On the slopes of Bromo

January 2005 - When in or around Malang, you should for sure bring a visit to the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, with its series of volcanoes, located in and around a big caldera or crater of a massive old vulcano which has created smaller vocanoes in the area. These pictures show a trip over the foothills and slopes of these volcanoes on a less clear day then hoped for, but it was sheer incidence that we made the trip at a day like this.

		Rocky fall While the day had just started, we asked the hotel staff which way to go for a visit ...			Foothills The first hills of the volcanoes are easy to reach and the roads are wide enough for two ...			Distant volcanoes A series of steep mountains at a distance, this view is what you get when driving around in ...
		Evergreen forest At higher altitudes it just looks like you are walking around in another country, maybe a U.S. Nature ...			Slope village A slender mountain village is located on top of a hill. One main road crosses the village, but ...			Green valley Before you really enter the high mountains, you will cross several wide valleys which still have partial tropical ...
		Geological deformation Geological forces have had a big impact on the environment here. It created volcanoes, valleys, mountains and whatever ...			Aduh! Sharp turn Sharp turns are not unusual in mountainous regions here, but what I found here was even hard to ...			Big fern Looking like an ancient survivor, this fern has grown for meters and looks like a palm tree now. ...
		Geological deformation More of those impressive deformations of the earths layers. These layers are even bend to form the egde ...			Sloped fields wet or dry ...			Unused land This part of the valley isn't used this season, low grasses prevent the soil from being washed away ...
		Animal hole We didn't see much animals here, but these holes are obvious signs that there are animals. Probably the ...			Flood ditch A kind of semi-natural water drainage canal alongside the road. It's something you can see in many locations. ...			Field workers A dozen or so workers are working on the same field to prepare it to plant the crops ...
		Small shrine A small shrine it hidden on a steep slope, just a few meters down the road. There was ...			Shades of green Those steep slopes each have their own field with a different shade of green, each representing a different ...			Rockwall At a distance we could see a heavily eroded part of a valley, creating an almost vertical wall ...
		Hole beside the road A not too big but deep hole just besides the road. These holes are formed by water that ...			Geological deformation Another picture of those magnificent deformations. This time the layers aren't even parallel to eachother, but instead they ...			Steeper fields And the fields keep on getting more steep. Of course it's impossible to work on these fields with ...
		Little tree with white flowers A small tree with huge white bell-shaped flowers was a rare find here in this area which doesn't ...			Waterfall At a distance we could see a fall which comes down over the rocks. We tried to reach ...			Fields in a small valley At the lowest point of the row of hills is this field. It's built on top of eroded ...
		Muddy road After a rainstorm, erosion kicks in almost instantly, flooding the road with muddy water first. When the water ...			Entrance The entrance of Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. We finally made it. As you can see there is more fog ...			No view As we were driving on the road that runs over the very edge of the caldera egde, we ...
		Keep it clean Sings that ask people to keep things clean are just as common as pollution here. This sign seems ...			Foggy On our way back, or at least that's what we tried, fog became more dense over time. Sometimes ...			Concrete shrine On our way down fog was a constant factor. When I wanted to make a picture of us, ...
		That's me This is me, wrapped in a protective clothing: long trousers, black jacket, cloth over my face and a ...			That's not me And my co-driver has been wrapped up pretty good as well. She was stubborn enough not to wear ...			Fields and trees We are travelling to lower altidudes, obviously. Fog is decreasing and the steep fields are now bordered by ...
		Irrigation over the road In higher areas there is often much less rain than in the lower areas so irrigation is needed ...			More mudd I can't get enough of muddy roads sometimes. This mudd will be cleaned when the dry season starts. ...			Slender village or upstars for that matter ...
		View from the other side This is the same village as you can see in the previous image. Now a picture is taken ...			Mesjid A small mesjid or mosque in the village was just calling for prayer when we discovered that the ...			Clear fields These fields have just been cleared and are ready to be planted again. It's also visible that these ...
		Quiet valley When we stopped here, we noticed the remarkable quiet that was present here. A handful of people was ...			Big ferns Going down even more, down so much that the big ferns grow here in bunches. Still there is ...			Taking a break As we were approaching the lowlands again, it was time to take a break so we could eat ...
		Finally a straight road As we went down from the summit, we drove in neutral gear for exactly 54 kilometers! At the ...