Popular as peanut butter and jam (with me at least), Mount Bromo towers imperiously over Southern Java like an ancient protector. Word on the vine was that this was up there with the very best things to do in Asia, universally agreed as the best view in Indonesia at least, so there was just no way we could pass by and be content with seeing it out of some smelly bus window. We had to do the climb.

And so did Tom, Gemma, Viktor and Malu. We all negotiated with the same jeep guy and agreed to knock each other up in the morning. So, earlier than I care to admit (about 4am) we all wolfed down a tasteless brekkie and, bleary eyed with sleep deprivation, sped off, not towards Bromo, that would come later. We were off to a nearby high viewpoint for the view of the sun as it rose behind Bromo. This was what all the fuss was about, hopefully a good enough reason to get out of bed.

The best view in Java

Happily the mist fell heavily as the sky began to brighten so I couldn’t see the long drops and precipitous corners we were narrowly avoiding on the way uphill. When we did arrive (alive) it was just in time to muscle in between some of the other snap-happy tourists and finally get a glimpse of the view to die for (or if not die then certainly risk enormous yawning sessions shared by everyone in the vicinity). And like most things worth setting your alarm for three in the morning for, Gunung Bromo did not let us down, the view was spectacular. Set in the vast, wide caldera of a volcano so old and enormous as to defy the imagination was a much smaller cone (Gunung Batok), next to which squatted Bromo like an ugly sibling, and behind that the still active (chuffing smoke regularly) peak of Mount Semeru, the highest mountain in Java. Clouds filled the larger caldera like huge witches cauldron spilling over the sides and down to the foothills and behind it all rose the red angry sun, its light filtering orange and bright through the clouds.

The Crazy Crater Crew

We managed to clamp our jaws shut long enough to take a few photographs and, once most of the other viewers had had an eyeful and gone off we finally turned our back on Bromo and got into the jeep to drive to the base of the climb.

It wasn’t a hard climb by anyone’s standards, those weak and feeble enough not to be able to manage the couple of hundred steps carved in concrete into the side of the cone were able to hire one of a few dozen waiting horses and donkeys to give them a lift. By the time we had arrived most of the days fellow tourists had already ascended, had a look and come back down, we were among the very last.

Horses for the terminally lazy

The sulfur assaulted us before we'd even finished the (half hour) climb, cutting straight to the lungs and making our eyes water in pain. At the top it was much, much worse the billowing smoke belching from the crater below was blowing directly towards the 'viewing platform (the only part with a fence). We decided to take a walk away from the crowds and see if we could clamber our way around the top of the whole crater. Apparently this was quite a dangerous undertaking, previous tourists had had the unstable edge of the volcano crumble under their feet, throwing them headlong into the hot centre. We didn't know this at the time and besides, it looked easy enough. We set off.

Not a nice place to breathe

And everyone managed to come back in one piece thank God. We got front row seats of the volcano from every angle, as well as a little side trip down into the dormant caldera just behind Bromo (that you can't see from the front). Tom and I even managed to write our names in big rocks should any aliens be watching. The edge of the cone was at its thinnest only about a foot wide, but we all succeeded in not losing our balance for the hour or so it took to do the walk. By the time we got back to the viewpoint we were the only ones left. I could see our jeep waiting patient and lonely below. It seemed everyone else had gone back home already. Amanda lingered a further few minutes to throw an offering over the edge into the caldera as thanks for our safe passage, a wreath of flowers sold by enterprising locals. Then we all quickly descended to the jeep and the end of our tour.

Spot the little alien

Normally at this point Amanda and I would have said goodbye to our group of fellow travelers and carried on alone, but this was near Christmas and New Year, we were all going to the same place and we'd all booked ahead anyway. Together we boarded the bus to Bali that would take till the following morning to arrive in Lovina, where we all intended to spend this years festive season.

Some time after midnight I woke to find Amanda looking out of the window. The bus was rocking gently and surrounded by moonlit water, as surreal a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang moment as I can remember. It took a few seconds for me to remember that the ferries out here are just floating platforms with an engine at one end. Nearby was another group of floating buses motoring to Bali. Maybe when I woke up it will all have been just a dream. Maybe it will be three in the morning again and I will still have that view of Bromo ahead of me.

One last look