Moni, IndonesiaMay 2, 2005
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Sunrise at Kelimutu volcano.
The blue lake and the dark brown lake in the distant crater.
A narrow ridge separates the two colored lakes.
| In Moni, near the larger town of Ende, we stayed in picturesque bungalows that look out across the road to a large green valley surrounded by high ridges. The rooms, though, we very basic and not so comfortable. Andy and I took a walk at dusk down to where the road flattens out in the valley floor. We were looking for photo possibilities, but we just missed the light. At 4:30 am. we drove about 30 min. to the parking lot at the Kelimutu Volcano. There we parked and walked about 20 min. in the dark with a couple other small groups up to the viewing location situated above the lakes that are at the top of the crater. When the sun came up we could see the two different colored lakes separated by a narrow wall of rock. The third lake was behind us in its own crater. One lake was pale turquoise, the other was a dark chocolate color, and the third was black. The lakes have a curious habit of changing color unpredictably. The dark ones can change to white and the aqua one can go red. They change in a matter of minutes. We were told that no one really knows what causes this but the scene from the top was great. We had breakfast and started out the next morning for Bajawa. We had lunch in Ende and used the last ATM that we would see on the island. A short distance down the road was the Blue Stone Beach. Here, stones the color of robins' eggs have washed up (and still do from time to time) and are collected and sorted by the local people. They are bagged up and most are shipped to garden-crazy Japan where they are used to decorate rock gardens and fish ponds. Two volcanic cones overlook Ende and the bay. |
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