καιρός remembered

The other

Having climbed all the way to the rim of the volcanic crater early in the morning, I look around me. The thin morning mist still hangs like a shimmering veil over the vast sea of sand surrounding me. On my other side, I gaze down into the depths of the crater.

Then, on the opposite side of the rim, to the right, I make out the minuscule, sun-drenched figure of ‘the other’, whose presence serves to emphasize my own insignificance all the more. Two small, solitary creatures on the rim of a volcano, in a wondrous landscape where planet Earth regularly reveals its inner self.

Since the eruptions of Mount Bromo in 2010 and 2011, the appearance of the crater has changed. It is now much wider than it was in this photograph from 1993.

Photos of the week: Mount Bromo volcano, Tengger Massif, East Java, Indonesia 1993