testmeat photoblog

after spending close to three months in taiwan i looked at a map to decide where to go next and ended up settling on indonesia. i'd been to bali before on a short trip, but i realised there were many more islands to choose from, and i eventually went for java. i'd read something about yogyakarta, which is the second biggest city on the island after the capital jakarta, and it seemed like it would be a good place to start. as it turned out it was a good place to continue as well and i ended up spending 90% of my time in indonesia in the city. there were a few reasons why i enjoyed staying there, but none more compelling and dramatic than this stunning active volcano which sits on the outskirts of the city. i had no idea that it existed before chatting to a local who gave me directions to a viewpoint where if you were lucky the clouds would clear and you could see lava erupting from the peak. depending on the traffic it would take about an hour each way to make it from where i was staying to the viewpoint, which is enough time to turn a cloudy sky clear, and vice versa. so every journey i would make there was somewhat of a lottery. i ended up playing this lottery seven times, and there were certainly a few cloudy losses in there. but when the clouds did part and the fiery explosions were revealed, it felt like winning the jackpot

here's a timelapse video taken over a couple of nights when the weather was forgiving