Mountain Bromo – active volcano Gunung Bromo (2300 meters), which belongs to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Bromo volcano is the only active crater in the Tengger caldera which contains seven eruptive centers.
Reaching Bromo crater
Cemoro Lawang village is a base stay before hiking Bromo. The crater is easily accessible from the village. It’s only 45 minute walk through the desert (sand sea) and passing a beautiful Hindu temple. Then you just need to take the stairs and you are in the top of the smoking crater. It all seems very easy but…
Staying in the nearest village was a difficult time. Make sure you check the volcanic activity before you get there. The wind was very strong, which means no visibility and a lot of choking volcanic ash from the crater. I barely could sleep at nigh, tided with two scarfs around my face and the smoke still makes you sick. I remember getting around the volcano and seeing all those people wearing masks.
We were making fun of them, mostly with people wearing gas masks (can you imagine)! Just until the wind came! Believe me, nothing was funny any more! It was a good lesson you should always be prepared for different weather conditions when reaching uncommon areas like this.
Remember to bring your mask, you can buy them also in Cemoro Lawang. It was also very hard to get to the top of Bromo volcano at that time, not only because of the volcanic ash and also very poor visibility.
The white ash shaded all the view and the crater. But never give up. When we reached the crater the weather started to be more generous and uncovered the beauty of the volcanic area for us. You need to read also this if you wanna find more essential information: Bromo from Penanjakan.
How to get to Bromo volcano?
First I reached Probolingo (Probolingo and Malang are two nearby towns), where I met a lot of wonderful people going the same direction. Then we reached Cemoro Lawang, the small village located next to Bromo Mountain.
It was our base for the trip to the stunning point of view – Mount Penanjakan and excursion to Bromo crater. There’s even a sigh Bromo showing the right way. You need to remember that this is still active volcano.
The seismic activity increased in 2010 and 2011 when the earthquakes were detected. In 2011 ash emissions from this volcano caused the cancellation of some international flights to Bali. And in 2004 some people were killed because of the Bromo eruption.
