Mount Bromo Vulcano – East Java, Indonesia 5

As a geography teacher, I frequently use a textbook called Durchblick, which features a striking image of the Bromo-Semeru-Tengger National Park. That image stayed with me — so naturally, I had to see it for myself.

Fascination Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Volcanoes have always captivated both my students and me. They’re one of those rare topics that blend raw natural power with stunning visuals and ongoing scientific mystery. We still don’t fully understand how or when volcanoes erupt — and that’s what makes them so fascinating.

Volcanoes embody the double-edged sword of nature: capable of wiping out entire towns within minutes, as seen in Pompeii, yet essential in creating fertile lands that sustain vibrant ecosystems. It’s this fragile, ever-present balance between destruction and creation that I find so thrilling.

Despite all our advancements, we can’t predict eruptions with much lead time. In Japan, high-speed trains (Shinkansen) can stop before a major earthquake hits — a miracle of engineering — but predicting volcanic eruptions still eludes us. Sometimes, when humans grow too confident in their control of nature, things go horribly wrong. And that’s exactly what happened on this trip.

Volcanoes in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park

Mount Bromo Tengger Semeru National is famed for its surreal, almost alien landscapes. One of its most unforgettable experiences is watching the sunrise over the vast caldera — a moment many describe as dreamlike. But getting there was anything but easy.

Everything Went Wrong

To stay flexible, we didn’t book our flight from Raja Ampat (Sorong) in advance — a choice that soon backfired. When we finally decided to head to East Java, disaster struck.

Because I’d been filming underwater with my phone, I had disabled the passcode and Face ID to unlock it easily. What I didn’t realize: this also deleted my banking credentials and credit card info. When I tried to book flights, my payment failed. With the slow internet in Raja Ampat, I couldn’t verify my identity, and when I tried again, the system blocked me — our names were in, but the payment wasn’t.

Lion Air’s response? “We are sorry you lost valuable items.” Thanks.

By then, the only direct flight was fully booked. So, without a ticket, we went to the airport and managed to book a convoluted route with a travel agent: Sorong → Manado → Jakarta → Medan. Expensive and exhausting — but it was the only way.

Sick in Sulawesi

To make matters worse, Larissa came down with a stomach bug during our unexpected layover in Sulawesi. I wasn’t sure we’d make it beyond Jakarta, but she was determined to push through to Malang. We made it. I looked after her for a few days until she was well enough for me to arrange a local tour to Mount Bromo.

Pick-up? 23:30. Sleep? Forget about it.

Clouds, Rain and a Thunderstorm: What Could Possibly Go Right?

The forecast was terrible: heavy clouds, rain, even a chance of thunderstorms. But after everything we’d gone through, this was my only shot.

At 23:27, a driver picked me up. We gathered a few other travelers, including two locals, Dara and Veny. We waited 40 minutes for the jeeps, then began the 2:00 a.m. ascent to King Kong Hill.

Hundreds of jeeps lit up the foggy valley like an ant colony — surreal in itself. The rain began. My optimism faded.

At 4 a.m., we arrived at the lookout. Cold and damp at 2,600 meters, I wandered off along a dark path, barely making out the shapes of the volcanoes below. Fog thickened. In the distance, lightning flashed. It felt hopeless.

Thunderstorm behind the Tengger-Bromo-Semeru Nationalpark

Still, I scouted for a good timelapse spot. My lungs burned from running up and down the muddy trail in the cold. Then, a miracle: the clouds broke. The rain stopped. The fog sank. And the view? Breathtaking.

A Sunrise Worth Every Struggle

In that magical hour, everything changed: the storm drifted behind the volcano, the skies cleared, and the first rays of sun painted the caldera in gold. In the distance, a volcano rumbled to life. I had goosebumps.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment — a reward for perseverance.

The rest of the trip passed through the otherworldly terrain: from King Kong Lookout to a tree-dotted desert, breakfast with locals at the base, climbing Bromo itself, a vast sand sea, and finally, soft green grass. Nothing could top that sunrise.

Sunrise overlooking the caldera with Bromo (left and smoking) with Batok (right in front), and Semeru vulcano in the background.

A Mud Volcano the Size of a City

Planning the next leg to Surabaya, I noticed a strange dark circle on the map — and discovered the world’s largest mud volcano in Sidoarjo. The Lusi eruption began in 2006, likely triggered by oil drilling. It now spews enough mud to fill 50 Olympic pools daily and shows no signs of stopping.

We stopped to fly the drone. From above, the scale of the disaster — and displacement — was staggering. Can we ever really tame nature?

Sidoarjo mud vulcano (Lusi eruption) Indonesia

What’s next?

After Larissa recovered, we spent a night in Surabaya before catching our next flight — to Sumatra, where a new adventure awaited us in the island’s remote rainforests.

Thanks for reading — and see you in the next chapter.

Tom