My story was not over yet because we (me and six friends of mine) have planned to my hometown, Banyuwangi. There is a pride on me to live in Banyuwangi since many incredible places exist to be visited. What type of natural experience that you like the most? Hike to mountain? Camping on an unpopulated island? Snorkeling, and surfing for more extreme? Waterfall? Farm? You’ll get those experiences in Banyuwangi. Seems like I’m promoting Banyuwangi. Haha…But that’s truth. Come here to prove it. Contact me and I will ride you go around If I am home (I’m finishing final thesis for my undergraduate now).
First destination was Gunung Ijen (Ijen Mount) which well known to its blue fire. It was not my first time hike this mountain, before I have hiked it on August 17th (Indonesia independent day) with different team. Packed all the staffs (clothes, medicines, snacks, cooking ware, tents, etc.) on carrier and got ready. We had a long-dark-uphill way to get the final post, named Paltuding. It was quiet scary (honestly) because along the way is coffee-clove-cacao garden and forest. It is seriously dark bro, no light at all at least until the last village. We sometimes reduced weight because of extreme uphill, one person rode and the rest walked. Or it was because of we rode wrong motorcycle, hahaha. Higher we rode, colder it was and rain made it worse. We chilled. It seems like we had fucking hard way to get paltuding, but seriously that what we say adventure is.
About 3 hours from my home to get Paltuding where you can set your tent up. Ah, there’s also room for rent. It’s not hard to get meals and drink there since there’s cafeteria, no need to be worried. Got Paltuding at 9 p.m. I guess, we set our tents and cooked our meals (1st trial, there will be 2nd and 3rd trial on the next place to get good meals). Prepared jacket and any warming staffs, headlamp, snacks, and camera for sure then we hiked. It was almost 12 (you’d better hike at 1 or 2 I think). We were willing to see blue fire. The fire comes from sulfur on the crater. It is big and blue. We hiked…hiked…hikeeedd. We got higher and higher. Had rest for a while and snacking to recharge energy. In some spots we could see Banyuwangi from the top. In some spots we could see anything. I some spots we could meet local people who want to take sulfur.
Two or two a half we hiked, and finally we got the top. Unfortunately it was so smoky. Yah January is not good time to hike Gunung Ijen, because it was rainy. We couldn’t see stars because of cloud. So unlucky broo. The worst, we couldn’t see the Blue Fire. Aaaaargh! So poor, huh?! That’s why you’d better choose dry season to visit Gunung Ijen, March to August. Finally we stayed for some hours until the sunrise, even though we could see the sunrise from Gunung Ijen but we still could see the red light.
It was bright already, and we explore the mountain more. Yah, we couldn’t see the blue fire, but we didn’t fail at all because this scene in the morning was awesome after all.
A capture minutes after sunrise. the red-line shine across the cloudy sky.
This is how the crater looks like from the top. Blue fire comes from the sulfur. See the yellow part where the smoke appear. See also the lake-like. Is that wide, huh?!
This is the opposite part of the crater.
A lonely-mountain plant grows in the crater rim. Alone, small, and cute.
The sun had its ring. Got this picture minutes before we went down to paltuding.
As always, have a selfie to get full team photo.
There’s a ‘hallo’ from the top of Gunung Ijen. I used to do this…
TINFORMERS; cool name for my batch in this department.
MATIPALA (Mahasiswa TIN Pecinta Alam) – a group of people in department I am studying in who love outdoor experience, meet the nature.
JENGKOL is just a JENGKOL 🙂
[Irham, Eko, Reno, Muse, Salim, Dedi] This time we couldn’t see the blue fire bro, but we are going to visit Gunung Ijen again right?! For you too who wanna visit, just go and see the Incredible Gunung Ijen together.
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