Tengger Massif - Camping in East Java
Camped in the Tengger Massif as well as remote camp sites in Argo Wulan; this trip gave us the chance to explore and document other-worldly volcanic landscape compositions from alternative angles that deviates from the usual touristy shots; hopefully reminding people of the immense beauty and scale of these volcanoes. As an added bonus, the high altitude combined with the lack of light pollution provided an excellent chance for astrophotography.
It feels peculiar for me and my wife, as native Singaporeans from tropical Singapore to fly 80 minutes to East Java, Indonesia, take a short car ride and arrive at a dry, barren and subtropical highlands climate that dips down to 5°C at night. Consisting of a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and situated along the ring of fire, you will see volcanoes peeking above clouds when en route to Surabaya airport while in the airplane, and also volcanoes of various sizes while transiting between areas in East Java by driving.
Many thanks to the friendly locals, porters, trustworthy and helpful guides who supported us every step of the way.
Love the sense of scale going on here. The caldera in the background rises almost 400 meters above the settlement in the foreground, that's taller than the Eiffel Tower! Sunrise near Cemoro Lawang at 5.40am; Argo Wulan viewpoint.
It looked comfortable here, but on our 3rd day at the Argo Wulan campsite, our Protrek watch registered an unbearably warm 37°C while in the tent with flaps drawn up, but due to thin air, immediately felt like 16°C once we headed out to the shade under trees 20 meters away; with or without wind. The temperature dropped to 4°C during midnight, it's peculiar to experience this in Indonesia.
Sunbeams illuminating Mount Batok across the sandsea, 20 minutes to sunset. Note the zig-zag road in the rightside foreground, that's where we trekked from!
Upsized ridges and dunes part II. The same area was photographed with a different composition the next morning, with low lying clouds obscuring the Luhur Poten Temple and the sand sea.
Upsized ridges and dunes. Was expecting the crater to rumble like a jet engine upclose, but it was eerily quiet.
In the foreground is a Hindu temple called Luhur Poten.
In the foreground is a Hindu temple called Luhur Poten.
Bottom left: Andromeda Galaxy from 2580m AMSL. Finally got this one right, it was tricky to get tracking right as it lies close to Polaris.
Bottom right: Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex. The dark streaks are dark nebula made up of gas and dust, the brightest spot is Jupiter. Good thing I had my sleeping bag in the cold! Camera sensor hot-pixels that show up during long exposures were controlled due to the lack of heat build-up.
Mandatory Bromo sunrise shot. The natural purple/pink tones turned blue within 15 minutes after the sunrise. Note the sulphuric gas eruption which happens every ±20 minutes in the neighboring Mount Semeru, which rises 3676m above sea level.
Sunset shot of the Tengger Massif. Confused by the lack of people at the viewing point in the evening, the main draw is usually the sunrise (it gets really crowded), but isn't the sunset almost equally good?
Cemoro Lawang, we hopped on-board our jeep in this small settlement the previous day before heading up to our campsite.
Receding clouds during sunset revealing a vast network of ridges over the Tengger Caldera.
Mount Batok peeking through the clouds, our guide told us that we were lucky to have good weather during this trip, it is common to have clouds totally obscuring the view for simultaneous days.
Hours away from the Tengger Massif, sulphur mines can be found beside the crater lake at Mount Ijen, an active volcano that rises 2769m above sea level. A system of ceramic pipes funnel the gases responsible for condensation into sulfur blocks.
Miners at Mount Ijen carry up to 200 pounds of sulphur up the steep and dangerous slopes, these numbers were definitely accurate, we tried carrying. Note how the trail disappears into rough and unmarked paths at the bottom of this image.
Note the people standing at the crater edge. While most photographs of Mount Ijen were focused on the turquoise blue acidic lake and sulphur mines, it was peculiar that locals and tourists were casually sitting or standing at the crater edge eating breakfast or taking selfies, it measures 200 meters from the crater edge to the surface of the acidic lake at the bottom, a fall would definitely be fatal.
