This was truly a dream trip for me. All of my life I have been fascinated with volcanoes. I have already climbed Mt. Tangkuban Perahu in Bandung and visited Merapi Volcano in Yogyakarta but climbing Mt. Krakatau tops my list of the coolest things I will ever do. The entire trip was private we were literally the only people on these deserted islands other than a few local fishermen.
Me and 3 of Travis' buddies from WI took the trip(unfortunately Travis had to work) We started by taking a scenic 3 hour drive from the vivacious city life of Jakarta to the listless villages near Carita. I find the drastic variance from posh to poverty within a step or two indescribable. Although common all over Indonesia it is something only the senses can experience. The striking colors and odors of the village along with a wide smile from a local give a feeling of warm tranquility, despite the prevalent destitution.
Reaching the coastline,
our destination hardly within view, the vastness of the Indian ocean compared to the size of our boat seemed quite the joke. After 2 hours of waves larger than our boat on the choppiest ride you can imagine up the Sunda Straight we landed on the beach of the deserted island of Krakatau. Mt. Krakatau (or Krakatoa as we say in America) is the site of the largest volcanic eruption in the recorded history of man kind in 1883. It is an active volcano and erupts regularly with the last eruption about 6 months ago. With no time to waste we started through the jungle and up the volcano. The mountain was covered with black sand making the climbing a bit slow and littered with hundreds of boulders that are spewed from the belly. The air thinning and full of sulfur we reached the highest ridge we could safely navigate. The cool winds from the top were a welcome relief to the 90 some degrees below.
Destination paradise,
After our descent we boarded the boat and circled the island, it's massive piles of pumice and lava rock stacked on the shores, making our way to the smaller island of Anak Krakatau ("child of Krakatau")we found paradise.... and our snorkeling spot. I was awestruck by the bright colors that existed in the other world just feet below our boat. After snorkeling we explored the beach a bit while our guide prepared our lunch and found ourselves just feet from a Komodo dragon walking by. Eventually we saw 3 more on the beach and swimming around and we were all thankful we had not noticed them while snorkeling :) I was very happy to be soaking up the sun spending my time collecting pumice and shells from this exotic paradise.
about an hour into our boat ride back to Cartia
we were passed by a massive oil tanker which put in perspective just how small and inadequate our little speed boat really was for the type of water we were in. The drive back to the city was elegantly dotted with terraced farms along the rural outskirts of the coast.
This was such a memorable trip for me I only wish Travis had been there to take it all in with me. What a crazy wild beautiful world we live in!!!
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