Maria Egede from DENMARK writes:

The superstitious story of Mount Iya when you talk to the inhabitant of Ende is: that Mount Meja and Mount Iya was in love and the jealous mount Wongge tried to catch Mount Iyas attention unsuccessfully, Meja and Wongge got into a fight and Wongge chopped the top of Mount Meja and killed him. The top is now lying at the one side of the isthmus and the sword that Wongge used is another island on the other side of the isthmus. It's told that Iya is still crying of sorrow.
After examining mount Iya we found no information of activity later than 1971, and started the surmountable climbing of a only 637m high mountain. We began at the end where the local garbage spot was located, and met several bigger lizards (over 1 meter) that seem to enjoying the location.
We started climbing, and it seemed to be rather unvisited if you compare it to Gunung Kelimutu at Flores or Gunung Agung at Bali. We didn't find any local guides but took a few locals along, that knew the direction to the garbage spot and started the climb. The climb was surmountable; it started with some smaller trees and very sandy conditions. When we came to the top the local sat down satisfied, and my farther and I stood for a while and looked wondering why there way small as well as bigger plants on a mountaintop that had erupted less than 50 years ago. Something was wrong. While the locals had a break, we discussed the surprisingly amount of vegetation and took a look along the edge of the volcano and found the area with less and less vegetation, knowing that we had to go that direction.
We told the locals that they were welcome to wait, and then we walked the edge of the volcano, and one of the locals got curious and walked along. The ground grew loose and ashy as we walked, and at one point there was almost no vegetation and the ground was highly porous. We sensed a sharp edge and try to approach the brim. and looked down a nearly vertical crater in white yellow and blue colours. There was a hole in the crater and the smell of sulphur and steam trickle out from it.
We tried to get as close to the brim as possible to take shoot some photos and walked to the other end to find the locals and started the climb back to civilization.
It felt like an intimate and less explored experience.

2012-11-01