The fog clears almost suddenly, revealing the edge of the crater which seems immense, and for good reason. It is a gaping hole, beautiful and dangerous at the same time. Beautiful, because there is this beautiful blue sky of cottony clouds dotted, contrasting with this turquoise-colored lake, while the rock surrounding us is white, gray or ochre, but dangerous, because it is a real “hell” below with its solfataras.
A little aside to explain : the solfatara is basically a volcanic crater west of Naples, because of these fumes coming out of the ground, the Romans considered the place as the gates of hell, because they had never seen anything like it. Hence the allusion, by extension, of the word solfatara, which now designates a geological region from which sulfur vapors come out.
They are confused with fumaroles which are mainly just water vapor with possibly traces of sulfuric acid, magmatic minerals or even metals such as mercury, therefore in vapor state.
Let's pick up the thread.
The acid lake adds to this array of colors, it is known as one of the most acidic in the world with a pH of about 0,2! (information differs, sometimes considered 2nd behind Lake Poas in Costa Rica if not 1st).
According to the guide previously mentioned, the youngest would be 14 years old... And the oldest he didn't really know, but at least over 60... As for the minimum weight with which they start, he assured me that it's 60kg, so you can imagine a 14 year old kid lugging around a 60kg load as a schoolbag going to school at the top of a ski slope and that brings you closer to what he has to endure to support his family... Terrible lesson in humility.
If on the way up 2, 3 guys asked me for a photo for a bit of money, when we got here, it was more likely to be water or biscuits... Unfortunately, we had little water with us (and the little we had, we still gave it away) and practically nothing to eat, on the way down, we had nothing left, because even after buying water at the "stage" with the cabin, I gave my remaining water to a guy. If you want to please them, remember to bring a few bottles of water and something to nibble on, you'll make them happy.
If I were them, I would get really angry seeing an "idiot" blocking my path, as I pointed out to Jitima in the end, being here is like someone coming to visit your office to see what you do, it's "slightly" disturbing to be polite. So don't hesitate to move even if the conditions are not easy for that. Sometimes you have to squeeze yourself onto a piece of rock when the terrain is not really conducive to playing "tags..."
They start by bringing one back that they will put somewhere, some at the very beginning of the course like here where they prepare the basket, put it a little further and quickly come to make a second one that they will go back down to the bottom, the second one being ready no need to go down again in the smoke. Some go far for this first round because we saw the first baskets well before the hut, so some choose to work hard by going back down a good part with their 1st basket, redo the 2nd one that they go down to the end before taking the other one which is no longer “too far”.
Let's talk about money a little to understand their motivation: knowing that a kilo earns them 600 Rupiah, or a minimum average of 75kg x 2 baskets x 600 = 90,000 Rps or around 8 euros per day. Their salary therefore reaches something like 200 euros per month! By comparison, the average salary in Indonesia is 1,2 million Rupiah or around 100 euros, 2 times less... but it's a cost, given the working conditions their life expectancy is greatly reduced...
For our part, we had barely arrived when we had to run while a mass of sulfur vapor was blowing on our faces, despite our little surgical masks which ultimately protected us nothing, it was like having a kind of bronchitis instantly, we were out of breath, suffocated, coughed. The irritated throat and stinging eyes, that's what they regularly suffer from. The basic D system consists of "biting" a cloth soaked in water.
Despite this, I do not let myself be discouraged, like a reporter, I want to go back there. This time, the wind is favorable although I will not go too far into the “construction site” or approach the lake. I take my series of photos, if some have masks, those who stay on site to manage the pipes placed at the exit of the “mouths” which are used to heat the sulfur with hot water so that the formation of the ore and its extraction are done more quickly than in natural mode to summarize, the others like our friendly accompanying miner have nothing but their lungs to breathe this air loaded with chemical compounds.
