After the three days hike in Myanmar, wearing my destroyed converses and sleep on the floor, freezing to the bones, I thought that the hardest part of my trip was done. 

I was not imagining one second that a way more intense experience was waiting for me in Java and that I would admire a sunset in Hell…

    
    

 An option with the tour was called the “blue fire”. Always in search of new natural wonders to discover, Alberto and I happily booked it. It was just the two of us in the group as you had to walk in the dark to be able to arrive in the cratere before sunset to be able to see the blue flames. We were already tired from the last hike but we thought that the jacuzzi (hot water spring please!) and the jump afterall in the cold swimming pool of the “luxury” hotel we were staying in would help us washing our sleepy legs. 

Wake up at 1am.

Hop in a 4×4.

  

It’s dark.

It’s cold.

It’s rainy.

  

Ali, our guide is a tiny Javanese man wrapped up in a huge winter coat. He gives us little frontals and a mask and we start climbing the volcano. We don’t have a lot of informations at this moment about how long will be the hike and what will be the conditions. Right now, I experience the pure darkness and my excitement turns slowly into fear. All I can see is my feet on the ground (which is black too) and nothing else. I feel like I’m back in Koh Tao for my second session of a night dive. 

  

Ali explained to us in a really good english how dangerous it is to climb the volcano at night without guide and that few people died there and here. We are along the cliff and rocks are getting slippery because of the light rain which follow us since the beggining. 

Two hours later, I feel exhausted. Not only because I woke up early and because the ascension is hard, but mentally too. Ali explains that this hike, in the dark, is his everyday routine and that he is going to drop us downhill after sunset and clim again the volcano to work at the extraction of the sulfure. 

He has a family in the next village that he sees once a month, and work hard to put his kids to school. “My father was a minor, I am a miner, but my kids? Never. I will not let that happen. We work hard and we have all lungs problems because of the sulfure. We are loosing a lot of weight because we don’t have time to eat. We don’t sleep as the place we are allowed to is a cabane and we are 10 on the floor. My kids are going to school. That’s it“.

  
   

Ali told us that the sulfure in the cratere is heavy. After extracting it, you have to climb to the top again with 70kg on your back and then climb downhill with everything. Every kilos worth 7 cents (dollars) if I remember well. Or if it’s not this, it’s a ridiculous amount. You also have to wear a mask because of the toxic gaz and the horrible smell. I was 

At this point, I am out of breath, I am sweating and freezing at he same time. I have no idea that at this point I will have to walk for more than two hours to reach the top. I feel depressed and useless. 

I am confronted to Ali stories and I am in the position of the tourist thinking she will have a good time visiting a volcano but instead, I am confronted to the reality of a man working in hell… I feel terrible for all these guys. And I don’t know what i can so except sharing here my feelings.

    

Here is the top. As we go down, slowly slowly, we put our mask on and assure every steps we are taking to avoid falling in the void. 

Ali takes my hand to help me. He can feel that I am afraid. We are still navigating in the total obscurity. We are like errands and not sure anymore to see the end of the tunnel.

 

But here it is. The blue fire.

Like an electric ghost dancing in the dark, it is glowing in front of us. 

A group of tourist wearing masks is around and I feel like we are all here directed by a sect, to worship an evil God.