Bromo Tengger Scenic Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Malang

   Malang is a cool, hilly city in East Java, at about 450 metres, and the altitude is the thing everyone mentions. After the heat of Surabaya, a couple of hours to the north, the evening air is a relief, and for the Dutch it was a favourite hill station, laid out in the early twentieth century with broad avenues, big trees and neat colonial villas around the central square. Some of that has survived, and the old streets near the Tugu monument still have a faded charm, though the city is now large and busy, with a university population and a lot of motorbikes.

   Read the complete Malang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Malang is where the day begins. Next is Tumpang.

2. 2. Tumpang

   Tumpang is a busy market town at the eastern edge of the Malang plain, in the heart of East Java, and for most visitors it is the place where the road to Mount Bromo begins. The town is where the highway from Malang squeezes through a bottleneck of shops, stalls and minibuses, and where the jeeps wait that take travellers up to the volcanoes. Behind it, the Tengger mountains rise in blue ridges, with the smoking cone of Semeru, the highest peak on Java, hovering above on a clear day.

   Read the complete Tumpang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tumpang comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jemplang.

3. 3. Jemplang

   Jemplang is the place where the earth gives way. The road from Tumpang climbs through villages and pine forest to a rim at about 2,400 metres, and suddenly the whole Tengger caldera opens below: a flat, grey floor of volcanic sand, ten kilometres across, with the cones of Bromo and Batok rising from it like toys on a tray, and beyond them, the great symmetrical bulk of Semeru, the highest mountain on Java at 3,676 metres, puffing a plume of ash every twenty minutes or so. It is one of the most startling views in Indonesia, and it takes a moment to understand the scale.

   Read the complete Jemplang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Jemplang. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Mount Bromo viewpoint, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Mount Bromo viewpoint

   Bromo is not the tallest peak in the Tengger caldera, but it is the one that smokes, and nobody who sees it forgets it. The crater, at 2,329 metres, sits in the middle of a plain of grey volcanic sand, with a steady plume of white sulphurous steam rising from its throat, and the smell of rotten eggs drifting down the slope. To the south, the neat cone of Batok, covered in green ridges, stands beside it, and behind them both, Semeru, bigger and often more active, sends up puffs of ash. The whole scene looks like an illustration from a children's book about volcanoes.

   Read the complete Mount Bromo viewpoint write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Mount Bromo viewpoint, late in the day. Next is Cemoro Lawang.

5. 5. Cemoro Lawang

   Cemoro Lawang sits on the rim of the Tengger caldera in East Java, and the view from the village edge is one of the strangest in the tropics. Below you lies a vast, flat sea of grey volcanic sand, and out of it rise the cones of Bromo, with its smoking crater, and Semeru beyond, the highest peak on Java. The village is high, cold at night and wrapped in mist at dawn, and everything about it feels a long way from the sweaty lowlands you left. Pasuruan and Lawang are the nearest big towns, around thirty kilometres away and a long climb below.

   Read the complete Cemoro Lawang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Cemoro Lawang. That is the ride.