I woke at 4:00 in the morning and started walking to a mountain nearby that has a good view of the area. There was no moon and I had no flashlight. I knew I had to follow a road, so I did so slowly, watching every step since I couldn’t see much of anything. I could make out buildings and trees so I knew where the road was. There was some mud from the rain the day before too. I noticed some people ahead of me with a flashlight. Just when the road ended, I was able to catch up with them. They were a Japanese couple. I followed them up a very narrow trail farther up the mountain. At around 5:30 we reached a viewing platform and the sun was about to rise.
The guidebooks say it is worth it to keep walking up a even smaller trail up the mountain. So I tried. I walked and walked and my pants and shoes were getting soaking wet from all the grass and plants next to the “path.” The path was also muddy and very slippery. I stopped after a while since I didn’t seem to be gaining too much doing this. I missed the stairs going up all the mountains in China. I turned around and partially slipped on the way down. I heard something rolling behind me after the bag I was carrying flew up in the air. I saw my new lens rolling down the dirt trail. I slipped a few more times, but luckily I didn’t get all my clothes muddy.
I met up with the Japanese couple again as they were viewing Mt. Bromo. It is not just a mountain, but a volcano. You can see smoke venting out. Actually you can see two volcanoes from this spot. Mt. Bromo and Mt. Sumeru. I got some good photos. Then I took one for the Japanese people which was probably one of their best of their trip. There aren’t many people around this area, it is very nice.
At 8:30 or so I walked back. I noticed the road I walked along had farms along both sides. And now there were farmers working in the fields. I rested for a while and then in the afternoon walked over to the Mt. Bromo volcano itself. Although, I didn’t see too much since by the time I got there it was very cloudy. The land is so high here the clouds are moving right through you. I walked up to the rim of the volcano and smelling the sulfur gas coming out. It looked quite dangerous since the rim was very narrow and if you fall of either side it looked like death.