Mount Papandayan

Papandayan stands at about two thousand six hundred and sixty metres south-west of Garut and is one of the easier volcanoes in Java to walk into rather than up: a road climbs to a car park beside the crater, and from there the route goes across the crater floor itself, through fumaroles, boiling mud, yellow sulphur deposits and steam vents, on marked ground with the gas warnings that go with it. Beyond is Hutan Mati, the dead forest - a stand of trees killed by the 2002 eruption and left standing as bleached grey trunks on grey ash, which is the image the mountain is known for. Above that is Tegal Alun, a meadow of Javanese edelweiss, and Pondok Saladah, the standard camping ground. The volcano is active and closes on alert.

What's there

• A walk-in crater field - fumaroles, boiling mud and sulphur on the crater floor.
• Hutan Mati - the dead forest of bleached trunks killed in the 2002 eruption.
• Edelweiss meadows - Tegal Alun above the crater, protected and not to be picked.
• A road to the crater edge - unusually easy access for an active volcano.

When to go

May to September; overnight camping for sunrise. Two days.

What to expect

It closes on volcanic alerts. Sulphur gas is dangerous in hollows - stay on marked ground. Picking edelweiss is illegal and fined. The crater area is crowded at weekends.

Nearby

Garut is north-east; Cikuray and the Garut highlands are around it.

Key facts