🙂 Active volcano!
🙁 Active volcano!
After leaving the impressive Borobudur, which is is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, we headed back to our Homestay for a nap in readiness for our ascent of Mt Merapi overnight for dawn the next day. Merapi is one of the most active and most dangerous volcanoes on Earth, a fact that at the time we were blissfully unaware of. In December 1995 the number of pyroclastic flows falling from the lava flow front temporarily increased … a lucky miss as in November 1994 64 people perished.
We were collected and driven to Selo. Accompanied by juvenile Australian girls who giggled constantly and were unable to maintain a sensible dialogue with even Trent! We set off at 01h30 and Paul, Trent and I took the lead – we were by far the fittest (hee!hah!) with even Charlie having trouble keeping up with us. We climbed all the way to the summit where Trent promptly fell asleep! We could see the red hot molten lava – amazing! The sunrise was amazing – what a stunning scene. The cherry on top was that the irritating Ozzies failed to reach the summit. Shame. A 5 year old has more stamina. Merapi was smoking and the smell of sulphur was overwhelming. Downhill was tougher for us but Trent sprinted down! When we got down Trent was the local hero! All the locals came to congratulate him and take his photo! They say he is the youngest to have summited so we were very proud. The childish Ozzies were very quiet and subdued – lol.
Go to: Bali & Ubud
Go to: Bromo
Go to: Komodo
Go to: Merapi
Go to: Gili Islands
