Krakatau goes boom

*I had forgotten to mention a few other hang-ups I had on the motorbike trip that also made it even more difficult. On the morning that we ascended to the summit of the volcano I ended up getting an upset stomach and the runs. Never the most pleasant thing, but up on an open, incredibly steep volcano that is freezing cold and with sulfur all around so that it's hard to breathe, it hardly makes it any better. Than on the really rough road to bangko we hit a particularly large pothole. I put my wrist down to brace myself and sprained it. It actuall didn't really hurt that bad and I hardly noticed it, but the next day it hurt quite bad and my right arm was useless. And try finding a splint or ace bandage in bangko. Ended up using one of my sandals as a splint and a t-shirt as a splint. The good news is that after another day and night it was pretty much back to normal*


As Jakarta is a very dirty, very polluted and not necessarily nice city I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible, watching my wallet and money purse at all times. From the airport took a bus to the west bus terminal and then a bus northwest of jakarta to the west coast and the little village of Carita. While on the bus there was a large earthquake not too far from where I was going, but again, being on the bus didn't feel anything. The motorbike driver from labuan to carita took me to a hotel that was on the beach but a bit to pricey for me;however, the manager cut me a good deal instead of going down the road, so I stayed there. His name was Ananas, and would later restore my faith in tour related indonesians. He told me Krakatau--the reason I was there and perhaps the most famous active volcano in the world--was currently erupting. He had been there 3 days earlier with a tour group that searches out erupting volcanoes and it had been erupting and even erupting lots of lava. So I was instantly interested as I was still on my quest to see that. The boat for a day though would cost 2 million rupiah or for the overnight trip which is the only way to see the lava, would cost 3 million rupiah, which is quite a lot for one person. It can be split by up to six people in which case it wouldn't be so bad. He said there was only one other westerner in the area, a spaniard who was also interested, so we would wait a day to see if anyone else came.

The next day I first walked around Carita to try and see if anyone else was staying. It was like a ghost town though. Tons of resorts, but no one staying there at all. I think it's mainly a weekend getaway for jakartans (it was a weekend) but during ramadan they don't come. But no other tourists for sure. To pass the time, I took a hike into the forest to a really nice waterfall to swim at and then also went swimming at the beach. I ran into the spaniard that night and he told me he was tired of waiting and was leaving, in fact he was leaving the country b/c he was tired of ramadan and wanted to drink and eat. So now it was just me. I decided to wait until the next morning to see if anyone would come and on one did. Ananas was quite nice though and he told me the lowest he could go was 2 million which I'm guessing was trully low. I realized that who knows if I'd ever be back to see this infamous volcano, and especially when it was erupting, so I decided to go for it...and I certainly didn't regret it!

That afternoon the captain, his one man crew, the guide Dedi, and myself headed out across the often dangerous, due to big waves, Sunda strait. It actually would be cheaper to higher a traditional fishing boat, but the strait can be so bad, they really warn against it. After an hour and a half of speeding along we caught sight of krakatau, or kind of what is left of it. The krakatau complex used to be 3 large volcanoes that were little more than landmarks for boatsman. But in 1883 it erupted violently. So violently that the boom was heard in perth australia, that small tidal waves were found as far away as great britain and that the ash in the air affected the world climate for several years afterward. The result of the explosion was that two the mountains were completely obliterated and 1/2 of the other was as well. So what remained was a giant underground crater with 3 islands. 1 island was half of one of the volcanoes and the other 2 islands were from debris. But in the 30's out of the middle of the water between them anak krakatau (child of krakatau) emerged from the water and has been fairly active ever since, so that now it is about 2500ft high. Krakatau had been erupting just a few days ago every 15 minutes or so, so we floated in the boat offshore for over an hour waiting for it to erupt, but it never did. So now I was getting nervous that I had wated my money. We took the boat to go land on Rakata island (the island that was part of the original 3 volcanoes) so we could set up camp. It was an amazing place to camp. A beautiful black sand beach, a view right at anak krakatau, a nice breeze, no mosquitos. Just us. Really just perfect. We set up camp and from my tent door you could see straight out to the beach and krakatau, though I didn't even end up using my tent. After the sun had set and it was getting dark and we were cooking, krakatau erupted. It was definitely quiet cool to see. It would then go onto erupt at least 25 times (I lost count) that night. We built a fire, finished the cooking, which included some fresh fish caught by some fisherman passing by, and sat on the beach and ate and watched krakatau erupt. Now not every eruption is a fire eruption, so yo keep watching hoping to see the big fire show. I ended up getting to see a little bit of fire on 3 eruptions, though not nearly as big and bright as the ones from the photos I had seen from the group there 3 days ago, but that was fine. I was really happy there watching it erupt, sitting on this amazing beach, and with clear skies. The nice thing was that it was a full moon, so even though it was night you could still clearly see the mountain and the ash eruptions. I tried to stay up as long as possible to see that big fire eruption, but I fell asleep on the beach around 4am.
Woke up in the morning to a nice sunrise and beautiful clear skies, but unfortunately no eruptions. I had seen it erupt, but I really wanted to see it erupt in the day time when it would be clearer. We took the boat back to the area at the base of the volcano and waited for an hour or so, but didn't see it erupt. We then motored around the island checking out the different rock formations and lava flows of old before landing on a little area that had started growing some trees. From there, when it's not active you can hike to the top, but since it was active it's only safe to hike to this ridge. But after hiking up a bit, I was wondering just how safe it was. All around on the hike up were huge bomb holes (like those when you go off a cliff in deep powder and then pop out) with large rocks in the middle of the hole, obviously from being shot up from the volcano. The higher up I went the more and more there were and the bigger they were. Once at the ridge there was a sort of scientific instrumentation place with solar panels and all, but it was mostly destroyed from being hit by rocks. We walked around the ridge for a while when I burned my foot a bit (yes I was wearing sandals while climbing part of a volcano, but only b/c I had left the shoes in the boat not thinking we'd really be going up such an active volcano. Anways, I jumped back after I felt the incredible heat on my feet. We dug around a bit in the loose rock and dirt and found a rock still steaming. It had obviously been shot out of the volcano last night when it was hot and perhaps a bit molten and now was still steaming hot. We actually found quite a lot of these around. And I asked Dedi if this was really safe. And he said yes. If the rocks come flying over towards us you can just dodge them (hmm...sounds like another video game, seems like I have been playing a lot of video games...with my life...here in indonesia). I trusted him b/c he had been up here quite a lot, but I still wondered whether you could duck out of the way of a VW sized rock flying at the speed of gravity towards you. He also said that the rocks wouldn't come this way b/c the wind was at our backs. This I had to laugh at b/c I have taken enough physics classes in my life to know that a 15 knot southwesterly wind is not going to affect the trajectory of a 2 ton rock. A stiff wind may have a slight affect of how many homeruns are hit at coors field, but not a huge rock, but it did appear as though the crater was such that the rocks were shot out in a different direction usually, though we had evidence against that steaming right near my feet. Dedi wanted to sit here and wait for it to erupt. We sat there for several hours on that moonscape in the full sun with no activity at all. I was beginning to get a bit disappointed b/c I did want to see it erupt in the day, and from this vantage point would be amazing. I couldn't imagine many other places, without being a vulcanologist, that you could get such a close up view of a volcano erupting. I figured it must be fantastic. But it was looking like it might not erupt and Dedi was starting to say it wouldn't erupt and wouldn't do so again until night. It must be on ramadan he joked. So he said it was time to head back down. Down below I saw another guide and a gal hiking up. So I told Dedi let's wait until those two make it up. Something told me to wait until they made it up, maybe it's because when you're stuck in the middle of a volcano in the middle of the sea and you see a single girl you should wait and at least meet her. So we did. I was introducing myself to Sarah the australian when all of a sudden there was a tremendous boom. I looked up and dark ash and huge rocks were shooting straight up in one of the most incredible things I had ever seen and definitely the most powerful thing I had ever seen. With the rocks being flung so high up in the air, there is a sort of optical illusion and it looks just like they are coming down straight for you. I majorly panicked and started sprinting in my flip flops down the mountain (I would later get a nice cut and Dedi would say, I told you not to run but to dodge as you'll get hurt running). Sarah was cursing and screaming and yelling (what australians tend to best). But when we looked up again we saw the rocks were no where near hitting us and were crashing instead onto the cone of the volcano. We regrouped with our hearts pounding and full of excitemen and awe. And of course the guides hadn't flinched. Sarah had come from the sumatra side in a fishing boat and her guide didn't know english so she didn't even know that the volcano was active so it was even more of a surprise for her. We sat there and watched about 5 more eruptions, all smaller than the first and one more big one of equal size, still getting a rush from it, before heading down. Wow!!! talk about amazing, and it was of course supplemented by all the great aussie commentation.

Back down on the boats again we watched a few more eruptions from the water before heading back to Carita where I caught the first bus I could back to jakarta's west station. It was going to be cutting it close to catch the last train to yogykarta, but the motorcyclists i hired to take me the 13kms to the train station was a speedy guy for sure weaving in an out of jakarta's insane traffic. The train was supposed to leave at 8:45, and I got there just a touch after 9, which I thought would be fine b/c not a single thing had come close to leaving on time in indonesia yet including tours, planes, ships, and busses. But apparently the train was on time. So I had to spend the night in jakarta. Didn't do any sightseeing that night in jakarta. Just walked to the tourist area which wasn't far from the station, ate at a tasty malaysian restaurant and went to bed. The next morning I caught the first train to jogyakarta, which was actually ok b/c going at night you just sleep but during the day I got to see lots of the nice scenery pass by from the train.

I'm still in awe about the volcano though. That eruption was just so powerful. I can see it playing over and over in my head. wow...