Blue fire at Mt. Ijen 🌋🔥⛰️🧗

Ijen volcano is definitely another must-see, if you're around East-Java. It not only offers awesome views on volcanic landscapes, again, but its unique blue fires are a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Doing the hike/climb on my own, was a great decision, as being within the first dozen people at the blue flames, paid off in a not too crowded sight and being able to get very close to the flames.
Due to a noisy hostel, I wasn't able to catch any sleep, before I started my ride to the entrance point at midnight. Getting the entrance ticket took some time, too, so finally my hike started at 2:20. Hiking up the mountain for around 4.5km in the dark on a dirt path was challenging for me, but luckily my trip for now made me regain some strength, after 2 very lazy years. After freezing a bit on my scooter ride there, hiking made me heat up again, luckily I found a quite fast pace soon. Being a little bit proud of myself, as I've started my hike with around 30-40 (mostly younger) people in front of me, but ending up within the first group of around 10 people at the edge of the crater at around 3:40.
Putting on the gas mask, sulphur smoke was already hanging in the air, for a while, but became quite intense, here. Climbing down took another half hour, on a quite steep path (no railings) on sometimes slippery dirt or loose rocks was ok for me, but some people really struggled.
Finally seeing the blue flames made me forget how exhausted I felt, fascinating, mysterious and beautiful.
Sometimes (luckily not too often) the wind turned and the whole site was covered by thick smoke of sulphur gases, bringing up literally zero visibility and unfortunately some gas masks (not only mine 😅) were not fully airtight, this smoke really burned hard in the lungs. 🙈 Had to run around the corner, out of the smoke, a few times. 😅
No more proper words available, for that experience.
As more and more people arrived, and dawn already started, I climbed up out of the crater quickly. (Again a little bit proud for being literally the first tourist coming out of the crater. 😎😅)
Another 1.5km to the sunrise point, but luckily not too steep, as my feet already were lacking strength and knees started to hurt. But the sunrise view was amazing and I decided to rest and enjoy the rising sun changing it's light and transforming the landscapes from dark reddish to yellow and finally bright and colorful. Met some other solo-travelers from China, Thailand and Switzerland, had some nice chitchatting, while resting and gaining energy for the 6km hike down.
This hike was REALLY tough, as my whole body was tired, lack of sleep didn't help, and finally, after around 4.5 km I had to accept, that I won't make it down without help, without another 2hrs rest. So I was brought down the last 1.5km by one of the sulphur carriers, who are offering rides up- and downwards in their handcarts, advertising these as "Lamborghini-taxi". Btw: Indonesian sense of humor is another awesome thing about this amazing country.

That day I challenged myself a lot, I realized again, that you have to push yourself sometimes hard, to cross your boundaries, but that I'm way stronger than I sometimes think. Not only the unbelievable and unique experience of seeing the blue fires, made that day special, but exploring how far I can push myself -and where I have to stop, before harming myself- was a great experience, too.Okumaya devam et