After leaving Panaitan Island we headed for Krakatoa or rather Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatoa). The original Krakatoa erupted in a series of massive explosions on August 26 - 27, 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern times. The explosion was the equivalent of 200 megatons of TNT! That's some eruption. The child of Krakatoa (Anak Krakatau) is also a very active volcano, it started erupting again in October and November of last year. It was an awe inspiring moment approaching the volcano, the smoke billowing from the craters at the top was visible from quite a way out.

We anchored across from the volcano and got ourselves a good night's sleep before our climb to the summit the next day. When we arrived at the foot of the volcano we found some locals who were looking after some German tourists who had climbed the volcano the day before. The Germans assured us that the climb was easy and after reading a sign stating to check with a Ranger before climbing to make sure that it was safe, (there are never any Rangers around), we began our ascent. Within minutes I was puffing and panting, as you all know I am not a fan of climbing up hill. Anak Krakatau is very steep and not the most stable of surfaces. Each step we took resulted in tiny rocks slipping down that side of the volcano. After much perseverance from Jay and whinging from me we finally made it to the summit. The view was spectacular and as the smoke billowed from the crater at the top of the volcano I had to grudgingly admit that it had been worth it.

One bizarre thing we found at the top of the volcano was an ironing board. That's right, someone has climbed up with an ironing board and anchored it with piles of rocks at the top of the volcano. I couldn't find any purpose for it up there so we're still not sure what that was all about. The heat coming out of the volcano was incredible and there was a lot of smoke that we needed to make sure we stayed upwind of. Once we strayed downwind of the smoke and the sulfur made our eyes water and burned the inside of our throats.

If we thought climbing up the volcano was hard coming back down was also a mission! We basically had to 'ski' back down the side, taking care not to start a landslide. It took longer than we thought to reach the bottom and then it was a long walk back to the start of the track. I was exhausted by the time we reached the bottom and we had a swim before heading back to the boat. Swimming in the water there was strange, the sand is inky black and so it is impossible to judge the depth of the water until you are in. Our skin through the water against the black sand was ghostly white.

That afternoon back on the boat we were approached by a local fishing boat who wanted to trade some fish for some sugar. Jay took a bag of sugar and some instant coffee over to their boat and chose a nice big, fresh Snapper which we enjoyed for dinner that night. The next day, having completed our mission of climbing the volcano we headed off towards the 1,000 Isles.