Sunrise and comets over Bromo

From Yogyakarta we got the train further East towards Probolinggo, the gateway to the volcano of East Java. We hadn’t been very lucky so far with our volcano experiences in Indonesia. Mount Sibayak and Sinabung in Sumatra had hidden from us under cloud,  as had Mount Merapi in Central Java. We’d seen a few out of train or car windows briefly, but nothing very impressive. However, this part of east Java has the most iconic view point of any volcano in Indonesia, so we were quite hopeful.

Unfortunately, our colds were both in full force, so we spent the first day in Probolinggo completely in bed haha, which was fine really, as we had planned on doing the sunrise hike that evening, so it gave us the FULL day to rest and prepare. We had planned to go to a waterfall, but getting rest was a good idea, as that night we had to get up at 1am to start the journey to Bromo.

We were both feeling a bit better by this point, having spent a full day on a train resting, then a full day in bed, but we were still tired haha

The drive from Probolinggo to the village of Cemoro Lawang took about 1.5 hours, and then there we changed our car to a jeep. The jeep continued up into the national park along winding roads, but this part of the journey was slow because of the traffic. We had heard that weekends were not the best time to visit, because there are lots of domestic tourists who come from all over Java to hike at the weekend, but we had no choice and didn’t want to waste more time. Actually it wasn’t that bad, it took us about another 1.5 hours to get to a parking spot near the viewpoint of Penanjakan hill.

The rest of the way to the viewpoint was on foot, about 30 min of uphill walking in the dark but it wasn’t so bad. We eventually made it to the Seruni viewpoint and camped out waiting. We still had a few hours til sunrise…

The stars were amazing though, and incredibly, we were treated to a very rare sight… Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was visible just above the horizon so we sat in awe watching it and taking many photos. Dave was in his element!

The sun started to rise and the colours were unreal. I’ve not witnessed too many sunrises in my life (I’m definitely not a morning person), but I think this was truly the best one I’ve ever seen. The colours went from orange to purples and pinks. And to top it all off, there was a Comet! So cool!!

The view point overlooking bromo was actually facing West, so actually the sunrise was behind us. As soon as the sun came over the horizon, it lit up the volcanoes and they looked amazing!

Once we had got our fill of sunrise shots over the volcanoes, and started to warm up a bit (it was actually very cold up here in the dark of the morning), we headed back down to meet up with the driver again. We headed down the mountain and drove towards Bromo over the “sea of sands”, which you can see in the previous photos. Basically we drove in the jeep towards the active crater of Bromo.

We parked up and had to walk the rest of the way, across the volcanic sand and towards Bromo. It was uphill, then some stairs, but it was relatively easy to get up.

It smelled of hydrogen sulphide at the top, but nowhere near as bad as Sibayak, and just moving off to the side got a breeze of fresh air.

It was amazing at the top, being able to look directly into the crater, and also hear it – the noise from the vents was pretty loud. You used to be able to walk all the way around the crater rim. We know because in our favourite travel show, Departures, they did this (a while ago). But now, it’s fenced off and you can only go so far, as I think some people slipped and fell into the crater… Eeek!! So we didn’t mind the barriers haha. It was pretty spooky!

We stayed for a while though, enjoying the sights and the morning light. The sun was still getting higher and it was getting hotter and hotter. We headed back to the jeep then went to a little breakfast spot.

We were back at our hotel by 11am, and pretty much immediately got back in bed, we were both absolutely knackered haha!! What an amazing morning! We finally got to be able to climb an active volcano that we could actually see hahaha!! 🤣 And we saw an amazing sunrise with a once in a lifetime comet visible too. Safe to say, our Bromo experience was a success!! Now it was time to leave Java and head towards Bali…