Climbing Krakatau

The adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" popped into my head last weekend. I thought of this as I was hot and sweaty and dirty and tired, and climbing up the side of an active volcano. Because, if you live on the ring of fire, why not climb an active volcano?! If you're surrounded by volcanoes and scraping tectonic plates, why not tempt fate just a little bit more.

So that's exactly what we did. We joined a group of friends for a long weekend out of Jakarta, about 4 hours southwest of Jakarta on the west coast of Java. We spent the weekend at a sailing club on a peninsula called Tanjung Lesung. The beach was pretty nice, quite a bit of coral but plenty of sand for nice walks and sand castles. The water was also quite calm so C was able to play in the ocean by himself, which he seemed to really enjoy. The lodging at the sailing club was very, very basic, and overpriced in my opinion. But it was roomy and the open air restaurant had good food and was a lovely place to sit and relax, have a cold beer, and lose yourself in the sound of the ocean. The place was also extremely quiet and we didn't have to listen to traffic or the mosque for 3 glorious days. There were also huge grounds, and C and LC had a fantastic time running around and exploring.



On Saturday morning 8 of us headed off in a speedboat for Krakatau; we left the children behind as this was definitely a non-kid friendly outing. The boat ride there took about 1.5 hours. It was a bit choppy and most of the way I was fantasizing about big boxes of Dramamine. Fortunately though none of us lost our breakfast and we all recovered once we landed. One of our friends on the boat is a geologist so lucky for us we heard some history of Krakatau and lava and magma pipes, etc. Krakatau was quite striking, to say the least: an island fully consumed by a volcano and as barren as a desert, with hardened lava at it's base, rising out of the ocean 100 miles from land. Knowing its history made it even more amazing.

Anak Krakatau

Actually, Krakatau doesn't really exist anymore - it blew itself up in 1883. The explosion was heard as far away as the island of Rodriguez, more than 4600 km away (and is the loudest sound ever recorded), and sent up ash 80km high which fell on Singapore 840 km to the north and on ships as far as 6000 km away. In the explosion most of the island fell into the ocean, which sent tsunamis to Java and Sumatra, destroying 165 villages (Lonely Planet). Before the explosion Krakatau was estimated at 2000 meters above sea level with a radius of 9 km.

What remains of Krakatau today is about 1/3 of the original island, called Pulau Rakata, and Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatau. Pulau Rakata distinctly shows visitors just where the rest of her broke off (see below) and is covered in heavy vegetation. Anak Krakatau is the growing, active volcano you see above. Anak Krakatau has been growing out of the sea for the last 80 years, and regularly belches smoke, ash and lava. Rumblings from this volcano can be heard in W. Java, 50 km away. It is about 200 meters above sea level and has a radius of 2 km (wikipedia).

Pulau Rakata

We boated through where the mighty Krakatau once stood, and it was hard to imagine there once stood a volcano there 2000 meters high. We circled around Anak Krakatau, seeing the crater from where smoke and lava emits, and seeing where the lava spills into the sea. The boat landed on the eastern side where there's vegetation. Our group hiked up the side of the volcano, which was HOT! The sand is grey/black, and the intense heat emanates both from the sun above and from the sand below. The steep gradient, the heat, and the sand made the hike challenging, although mercifully not very long (1/2 hour). We couldn't hike all the way up the volcano; it is too dangerous to get too close to the crater. In the end it was worth the climb, but it wasn't exactly "fun" while we were doing it.

The crater on Anak Krakatau

Midway up the volcano, looking out at Pulau Lang

J's legs after the climb, covered in black sand

After the hike we had a picnic lunch and then the boat took us over to a nearby island, Lang (I think) for snorkeling. It felt great to get into the water after the sweaty, dirty hike. The snorkeling itself was fine; the coral was nice but we only saw a few interesting fish. Then it was time to return back to Java. We had been warned that this stretch of water can be rough and that we'd have to return a bit early because it was expected to be bad. But none of us was quite prepared for the crazy 2 hour journey back. The boat was constantly hitting waves that sent it airborne before crashing back onto the sea. We all had to continuously hold onto the boat for fear we'd be thrown out. Many of our friends' rearends were sore for days afterwards. We were also all wet the entire ride home from the sea spray, and our friends in the front of the boat had to stand most of the way so their backs wouldn't get broken. We were actually enjoying about the first 15 minutes. It was just so crazy and ridiculous and we were all regularly crying out "ohs!" and "ahs!". But then we hit a wave that sent us sideways and suddenly it stopped being so fun. I never felt like we we were in danger, but I was very happy that we had a good, sturdy boat and experienced drivers, and that the sky was clear.

All in all it was a great adventure, but definitely only a once in a lifetime experience.