Initially, the tour guide asked if we wanted to hike up a neighbouring mountain at 3am so as to catch sunrise from there. However I declined as I wanted to rest a little more, plus I wanted to catch sunrise from Metigen hill instead. And with such a decision, I was allowed to sleep till 4:30am. Upon waking up, I got my camera and tripod ready and pointed it at the predicted direction of sunrise. Within 15 minutes, the sky started to change in colour. It was beautiful seeing the sky turn from black, to dark blue, before eventually turning purple and orange. The beautiful radiant orange globe started to appear from behind the mountains and with the variety of mountains in the distance, it was gorgeous!
After the sun was fully up, I hiked up 50m along a steep slope before standing at the thin edge of the Tengger Celdera. It was beautiful seeing the sea of fog covering the Whispering Sands and the different volcanoes in the background. Mount Bromo constantly emited smoke while the other active volcano, Mt Semeru, puffed up every few minutes.
After 20 minutes of pandering around the crater edge, it was time to head back to the campsite for a light breakfast of hot milo and biscuits.
We then boarded the 4WD that was awaiting us and it drove us down into the celdera and through the Whispering Sands into the nearby Gunang Probcia for some landscape photography.
After 20 minutes of really bumpy 4WD ride across the Whispering Sands and up the mountain, I finally alighted with rubbery legs and a sore behind. It was a short 5 minutes walk to a nearby tiny little hut before we had to walk down a really steep 45degree incline along a tiny sandy path. The inclined terrain was flanked by a steep slope downhill on both sides with the front end ending off at about 30m away in a steep slope too.
While navigating this undulating terrain at a height of about 2500m, my fear of heights gave way to my intense wanting to capture the beauty of the mountains and greenery around me. I slowly and carefully moved down the incline so as to go that couple of meters closer to the wide expense in front of me and started to use my camera.
Changing lenses was rather tricky as I did not have my bag with me so I had to shoot and change lenses while holding onto my camera body and both lenses at the same time. Never had I expected myself to have so much courage standing at where I stood, with three sides of steep slopes flanking me!
After the photo opportunity and some selfies, it was time to head down to the Whispering Sands for more photography! We made a stop at two different areas of the whispering sands. One area was a common spot for tourists to take horse rides. It was facing a grassland known as Teletubbies Land (due to the lush greenery that used to be there before Mt Bromo erupted a couple years back). The other was an area filled totally with beautiful fine grey sand, looking completely like a desert with its sandy dunes and 4WD tracks! At both spots, photography was a must and I took the chance to ask the tour guide to help me take some posed photos.
It was really amazing wandering around the "grey desert" as I admired the beautify of God's creations. The fine grey volcanic sand was such a new sight to me.
Not long later, it was time to head back to the campsite. After packing a day pack, it was time to head to the famed Madakaripura Waterfalls. Along the way, lunch was at a simple local Nasi Padang restaurant along the road.
Upon reaching the waterfalls entrance, we were accosted by many touters selling ponchos and slippers. Feeling stingy, I refused either although the tour guide bought ponchos for us. I decided that I would walk upstream barefooted instead, saving that miserable S$1! After a ten minute easy walk along the marked path, we reached the river that the waterfall created.
It was not easy walking upstream as the little pebbles underwater pressed hard against the soles of my feet, making it a rather painful process. However the thought of wanting awesome waterfall photographs made me carry on. After a while, there was more and more streams of water flowing down from the forest above and that was where the ponchos came in handy. However, my camera remain unprotected as it was used to capture long-exposure shots of the moving water.
With the constant pouring of water onto my camera, it's weathersealing ability was put to the extreme test and eventually, water leaked inside. It caused the camera to start becoming unresponsive in certain button-presses and eventually, failing to operate at all. That was a rather traumatic experience as I was really worried about my camera.
Dinner was next and it was a rather simple affair of fried wet noodles for me. After dinner, we headed back to our campsite at Metigen hill. As my phone was charging and my camera was dead, it was a good time for some solitude under the stars.
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