The bubbling emerald green crater lake of East Java’s Kawah Ijen is a beautiful sight, save for its toxicity. The lake is a potent acidic cocktail of hydrogen chloride, sulphuric acid, aluminium sulphate and iron sulphate. From various vents in the volcanic crater, fumaroles emitting sulphurous vapours (mainly sulphur dioxide) are channeled so that solidified lemon yellow sulphur can be recovered and sold. Twice daily workers chip off large hunks, load up their bamboo baskets to 70 kg and manually climb out of the steep crater and down to the weighing station. In this highly corrosive environment the workers use only a damp rag to cover their mouth to slow the degradation of their lungs and teeth from inhalation of the toxic gas.
wow that’s crazy!! in so many ways haha.
first image is pretty cool- had to check it out a few times to work out what was going on haha.
yeah, that bloke was great. regretfully, i got separated from Bec descending into the crater because i had to rush (the people we’d hired the van with weren’t interested in this location and wanted to get moving). Bec slipped a bit and lost the trail but this guy got her back up. i tipped him a bit off cash for helping Bec out, showing us around the mine and of course the portrait, which i find so evocative.
Great stuff Cain – It almost looks like huge shards of honeycomb in some of the baskets… lol
Charlie should build his Chocolate Factory up here: a volcano that makes honeycomb and a lake that makes bubbling soft drinks!