Our first priority was reaching Jember to extend our visa. In Jember we found a WarmShowers host and some of his friends even met us on the road and helped us to find our host's place in Jember and to get our visa extension filed. The visa extension ended up only taking one day and we were lucky to have it done before the national holiday started and the offices would be closed for two weeks.

We stayed a few days in and around Jember, spending a night at one of the friend's place close to the beach and he took us to a nice beach for sunrise. We also joined the fasting in Ramadan for one day and didn't eat nor drink the whole day. We kept ourselves busy but didn't do anything exhausting so it wasn't too bad. In the evening we got invited to a big dinner to break fasting. It was amazing being part of a group of fifty people, sitting on the floor and eating a great dinner from banana leaves. We even got little presents as well as a Sarong for Jonas (a the typical kind of skirt men wear).

Our next adventure was climbing the volcano of Mt Ijen for sunrise. We left Bondowoso with a driver at midnight to start hiking just before 3 am. First you reach the crater and you can climb down to see the famous blue fire. You even need gas masks against the sulphur fumes. Back at the crater rim we enjoyed the sunset, even though we had some clouds blocking the view. On the way back to our homestay we stopped to visit some waterfalls and a hot spring where we could relax a bit.

From there we cycled to the next bigger town of Probolinggo from where we would leave to explore Mt Bromo. We left our bikes behind and took a public bus to Cemoro Lawang, the village close to Mt Bromo National Park. There we crossed the Sea of Sand and walked to Mt Bromo itself which is a quite active volcano that is bubbling and steaming in the crater. We also met up with a Scottish couple that we got to know in our hotel in Probolinggo and spending our time with Lauren and Michael was just a blast! Next morning we got up early and hiked up to a view point where you can enjoy the sunrise over the National Park.

Afterwards we went back to our hotel in Probolinggo and it was time to hop back on our bikes to keep going West. In Malang we had another amazing host called Adi and because it was the last day of Ramadan, the mosques and fireworks were pretty noisy.

The next days we made our way to the South coast to get away from the really busy roads and in Wonogiri we even managed to find a public viewing in a small internet cafe to watch the German football team lose their first game of the world cup against Mexico. Finally we arrived in the city of Yogyakarta and had some time to rest again.

We are looking forward to more quiet coastal roads now!

Keep cycling, 

Joni, Droni and Vroni