Tuesday (9/30): We did not have any activities planned for the day. So, after breakfast, we spent most of Tuesday reading. In my case, “L.A. Confidential”, the James Ellroy book on which the 1997 Curtis Hanson movie was based. We could have done something on our own, but I wanted to relax, and store up rest for what would be a loooong night.
With a 10:00 p.m. departure, I wanted to get some sleep. So, I skipped dinner and hit the hay at only 4:00 p.m. My wife Bernie opted for dinner at Planet Kopi, the Aston Jember Hotel’s poolside bar. I was up at 8:00 p.m., after only four hours sleep, because I need that much lead time to get myself going in the “morning”. Our guide Riky and his driver showed up at 10 on the dot, and we headed out.
For three hours, we drove along what appeared to be new roads. I thought we left Jember the opposite direction from which we arrived. I was totally turned around. Only after returning home, a week later, and poking around Google street view, was I able to piece together where we were driving. Turns out it was the same route — Highway 3 to Lumajang, then Highway 25 to Probolingo — we’d driven in on.
An old Dutch canal runs along much of Highway 3. Despite the dark, I could see Indonesian folks sleeping in their warungs (roadside stalls, which are ubiquitous on Java). It’s common to see unsecured product. And, other than directing traffic in Surabaya, I never saw a cop. In the good ol’ USA, that would get you robbed blind. Not in Indonesia. 👍
When we arrived in Probolingo, rather than get on the tollway, we drove through town. We turned left on Jl. Raya Bromo street, passed under the tollway a second time, and started uphill to Mount Bromo. For an Indonesian road, Jl. Raya Bromo is pretty straight the first 10 miles, and climbs gradually. The road starts pitching up in Ngepung. We pulled over at IndoMart to wait for a jeep. It was 1:00 a.m.
While our driver caught Z’s, Riky, Bernie and I drank kopi (coffee) at a shop across the street. For an hour, I watched steady parade of jeeps drive up Jl. Raya Bromo. I wondered where they were going? At 2:00 a.m., our jeep showed up. Like most of the “jeeps” around Mount Bromo, it was actually a Toyota Land Cruiser. (Which was originally named “Jeep” until Toyota got sued by Willys after World War II.)
Wednesday (10/1): From Ngepung, Jl. Raya Bromo pitched up, and got much twistier. Other than three miles across the Sea of Sand, the entire road from Ngepung to Bukit Cinta Taman Nasional Bromo Tengger Semeru — “Love Hill of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park”, or just Love Hill — is paved. Normally asphalt; semen for grip in the steepest parts. (You have a filthy mind! “Semen” means cement.)
It took a full 90 minutes to drive the 18 miles from Ngepung to Bukit Cinta. That’s 12 mph, partly due to steep twistiness, but also due to the accordion effect of so much traffic. (If you look Google sat view of the Sea of Sand, there are literally hundreds of jeeps parked by the Gunung Batok pony vendors.) We arrived in Bukit Cinta at 3:30 a.m. It was 1h 45m to sunrise.
At 4:30, it was time for everyone to head up a hundred yards, past various souvenir shops, to Sunrise Point. I found myself a good spot. I wanted to get the full sunrise, beginning to end, on my iPhone. I decided on timelapse mode, to compress time in my video. I pointed my iPhone in a likely direction, hit record, and didn’t move for 45 minutes. I wore a hoodie, but my hands froze. Couldn’t move.
Chinese tourists climbed over the protective railing to take selfies. It’s 1,400 ft. down! I seriously thought I would watch someone die. But I got the whole sunrise. Or thought I did. For some reason, timelapse mode cut out dozens of times. Hopefully, you enjoy the video (bottom) anyway. 🤞
After sunrise, it took an hour of jeep jockeying for everyone to exfiltrate from Bukit Cinta. On the way back down to the Sea of Sand, we passed a small troop of monkees. Wish I’d had my camera out. Back at the Sea of Sand, we decided to forgo the pony & stairs expedition 800 ft. up to Mount Bromo’s caldera. It looked like a couple of miles — actually only 0.8 miles one way — and we were tired. Instead we grabbed a breakfast of street food, then headed “home”.
Rumble Video
Vimeo Video
Sunrise on Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia from Preston McMurry on Vimeo.
