Alarm was due to go off at 4.10 but i seemed to wake up every hour on a panic that i had missed my alarm. My ipod then jingled off and i leapt ot of bed telling everyone to get up and turning all the lights only to be moaned and graoned at because it was only 3.40. It was a notification on my ipod! I couldnt get back to sleep so went downstairs eventually and Mery was up and made me a coffee and she made some jam jaffles which the boys polished off as soon as they came down. I dont know how anyone can eat at that time of the day. Edo was taking us to the starting point of the trail up the volcano but Abdi was our guide. I dont usually do the guide thing but it was definitely worth it as we saw lots of things we might have not noticed without him.

We awere aiming to get up just before sunrise. the first part of the trail was quite jungly and then then the trail was rubble and stone. Even though it was dark we could tell when we were getting near to the top by the sulpher smell and we could see some vent holes puffing out steam. When we get to the top the cloud cleared for a few seconds from mount Sinabung and we could see the red lava glowing. this really made finlays day. The sunrise wasn't great but the view was incredible from this edge of the crater we stayed up the top for about an hour. It was a bit chilly and then mt sinabung erupted again. It was quite a big one and we could see the ash pouring down the side of the volcano. Even though it was 20km away the cars still had a light covering of ash. Marcus us and dominic walked down into the crater. This one hasn't erupted for 180 years. Everywhere around us there were vent holes pouring out steam. Lots of the rocks were yellow from the sulpher. We had great fun throwing rocks into a steam vent to have them been blown back out. We then cleaned our hands with some perfumed leaf and then continued on our way back down walking along an old lava path.

When we got back to the car we were driven to some hot springs. there were several pools, all different heats. Some were very hot. We had a good wallow and then Edo drove us back to the guesthouse. We showered and packed up, paid our bill. Mery very kindly gave us some sumatran coffee to take home with us. We were pretty hungry so popped to a restaurant a few buildings away. No English on the menu but the guy tried to explain but they all sounded the same anyway. whatever we got was all pretty foul and the chicken Finlay and Dominic ordered looked seriously dodgy!

Edo was waiting for us when we got back and we started our 5 hour trip to Bukit Lawang. Luckily his car had seat belts. I definitely think i have numbed to the traffic. Edo was great comapany with his crazy laugh and could speak English quite well but he had some terrible jokes. It was along journey. The traffic around medan was quite bad and then most of the road was just 1 big pothole. Every now and then there was a decent stretch. We stopped at the ATM and to pick up some Rambutans and water melon and also a coffee. The sweetest I have ever had!

Eventually we got to bukit lawang ju gle after passing miles and miles of rubber plantations there was someone at the barrier from Junia Guesthouse waiting for us. we bid Edo goodbye and then were taken along the river to our lovely guesthouse. we were shown our fab rooms. We are in the hornbill which has a roof top terrace and the boys in the Siam bungalow but will move to orangutan bungalow tomorrow. Very happy with our decision to come a day early. The guys here are really friendly. we settled in and then ordered food and well deserved beers, well not the kids and had a lovely relaxing evening but went to bed fairly early as we were knackered.