Black snow and a vision of hell

Let me start by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and say that, shortly, I will going to bed after waking up at 4am this morning, and 3am yesterday morning -however no more early mornings are planned so some later nights will be in the pipeline!

The first 3am rise was to head to the top of Bromo, a volcano that erupted a few weeks ago and still spewing ash everywhere. It is one hell of a site. We'd spent the previous afternoon at a guesthouse near the top of the crater and were being rained on by black ash constantly. The poor staff were cleaning windows, sweeping floors and even sweeping the roof (the ash can get heavy, especially when wet). We'd also ventured out for a walk to see the craziness outside... several inches of black ash had covered all the fields. I think some people replanted vegetables a week or so ago, after the initial eruption subsided but they all got covered again. Some great photos of the fields though will be uploaded soon.

As will the photos of what we saw ridiculously early that morning. Behind one was a vision of hell, everything was black, trees had collapsed or were drooping. Black ash swirled in the wind, especially the ash blowing off of the trees, and roads were covered in a foot of solid black sand-like ash. In front of us was an amazing site: a massive crater which 3 other smaller craters in it. One of them was Bromo, with black ash billowing out and rising into the atmosphere then blowing across miles and miles of nearby villages. Even at Probolingo, the nearest large town, an hour drive away, their was a light ash-fall.

This morning was a trip to another volcanic crater; this one a sulfuric lake that was a beautiful deep turquoise color that was very rewarding after a tough climb at fairly high altitude. The locals dig out the sulfur in solid form, as it comes out of the geyser on the side of the crater and then carry it down the mountain on their shoulders. A horrible job.

This afternoon, i saw something i have never seen before... and it took me a while to work out exactly what it was. We were sitting on a ferry, waiting for it to leave when we saw someone swimming next to the boat shouting. After a while we worked out that he, and two others (who were wearing fins), were actually begging and would swim like crazy to get the coins as they started sinking once they were thrown overboard. It did seems somewhat desperate, and not that safe, but it was kind of interesting too. Most ironically, they were the only beggars i have seen in 3 days in Indonesia, which, on the whole, is more developed, tidier, cleaner and with better infrastructure than I expected. Although a few bones were rattled on the road down from the volcano this morning, and a few bags fell out the van as the boot door swung open!

It has been a wonderful trip so far -special- and more updates to come!