5 days trekking through thousand streams waterfall, watching active volcano

Indonesia Anh Phung spent 5 days trekking to the Thousand Stream Waterfall, the world's largest acid lake, and an active volcano on Java Island.

Java is the fourth largest island in the Indonesian archipelago and the 12th largest in the world. Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Java was formed by volcanic eruptions tens of thousands of years ago. There are more than 100 volcanoes on the island, of which about 40 are active.

View of Tengger volcano on Java island (Indonesia).

During the 5-day trip (July 7-12), Tran Minh Phung (32 years old, Da Lat) trekked the Ijen - Tumpak - Bromo route to admire two famous volcanoes, Bromo, Ijen and see the Tumpak waterfall. Bromo is one of the 5 most beautiful active volcanoes in Asia and Ijen is the largest acid lake in the world. Phung spent a day trekking to explore each point.

The first trek point is Kawah Ijen Lake in the Ijen Volcanic Area, located between the Bondowoso and Banyuwangi Plateaus in eastern Java. Located at an altitude of 2,300 m above sea level, this is the world's largest acidic lake with a capacity of 36 million m3. The turquoise lake is always covered with a thick white smoke and the air smells of rotten eggs (the smell of hydrogen sulfide compounds).

At 4am at the Ijen Lake base camp, groups of people holding flashlights and wearing gas masks followed each other to the top of the mountain. The road to the Ijen crater was steep, 45-60 degree slopes. In the pouring rain, Phung's group decided to wear raincoats and trek the 4km distance in about an hour and a half.

When the rain stopped at the top, a pink-purple scene appeared before our eyes. "The pink and purple colors spread across the sky, contrasting with the turquoise lake water and the cold gray mountains and cliffs. The mist in the distance and the white smoke rising from the lake made the scene brilliant and magical," said Mr. Phung.

After watching the sunrise, the group continued climbing 300 meters from the mountain mouth down the cliff, into the Ijen volcanic crater. At the foot of the acid lake is a field of pure sulfur, the color of fresh turmeric. Irul Nurulah, a local guide, said that people often come here to carry sulfur to sell.

Irul Nurulah added that Ijen is one of the rare places on earth where you can see blue lava streams glowing in the dark, which takes place around 3-4am. This phenomenon is created by the combustion reaction when sulfur combines with oxygen in the air. However, because it was raining, Phung's group left late so they did not have the opportunity to admire this amazing natural phenomenon.

In the afternoon of the same day, the group moved to the village near Tumpak waterfall to facilitate the next day's journey. When arriving, the group received information that it had been raining continuously recently, making trekking quite dangerous. The journey seemed to be interrupted, but luckily the next morning the weather cleared up. The group set off at 7am and arrived at the top of the waterfall at 8am.

Tumpak Sewu is also known as the waterfall of a thousand streams, because the water pouring down from the top of the waterfall forms small streams. "The waterfall looks like a piece of soft silk with parallel white threads. This can be considered the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen," said Mr. Phung. Due to the influence of rainy days, the waterfall has a large water flow and strong current, so it can only be viewed from above, not down.

The group left Tumpak Falls, the next destination was Cemoro Lawang village, located near Mount Bromo volcano on the Tengger plateau in eastern Java. The plateau was formed from lava from the Tengger volcano eruption about 45,000 years ago.

Bromo volcano, along with Kursi, Watangan and Widodare, form a cluster of small volcanoes in the 16 km wide Tengger volcano, which is about 820,000 years old, surrounded by a sea of ​​black sand and ash-gray lava. "Looking at the giant Tengger volcano from afar, below is a sea of ​​black sand, above is the sun and wind, the scene reminds me of the movie Knights of the Time," said Mr. Phung.

Waking up at 2am to prepare to climb the mountain, Mr. Phung was surprised by the number of people flocking here to watch the sunrise early, most of them tourists from Europe. To get to the Bromo sunrise viewing spot, visitors will drive to the foot of the mountain and then trek about 500m further. Similar to Ijen, the sunrise scene in Bromo is purple-pink. Because it is still active, the crater continuously emits smoke. The thick white smoke rises high, turning pink when the sunlight shines on it.

The road from the sunrise viewing point to the crater passes through a sandy desert with “undulating grooves that you only see in comic books,” said Phung. The dinosaur spines with dozens of serrated grooves formed by lava eruptions are still intact. The road with cliffs on one side has a landscape similar to Vietnam’s Ma Pi Leng Pass.

Walking another 3 km, Phung reached the crater of Mount Bromo, where carbon dioxide from the ground spewed into the air. "Standing on the crater of Mount Bromo was one of the most beautiful moments of my life because it was the first time I witnessed an active volcano in real life," he said. From Bromo, visitors can clearly see Semeru, Java's tallest active volcano.

The crackling sound of hot rocks reminds visitors that this is an active volcano, with lava flows at thousands of degrees Celsius bubbling beneath the ground. Bromo’s last eruption in early 2011 killed two tourists and closed several airports in the area.

In July, the island has a lot of rain, the average temperature is about 12 - 14 degrees Celsius. If you intend to come here, visitors should bring warm clothes and practice before the trip because the trek requires endurance because of moving and trekking continuously for three days.

Mr. Phung spent 15 million VND on the trip, including 4 million VND for the tour, 6 million VND for the round-trip airfare, 2 million VND for the hotel, the rest for food and other expenses.

The trip brought Mr. Phung "first times" in his life. Besides, there were many plans he had not fulfilled, such as watching the green lava flow glowing at night or going down to the foot of the thousand-stream waterfall. "There were many regrets on the trip, perhaps that is the reason why I have an appointment to do this trek again," Mr. Phung said.

Quynh Mai
Photo courtesy of NVCC
Source: World Atlas, CNN

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