Asia 2023

Visiting an active volcano in the ocean still wasn't enough for me 🙈 Part of that childhood dream always was, seeing the floating lava in streams, cooling down to stone.
Only few locations on earth, where this can be done safely and planned, but at that time, Merapi volcano, located only few kilometers north of Yogjakarta, is active enough to at least see lava streams from a distance.
Even if eruptions, small pyroclastic shockwaves and lava streams are more or less regularly and bounded onto it's west/southwest side, since several months, the whole area is closed for safety reasons. Nevertheless, if you're smart and explore the area, you can find areas, quite close to the eruptions, which are legal to go but only few kilometers from the active zone.
And due to lack of waves at the south coast, I had some time to explore these spots in Yogja 😬
As here lava streams only appear as smoking, damping lines/areas, running down the slope, during daytime, you can really see them at night only.
Unfortunately the weather (not too much luck about weather at this trip 😅😉) made it difficult, to spot them out, every evening clouds were rising up at Merapi's top. After three attempts, always trying new, better view points, and always ending up with only seeing clouds, but no volcano, I was already a little bit frustrated.
No worries, exploring the area, finding hidden pathes, secret spots, like a graveyard on the top of a hill, or some beautiful valleys with amazing landscapes, was even worth all the efforts.
But on my last night at Yogja, before going to a visa-run by plane, I've made a last attempt.
Again watching the Merapi live streams on YouTube, seeing clouds are opening up around midnight, I decided at 1:30am to go again.
It was already clear, that going to a nice spot, close to some sand mines and quarries, would be the right choice and it's quite likely that I could go from there even closer to the crater, too.
Short story: went on some crazy roads, sometimes surrounded by huge sand- and stone trucks, crossed some small and one quite big stream, with my scooter. Completely covered with dirt, from head to feet, I finally reached a very hidden spot with an awesome view on Mt. Merapi.
Standing alone in the darkness, surrounded by the jungle, hearing heavy trucks and machines at the quarries around, I finally saw some small eruptions. Seeing the volcano spitting out "lava-bombs", ending up in red-yellow streams down the hill was unbelievable. Not too big, and as they appeared only time by time, hard to catch with my cam, but an impressive experience.
Felt very lucky, as activity was clearly getting less, but still saw several streams and eruptions before sun started to rise.
A beautiful morning with a clear sky and a great view on the volcano. One of the best sunrise experiences in my life. 🤩
Literally getting no sleep, needing a long shower and after spending around 4hrs on my scooter, mostly on "off-road-tracks", I felt really worn out - but happy. 🙂Läs mer