Indonesia - Lijen Crater

Short night again. But this time we had to get up even earlier - at 12.30 AM !!! It is hard work to travel and to see some unique sights! But well worth it!
After one hour drive we got to the base point. From here we had to hike up and was quite steep up, but a good "walk" for 1.5 hours to reach the top of Lijen Crater. Still dark.
What you can see here at this crater - and there are only two places in the world - are the blue flames. You only see them around 3am to 4am in the morning.
We could already see the blue dots from the top. There is a signboard that it is steep, slippery and tourists should not go down there. Workers get down there to bring up the yellow coloured sulfer. They carry 60-80kg. Respect.
Good that it was still dark, our group went down there. And it really really is steep, you just go over stones, sometimes you wonder if this is a path and if you can make it all down. VERY SCARY.
But once down there, it is amazing to see the blue fire dancing. Mystic athmosphere.But when the wind changed an all the sulfer smoke came to your face, even with a scarf around your mouth we started to cough. Something definetely worth to do. An adventure that will be remembered !! Getting back to the top was still as scary, so reliefed once back up and then it started to get light. and there was the crater lake. Beautiful. Walking back and seeing the sunrise and the plateu and the landscape was extraordinary. So beautiful - we enjoyed the 3km walk and were happy to get a hot tea. On the top it was quite cold.
We then left at 7am to go further east to Banyuwangi to catch the ferry to Bali. Still another long day before us.