Krakatau from Sambolo beach on my birthday 9 years ago (today)
when I started to study Indonesian one of my ambitions was to see the remains of the great volcano Krakatau (Krakatoa) which exploded in 1883 killing 36417 people, the shock wave was felt around the globe and it is said to be the loudest sound in modern history. Whilst there was film "Krakatoa East of Java" that is dramatic licence, the volcano is in fact west of Java.
On my birthday weekend (whils workign in Jakarta) I was invited to join a colleague and his family at a beach hut overlooking "Anak Krakatau" (son of Krakatau). It was a wonderful weekend but or some odd reason I didn't tell them it was my birthday. I didn't take many photos as I ended up with a touch of sunstroke.
The water is shallow a long way out. We swam in the lukewarm waters and tried to avoid the salesmen running up and down the beach. Being over 150m out in the water, neck deep doesn't deter them, they shout out their sales pitch to the swimmers heads just bobbing on the surface, we had offers of various tropical fruits, sarongs, and tyre inner tubes. It was quite hilarious.
I realised my dream of seeing the remains of the great volcano, it is growing again every year at a rate of 5 inches/13 cm a week since the 1950s. There is now a series of islands there, the volcano active, gases often venting and there have been a number of eruption alerts. People are warned to stay at least 3km away from it at any time.
(ignore the date listed I hadn't changed my camera date after moving to Indonesia from Europe)
Lovely pic and very interesting detail. I was brought up with the story of Krakatoa by my father who in turn was told it by his. Scary to think it might happen again one day.
Stunning shot. I've heard of Krakatoa too, so really interesting to see it. It's always wonderful to fulfill a dream - so glad you got this one :) Happy birthday too!
Just realised ... it was your birthday yesterday!! (doh) Happy Birthday!! Hope you had a wonderful day and got thoroughly spoiled! (And not too cold :) )
Happy belated Birthday Megan! Love the soft colors of the sky. Saw an documentary about the Krakatau volcano just a while ago. Shocking enough it even had a major impact on Europes climate at that time. Its believed it caused an unknown number of death across mid Europe due to starvation as a result of crop failure. Anyway, hope you had a wonderful day yesterday again!
@chewyteeth the growth is through deposits, apparently volcanologists (now I think it would be cool to be able to say one was a volcanologist) The internet tells me there have been frequent strombolian eruptions since.
@bobfoto thanks, I'd love to go back with my current camera (and experience), I wish I had better shots. As I mentioned, seeing it was realising a dream, Krakatau fascinates me.
@synke thanks, amazing the affects the eruption had around the globe, I have been reading more about and an article quotes the the official death toll figure was 36417 but the real figure was probably more like 120,000 Did the documentary mention that human skeletons on rafts of pumice from the explosion washed up on the coast of Africa years after?
