. The sun rises up to the sky slowly will catch your breath as the view surround start to show itself. It is like welcoming us to the great yet beautiful nature.

The golden color of the sun blend well with the turquoise lake down there and the green trees surround us, not to forget the mountain itself, standing there strongly beautiful with the white-blue sky. Maybe the words will not enough to show how perfect the view is. Not only the about the nature, Ijen also showing us the people. Along the journey, we will meet the miners, local people who works as sulfur miners. Usually they carry loads ranging from 75 kilograms  to 90 kilograms to the crater rim, and then 3 kilometers down the mountain for weighing. Most miners make this journey twice a day. You can imagine how hard their life is, so respect them well and say hi whenever you pass them by on your way.

Those are some of the reason, why you can not skip Ijen Mountain as your destination when you visited Indonesia. Not likely Bromo Mountain where everything is easy to get to the view point or the crated, you need effort to see the main attraction of Ijen Mountain. You need to proof it by yourself why Ijen Mountain is dangerously beautiful volcano.

If you are interested to visit this dangerously beautiful mountain, please visit ourtripfirst.com for more details. 

IJEN BLUE FIRE - LARGEST ACID LAKE IN WORLD

Kawah Ijen or Ijen Crater is volcano which has the largest acided lake in the world, about 20 Km wide and the volume of the crater proximately around 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre•ft).

The summit of ijen crater is about 2.799 meter high,  it took and effort for peoples to reach at the top. Mostly it take  two-hour hike is required to reach rim of the crater (1.5 kilometers) from the summit, and 45 minutes to hike down to the bank of the crater, a guide necessary.

The caldera or the lake of Kawah Ijen harbors  has turquoise colored, the color it came from acidic crater lake that leaks sulphurous gases constantly then mix the the water spring that come of from bottom of crater area.

at Nigh the hot gases burn out to emit an amazing blue glow unique color  in some part of the bottom of crater, it well known as “Blue fire” pure fire that emerge beneth the earth.

the blue fire emerge because the gases and also liquid sulphur emerge from the cracks in the volcano come up with high pressure and temperature (up to 600°C) and when it contact with the air suddenly it ignite and burn  as it flows down the slopes among the pipe giving the feeling of blue lava flowing.

Kawah ijen is becoming very well known in the world, as the only one natural blue fire. But not many peoples know that actually ijen is not only amazing touristic destination. From Dutch colonial age, Kawah Ijen is work place for sulphur miner.

The liquid sulphur that leaking from beneath the earth channeled through a network ceramic-steal pipe line, the liquid with bright red color molten, pours slowly through ceramic-steal pipelines, then end of on the ground and liquid sulphur mix with Oxygen it condense instantly then change the color becoming bright yellow when it cools down.

All then miner have to break the yellow cooled sulphur into pieces, the nearby crater in very dense of sulfuric smoke (gas) that emerge of crater which can make peoples hardly to breath and also make the eyes itchy. The miner have to deal with such harsh enviromment an able to collect sulfur put in the their bamboo basket and carried it down the hills. Mostly the miner carried weight of basket up to 60 Kg – 100 kg and they carried it twice a day.

The miner carried it down, weight it up at post point, then the officer (from private company) note how much they carried in their basket, every 1 kg of sulfur paid for 800 – 900 IDR.

The workers work in extremely hazardous condition with insufficient protection. Most of them suffers from numerous respiratory problems due to breathing toxic fumes day in and out. At times they work at night under to escape the heat of the sun, and to earn extra income.