2019 OCTOBER 05 TO 07, INDONESIA, JAVA

Today we had a big drive to get into the mountains near at Mt Bromo National Park. We checked into our hotel and chillaxed for the rest of the day.

It was a lot colder up at this altitude and we all bought beanies to wear tonight, but mostly for tomorrow. As tomorrow we are heading up Mt Bromo to watch the sunrise!

Up at 2.30am to drive up to the top of Mt Bromo to watch the sunrise. Us and 500 other Toyota Land Cruisers full of tourists (mainly Indonesians).

There were huge crowds at the top of the mountain which was a little surprising to me. Sure it was a great sunrise, but just great. And it's not like it was a reward after trekking up to top of the mountain, everyone there had arrived in a motor vehicle that waited in line to get to the top and then searched for a non existing car park. Not quite sure why this sunrise attracts so many viewers.

It was cold and very dusty, hence the face masks. Before returning to attempt to find our vehicles for the winding trip back down the mountain, we stopped at one of the little refreshment shacks to have a warming drink.

We waited roadside for our lifts to find us, then joined the still existing line up down the hill.

It was cold, but not freezing as we expected. Personally, I prefer SUNSET to sunrise, the timing and all! But this was quite an experience. After the sunrise we stopped in the SAVANNAH VALLEY for a couple of photos.

Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, known locally as Taman Nasional Bromo Tengger Semeru (TNBTS) is a national park located in East Java, Indonesia.
It is the only conservation area in Indonesia that has a sand sea,[2] the Tengger Sand Sea (Indonesian: Laut Pasir Tengger), across which is the caldera of an ancient volcano (Tengger) from which four new volcanic cones have emerged. This unique feature covers a total area of 5,250 hectares at an altitude of about 2,100 meters (6,900 ft).[2] The massif also contains the highest mountain in Java,[3] Mount Semeru (3,676 meters (12,060 ft)), four lakes and 50 rivers. It is named after the Tengger tribe. An erg (also sand sea or dune sea, or sand sheet if it lacks dunes) is a broad, flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover.

The Tengger Sand Sea has been protected since 1919. The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park was declared a national park in 1982.

Another big drive day today, we left Bromo and headed to Yogyakarta, via a stop off at Prambanan Temple.

Prambanan Temple Compound
Prambanan or Rara Jonggrang is a 9th-century Hindu temple compound in Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, dedicated to the Trimūrti, the expression of God as the Creator, the Preserver and the Transformer. The temple compound is located approximately 17 kilometres northeast of the city of Yogyakarta on the boundary between Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces.