Ijen Crater or Kawah Ijen is another volcanic tourism attraction in Indonesia. Ijen Crater (Kawah Ijen) is a famous tourism object, which has been known by the domestic and foreign tourists because of the beautiful and charming nature. It is 5,466 hectares, 2,386 meters high from the depth of the sea, with a 92 hectares tourism forest. Its temperature is between 2 to 8 degree centigrade and the crater area lies at 2.386 meters above sea level (mdpl).There are many beautiful species of plants that can be found there, such as; the edelweiss flower and the Casuarina Junghu (cemara gunung), etc. Various animals can also be seen in the area like jungle fowl (ayam hutan) and porcupine (landak).
The Ijen Crater lies about 68km from the town center. There are some of facilities here such as: a campground, a shelter and Tourist Information Center (TIC) etc.
The best time to enjoy the crater scenery is at morning, when the yellow sunlight glows the yellow water and shines the surrounding mountain like mount Merapi, the sister of Mount Ijen. Morning haze is creating a tranquility that we don’t get at the metropolitan towns. At 2 pm, the crater is closed for the reason that the thick smoke from the crater that is poisonous.
How to get to Ijen Crater
There are two alternatives route to get to Ijen Crater, the first is from Banyuwangi to Licin – Jambu – Patulding. Its about 38 kilometers from Banyuwangi, but the road is bad. The second is from Bondowoso – Wonosari – Sempol – Patulding, about 70 kilometers with better road. It is suggested to go from Bondowoso.
Visiting from Bondowoso route, the tourists will travel across a coffee plantation. It has beautiful view either. The green of Arabica coffee trees are really an exciting scene to enjoy.
To reach Ijen Crater from Surabaya, we can use the public transportation with the route as follow:
- Surabaya – Bondowoso : 180 km with public bus
- Bondowoso – Paltuding : 68 km with public transport
- Paltuding - to the location : 2 km on foot
Photo link: www.skyscrapercity.com
Source Article link: www.eastjava.com
