In retrospect, hiring a driver and a car to take us on a nine-hour trip so that we could arrive at our destination, sleep for a few hours, get up in the middle of the night and drive the whole nine-hours back again that same morning, seems like a bit of a strange thing to do.

It was a strange thing to do. The whole experience was a bit random and a bit crazy but it was an experience that I will never forget: one of those one off things that you do once and don’t really want to do again, but that remains with you until your dying days.

We had more in mind than to just be driven for a whole day by some random Indonesian who apparently thought he could give Michael Schumacher a run for his money. We had a reason for what we did. The reason was Gunung Bromo: one of Java’s most picturesque active volcanoes. We had it on good authority that watching the sunset over this volcano was well worth seeing and so we travelled all the way from Yogyakarta to Bromo to enjoy the spectacle.

Getting up to watch a sunrise was a first for me, and it was quite a location to do it for the first time. The last hour of our journey was spent ascending a mountain and as we pulled in front of our hotel, we saw the shadows of a very impressive mountainous view in the night sky. We went to bed and got up only a few hours later to be taken by jeep across the savannah and up one of the mountains to take our places and watch nature do its work.

The average temperature for Indonesia is about 32 degree centigrade: hot and humid. At dusk, over 2000 metres above sea level, however, it is a bit chillier. We arrived at the top of the hill far too early and by the time the sun had even started to make an appearance, we were already experiencing numbness and hyperthermic-type discomfort. Our location for watching the sunrise was also a lot more touristy than I had been expecting and hoping: a large viewing platform that, as the hours wore on, soon filled with tourists, most of whom seemed to come from Holland. I suppose I was hoping for a romantic, mountain-top sunrise for two, rather than a large purpose built viewing platform full of fellow Europeans. I had ample time to ponder this as we waited for the sun to show, but once the sky started changing colour I soon forgot my petty disappointments and instead stood in wonder at the scene before me. It was the rainy season so there were large amounts of cloud cover over the valleys, but the volcanic crater, complete with atmospheric ash emissions, hovered over the layers of cloud in a surreal and almost menacing fashion. It is a sight like nothing I have ever seen and watching the sunrise over it was quite unforgettable.

We felt very cold as we returned to our jeep, but the wonder that we had just seen was comfort enough. When I look at the photos we took that morning, I still marvel at the view and have to remind myself that it was me that took those pictures; that I was there.