Mount Merapi

Merapi rises just north of Yogyakarta and is among the most active volcanoes anywhere, rarely quiet for long. Its eruptions have repeatedly reshaped the villages on the southern slopes, and the standard visit now is a jeep run from Kaliadem across the grey ash flats and boulder fields left behind, stopping at a bunker, a small museum of objects recovered from buried houses, and viewpoints towards the summit. Climbing to the top has been restricted for years and depends entirely on the current alert level. On a clear morning the cone is sharp against the sky, often with a plume; by midday it is usually lost in cloud, which is why everyone starts early.

History

The name joins the Sanskrit meru, "mountain", and the Javanese api, "fire". Merapi has erupted regularly since 1548; a pyroclastic flow killed 27 people on 22 November 1994, mostly in the town of Muntilan, another large eruption came in 2006, shortly before the Yogyakarta earthquake, and it was named one of the Decade Volcanoes (Wikipedia, Mount Merapi).

The landscape

• The lava tour - open jeeps running across ash flats and boulder fields on the south slope.
• The summit cone - the smoking peak seen from the upper viewpoints on a clear morning.
• The bunker - the concrete shelter left in the debris field below the crater.
• Kaliurang - the cool hill resort on the lower slopes, with forest walks and lookouts.

When to go

May to September is drier and gives the best chance of a clear summit. Start at first light: the mountain is usually visible until about nine in the morning and then disappears into cloud. Jeep tours run in fixed loops of one to three hours. Access and routes change whenever the alert level is raised, so check on the day.

Good to know

The jeep tour is dusty, bumpy and short, and in high season the tracks carry a convoy of vehicles rather than a lone jeep in the ash. Several stops are frankly staged photo points. Cloud can hide the mountain completely, leaving a grey field and nothing else. Summit climbs are often closed outright, and the mountain's activity is not something to argue with.

Nearby

Yogyakarta, Borobudur and Prambanan are all within about an hour.

Key facts