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Home » FeatureStory
Such place is the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. Here visitors will come face to face with an ancient volcano caldera surrounded on all sides by sheer cliff. This ancient caldera is the remains of two mountain volcanoes about 4,000 metres high. About a million years ago, a massive eruption followed by a series of smaller eruptions left behind a massive caldera and created several smaller volcanoes in the area. The smaller volcanoes that exist till today are Mount Penanjakan, north of the caldera, and Jampangan Mountains complex in the south. This volcanic mountainous country is also known as Tengger Highlands, home of the Tenggerese, followers of an ancient form of Hinduism that was widely practised in Java during the Majapahit era. Today, the Tenggerese are farmers who carve their farm lands on mountain slopes. Pre-Dawn Departure Visit the national park and one can get closest to an active volcano. A typical volcano tour starts in the early morning. At about 3am or 4am, you will be taken on a jeep ride to reach the mountain-top viewing point on Mount Penanjakan at 2,770m above the ground. When dawn breaks, the view of the sunrise will simply take your breath away. This happens again at sunset. If you have never seen a caldera before, you’ll be awe-struck throughout your trek. Tengger Caldera has a jaw-dropping landscape. Way down below is the spectacular Lautan Pasir (Sea Of Sand) or the plain. Across it you will see the volcanoes – the cone-shaped Mount Batok, the white-plumed Mount Bromo, and constantly erupting Mount Semeru looming in the distance. Most postcard pictures of the caldera are taken from the Mount Penanjakan viewing point. Besides the view, this vantage point is also the place to hunt for souvenirs. The path leading to it is lined with shops selling items like T-shirts, scarves, batik items and wood or stone carvings. But the most popular item (judging from the many shops that stock the item) appears to be the Bromo hat, a colourful woolly hat with the word Bromo embroidered on it. There are also a few warung, the Indonesian version of small café or our coffeeshop, where visitors can have a quick breakfast in preparation for the next leg of tour. How Close Can You Go? Hop into a jeep for the ride from Mount Penanjakan. It will bring you inside Tengger Caldera, the floor of which is coated with fine volcanic sand and it’s aptly dubbed Sea Of Sand. Crossing it evokes an out-of-this-world feeling. The jeep stops at the parking area, marked by a white stone fence near the foot of Mount Batok. The walk to Mount Bromo starts here. If you don’t want to walk, you can hire a horse. You will find dozens of local Tenggerese men and their horses for hire waiting in the parking area. The walk takes about 30 minutes (faster if you ride a horse). After passing the extinct Mount Batok on the right and the Tenggerese Hindu candi (temple) on the left, you arrive at the foot of smoking Mount Bromo. The closest that visitors can get to view this always-smoking volcano is to climb up 250 steps to the precarious ledge that’s just a metre wide. Imagine gazing down at a live volcano crater with smoke billowing from its belly. This is the highlight of visiting the park and a must-see for visitors to the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. Eruption Alert The more adventurous can climb Mount Semeru, the highest mountain in Java, standing 3,676m. What’s most interesting is that this active volcano has been emitting clouds of hot gases and ashes since 1967! Sometimes, this happens every 20-35 minutes, keeping you on the edge, wondering when it’s going to erupt again. Mount Semeru is part of the Jampangan Mountain complex which includes several other volcanic mountains like Mount Welirang, Mount Kelud and Mount Arjuno. Climbing up Mount Semeru requires three to four days of hiking. The starting and ending point of the hiking trail is Ranu Pane Village, a farming village that’s probably the highest permanent human habitation in Java at 2,000m. It is also named after a lake here, the Ranu Pane Lake. The first part of the trail goes through a narrow, winding path with vegetation on both sides. You’ll get wet brushing against moisture that clings to the vegetation as the trail cuts through a montane forest of casuarinas trees and giant ferns. After trekking for about 10 kms, you arrive at the scenic Ranu Kumbolo Lake (2,400m). Some hikers stop here for the night or just to take a short break. Climbing up the hill from the lake, hikers will cross a plain called Oro-oro Ombo, one sq km of grass plain surrounded by rolling hills of casuarina and pine trees. Further on is another montane forest and a clearing called Cemoro Kandang, from which you catch your first sight of the cone-shaped Mount Semeru. The trail then takes you to the Kalimati plain. Here, at the edge of forest, is a campsite where you can pitch your tent for the night. The climb to the summit starts at 4-5am the next day. You trek in the dark, following the ascending trail through the forested slope. At an altitude of about 2,900 metres is an area called Arcopodo that marks the final vegetation line. Beyond this, you will need to clamber up the loose sand of the mountain slope. This is easier said than done. The tortuous climb up proves to be worth the while when you reach the broad plain on the summit. There’s your reward – the sight of a truly dramatic sunrise and the panoramic vista. Because it is a solitary volcanic mountain, the view is totally unobstructed. For me, the most rewarding part is seeing clouds of hot gases and ashes billowing from its crater, called Jongring Soloka. Humans can’t go any closer as the gases are poisonous. But it’s so surreal to have come this close and it’s definitely an experience of a lifetime. How To Get There Many people include climbing Mount Semeru and the Bromo tour of Tengger Caldera as an extended itinerary of visiting the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. You can climb the mountain first before continuing with the Bromo tour or vice versa. Crazy? Not for the intrepid traveller. The jump-off point to this park is Surabaya, the capital city of East Java, which is accessible via the cities of Malang, Pusuruan, Probolinggo or Lumajang. Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia fly daily to Surabaya. For details of volcano and mountain tours, go to http://adventureindonesia.com or contact Adventure Indonesia-Jakarta at Tel: 62-21-718-2250, Fax: 62-21-718-0438 or email: info@adventureindonesia.com Where To Stay There are many small hotels in the nearby mountain villages like Cemero Lawang, Tosari or Ngadisari. Accommodation can be packaged with tours. Discuss your needs with Adventure Indonesia-Jakarta.
 
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