A road trip to the active Mount Merapi Volcano

I have spent the last few days in the town of Pangandaran, which could become the highlight of my trip to Java. I explored the region struck by the 2006 Pangandaran earthquake and tsunami on the first day. Besides, I went to the rainforest on a personalised river tour and had a boat tour to the gorgeous Green Canyon the other two days. In the next few days, I’ll be residing in Yogyakarta. This city in the centre of Java is famous for classical Javanese fine arts and culture. In addition, it is home to a large student population and dozens of schools and universities. Looking at my itineraries, Yogyakarta also has the potential to become the highlight of my trip to Java. Let the adventure begin, and today we are starting by visiting Mount Merapi!

Technically, we start the day on public transport since we are moving locations again. Firstly, a taxi to one of the bus stops outside the town centre. Secondly, a bus that will drive me to another bus to eventually get a taxi again to my hostel in Yogyakarta. But, once again, we made it, I dropped my backpack at the hostel, and I will spend the rest of the day driving around in a jeep on Mount Merapi.

Mount Merapi

Mount Merapi translates to Fire Mountain and is an active stratovolcano. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548. Since this volcano is so active, we got a briefing just before our trip, just in case the volcano started erupting while we were visiting.

There is often smoke coming from the mountaintop, so we have to facemasks while visiting. Next to visiting the volcano and its surroundings, we will also see Muntilan. This town was wiped off the map, killing 27 people in a giant volcanic explosion on 22 November 1994. Mount Merapi’s last significant eruption dates back to 2010 when 353 people were killed, and 350,000 were forced to leave their homes.

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