After Anak Krakatau (Son of Krakatoa) started erupting again, we quickly booked flights to Jakarta. We left Auckland on October 13 (Air NZ) with a short connection through Bali (Air Asia to Jakarta).
We met fellow Kiwi, Geoff Mackley to discuss logistics etc. Next morning, we made a relatively easy drive out of Jakarta along modern highways before hitting pot hole ridden, single carriageways. Progress was slow. Before boarding our boat, we stopped by the monitoring station to review activity and the seismographs. Activity has high – approximately 100 eruptions in the past six hours. We knew we were in for an adventure.
We were dropped off at a small port, just north of Labuhan, where we boarded a small boat that would take us to Krakatau.
The boat ride to our campsite on Rakata Island took approximately 90 mins. Camping is normally on Krakatau Island, however it would have been a suicide mission if we attempted that ;-). Rakata wasn’t much better. A recent landslide had come down just above where we were setting our tents up and car-sized boulders littered the area. To makes things even worse, our guide told us to to be wary of pythons and Komodo Dragons.
The feast our crew prepared every night. EVERYTHING deep-fried.
After setting up camp, we headed out on the boat to explore the area and attempt a landing on Krakatau itself.
The eruptions, like most volcanoes, were unpredictable. There were periods of eruptive activity every minute or so, then long quiet (20 mins or longer) periods – then either a large vulcanian explosion, or something minor. With the boat close to an older lava flow, we sat and waited. Then an almighty explosion happened. Before we could even react, car-sized lava bombs were crashing down around us. There was no way we could avoid them…we just got lucky nothing hit the boat. You can view the footage below (which went viral on Daily mail, Mirror, NZ Herald and more). We decided to be a little more cautious after this :-). Yes, it was stupid.
Landing on the island itself was a precarious adventure. Huge lava bombs and impact craters were littered everywhere. With helmets and other safety gear on, we carefully made our way closer to the summit.
I climbed further than anyone else did, but after seeing hundreds of fresh lava bombs littered around me and knowing significant eruptions could happen, I quickly retreated.
Some of the shots I captured:
During the night, we stayed on the island and captured some impressive firework and lightning shows.
As eruptions continued, we took to the ocean around Anak Krakatau and found widespread gas bubbles escaping from the seafloor (possibly CO2?). The fish didn’t seem to care much.
Just a llama…in a heat suit.
Overall, an incredible successful, yet somewhat dangerous expedition to witness an amazing show.