Homecoming: Bromo ... at last

So, we got to the bottom of the steps. Did we actually climb up?
Of course, we did. Our guide waited at the bottom (I guess she climbed up MANY times already), and she kept one of the backpacks with her to lighten our load.
There were many people milling around, including some local Tenggerese, some selling flowers to be thrown into the crater as offering to the Gods. A few took one look at Kecil, and offered his service to carry the Kiddo up the stairs. Riiiiggghhhtt..... We declined the offer, and Kecil (my pride, my joy), managed to climb HALFWAY through before finally being carried by her Daddy.

(No pics of the climb. Seriously, it was pretty crowded, and some of us were pretty psyched with the prospect of falling yah.)

So... we got to the crater. Tadaah!!!

Smoky Bromo crater

There's Mama holding on (tightly!) to the railings around the crater.
Kecil? She was hiding behind Mama. Perhaps she was afraid of being sacrificed. Eh?
Nah.. me thinks the height bothered her a bit as well. I know it bothered this Mama. Here's one shot when Daddy tried to pass the camera to Mama:

Ain't letting go of the railings here!!!!

Understandably, we did not spend too much time milling around at the crater. Not when we were standing on something that amounted to a real high, natural wall with steep drop on both sides.
So we went back to the steps, and again, it was bad enough that no pics were taken during the journey down. The sand on the steps really freaked this Mama out. Kecil actually got down much faster than Mama (she went down herself, with just a bit of help from Daddy) because she semi-slided down the 'slope' created by the sand on the steps. Don't ask how Mama did it (clinging tightly on the railings all the way down, actually).

It was really good to be back on semi-flat land. I think Kecil was pretty impressed when Mama showed her where we were just moments before.

We took the ponies back to the Jeep, which then took us to this observation point, courtesy of our guide.

That was the first time Mama and Daddy got to the observation point, but the view was instantly recognisable, because this is exactly the point from which pro photographers take their pics of Bromo. The picture above is indeed what we usually saw in various coffee books and post cards featuring the area. What a feeling to take (almost) the very same picture with our own camera. So cool. (Actually Daddy took the pic. Mama is more of a people photographer, not landscape)

And just because we brought along a tripod, we had to try for another family pic.
Note to self: need to learn some proper styling/modelling/balancing people agains gorgeous backdrop such as the people complement the pic rather than blocking the backdrop. Gah!

That was not quite the end of the trip, as we still went down to a nearby hotel for breakfast, then continued on to Surabaya to Eyang's house. But with the toll of the climb, the lack of sleep and everything, that was about the last of the pics taken during the trip. We had a real great time on the trip and highly recommend the experience should you find yourself around the area.

Just for fun, here are some of the other shots we took (of the scenery, other people and such) from the mountain trip:

We still have a lot of pics from the hols, so we'll see you around in the next post. Cheers!

Kecil's own adventure club

By the way, just in case you are interested in reading things chronologically, here it is:
first mention of homecoming this year, Homecoming 2012, outbound ports.
Focusing on the mountain trip only, we have part 1: Breaking dawn, and part 2: Sea of Sand, ending with today's post.