Ijen Crater

travel time: September 2023

Another short night & another early morning because the next adventure was waiting. Our guide and a driver picked us up at 1 am to drive to the starting point of the Ijen Crater. Because of government regulations we weren´t allowed to start our hike until 2 am. It was no issue that many people started the hike at the same time. As everyone had a different pace hiking up the mountain it was never crowded. After one hour we made it to the top of the crater. You could still only see the lights from all the people as it was the middle of the night.

Just a short break later we made our way into the crater. Down there was our goal of the hike – the famous blue fire. The phenomenon is caused by escaping sulfur gas which is burning. Equipped with gas masks we were able to enjoy the burning blue fire for quite some time before it got too crowded.

Slowly we were making our way back up to the crater rim again to watch the sunrise and see the crater lake from the top. Finally with some light we had an amazing view over the acid crater lake and the surrounding nature.

Many pictures later we hiked back down to the starting point. Now during the day, we were able to see how steep the path actually was.

After a nice breakfast it was time for some rest at the pool. The hotel we were staying in (Ijen Villas and Resorts) had a refreshing pool with a nice view over rice fields.

In the afternoon we walked around the rice fields and the small villages nearby, took some amazing pictures and found a cute little Warung to eat.