Peaking at 2,392m (7,848ft), Mount Bromo in eastern Java may not be Indonesia’s highest volcano, but it’s one of the most conveniently accessible, with a road running all the way up to the lip of the caldera’s encircling cliff, from where the views are magnificent.

Bromo is actually one of three volcanoes cradled in a massive 10km crater that’s carpeted in a covering of grey-brown sand and ash. Rising in the background, a plume of smoke and steam billows from the perfectly symmetrical snout of Gunung Semeru, Java’s loftiest peak (3,676m / 12,000ft) – a mesmerizing spectacle at dawn, when the first rays of sunlight burnish its eroded slopes.