Kawah Putih- White Crater

Mount Patuha and the quite remarkable crater lake that is to be found there known as Kawah Putih which translates as White Crater. The roadway up to the crater is narrow and quite rough and feels precarious as large boulders seem to threaten a collapse and landslide down onto the roadway. But once this rather worrisome road has been negotiated, we emerged into a clearing where numerous stalls have been set up to serve visitors. Here refreshments may be bought and the ubiquitous, for this area, strawberries are for sale too. It was a commercial enterprise. Climbing up to the crater’s edge and then on down into the crater, the practically nauseating smell of sulfur wafts up with the breeze. A pathway leads down to the crater’s floor and from this pathway one can look down and across the quite brilliant colors of this natural phenomenon. The lake that sits in the center of the crater is a quite vibrant white/turquoise color. At the edges of the lake’s waters, the sulfur deposits have stained the land yellow.The walls of the crater, that in parts soar perpendicularly to a great height, are made up of rock and stones that look as though they have been bleached white. Near to the pathway that leads down to the crater floor is a cave-like opening into the wall of the crater. It is here that shafts were mined to collect sulfur.