To those People who have passion for adventure, exploring unique and unusual experiences or those who may love Nature and Natural Phenomena but are not afraid of nature’s unpredictability you can see and enjoy this Amazing & Beautiful Volcano, Crater & Blue Fire that you never seen anywhere else before. If you have any existing breathing conditions (asthma, panic easily) or have extremely sensitive eyes I would recommend you don’t try to get into the Caldera but if you are fit and can cope with the sulfur and a bit of a rough trail, then GO FOR IT…! as it is an amazing and the most unique in the world.
The Ijen Volcano, which has a 2 kilometer wide turquoise colored highly acidic crater/lake known as Kawah Ijen Crater is located in the Banyuwangi Regency of East Java, Indonesia. The 200 meters deep of caldera contains about 36 million cubic meters of steaming hydrochloric sulfur acid, shroud in a smelling swirling sulfur cloud. This largest active highly sulfuric crater in the world was featured in the 1991 IMAX film Ring of Fire and as a topic on the 5th episode of the BBC television documentary Human Planet.
The phenomena of 5 meters high electric blue flame come out from the lake that filled with hot hydrochloric sulfur is absolutely amazing. This flame is ignited sulfuric gas, which emerges from cracks at temperatures up to 600 degrees Celsius. The blue flame will disappear at 05.00 am in the morning, so you have to come here at midnight if you don’t want to miss it. This is the Largest Blue Flame in the World and known as “Blue Fire”.
A one hour drive from either Bondowoso city or Banyuwangi city, East Java is required to reach the Pos Paltuding (starting point of the trek of this volcano). To reach the rim of the crater we need a two hour hike, followed by a 45 minute hike down to the bank of the crater. We started off from this point for the 4 km trek up to the caldera rim at 02.00 am in the morning. The trek began with a rather easy straight and wide route with no rocks for about one hour, and the remaining route is a rough scramble trek with deep slopes without fences, but nothing to worry about because you will accompanied by hundreds travelers or hikers. Do not let anyone pressure you to walk faster, make sure you are safe and do at your own trek and let the other person pass. If you feel very uncomfortable scrambling the dark down a steep rough trek or if you do not like to see deep slopes without fences, you can rent a traditional cart to take you up to caldera.
Sunrise is so beautiful up here. The scenery, sunrise, plateau, cloud, crater and the sulfur smokes creates a beautiful symphony of a natural painting.
