Indonesia – distant islands on the "Ring of Fire" |
Volcanoes, Caves, Mountains, and... ?
Situated on the "Ring of Fire", the Indonesian Islands play host to some of the most active volcanoes in the world, the most famous of which is surely Krakatoa (Krakatau in Indonesian). In 1883, Krakatoa produced one of the most violent eruptions in recorded history, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Today, the relatively new volcanic cone of Anak Krakatau (son of Krakatoa) is still very much active - and is the starting point for our adventure.
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From Anak Krakatau, our adventure is set to take us along the entire length of the main Indonesian island of Java, visiting volcanic sites such as Semeru, Papandayan, Bromo, Kelud and Merapi on-route. And of course, we've arranged a couple of day's caving too. All-in-all, this should be an exciting, action-packed trip.
Full details of our trip will follow in due course, but for now, enjoy our Indonesia Adventure Blog. We expect internet access to be intermittent, but will update the blog whenever we have the opportunity.
Click HERE to follow our Indonesia Adventure Blog
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Watching Indonesian Volcanoes from a distance:
Despite the numerous on-line sources of volcano information, it seemed to take us a while to track down the best source for up-to-date news on the Indonesian islands. A search for the PVMBG (Indonesia's office body for the mitigation of [geological] disasters) will lead you to a whole host of broken links, missing web cams, and defunct Facebook pages. These, then, are the best sources for information:
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www.vsi.esdm.go.id
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Badan Gelogi - the official Indonesian (PVMBG) website. This site details all current volcanic activy and volcano alert levels.
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www.Activolcans.info
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An excellent French language website collating volcano news from around the globe.
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http://www.bom.gov.au/info/vaac/
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The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), Darwin monitors and reports on volcanic ash emissions - the area monitored covers Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and part of the Philippines.
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Tips for travelling in Indonesia
If you're thinking about travelling in Indonesia, you'll need to do a bit of research. There is, of course, lots of information available in things like the Loney Planet Guide and The Rough Guide. Here are a few items that were, parhaps, not as obvious as they might have been:
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