Ijen Blue Fire from Banyuwangi, Health Check and Gas Masks

The pick-up from your accommodation in Banyuwangi is between 11 pm and 12:30 am. Before the road to the mountain there is a short health check, required by local government regulations of everyone going up, so it is neither optional nor an invention of the operator's. The hike starts at Paltuding, at the foot of the mountain on the Ijen Plateau. That is where you meet the guide and are handed a gas mask and a headlamp. The climb goes up through forest and volcanic ground in the dark, with the highlands of East Java below you once there is any light at all. The blue fire is down inside the crater, and seeing it means descending with the guide. It comes from burning sulphur gas, and it only exists while it is dark. When the sun comes up the crater turns into something else entirely: a turquoise acid lake, steaming vents, cliffs stained by minerals. Back at Paltuding there are stalls selling hot drinks and snacks, which is where most people sit for a while before the drive back to Banyuwangi.