World's Most Dangerous Roads - Java

[Music] [Music] I'm a slave to the volcanoes for my teeth because of gas the slope is too hard I can't take it anymore I sting me all this assets Murphy cannot pass up this man has sulphur in his lungs and I don't know how much time he has left to live I love this volcano goddamn I respect him was my life and my family depend on it my father did everything for me to succeed in my studies he will not stop working until I succeed in life [Music] the Pacific Ring of Fire 9 in 10 of the world's volcanoes are concentrated on this arc in Indonesia on the island of Java stands kawah ijen one of the most dangerous and unpredictable volcanoes in the world yet every day hundreds of miners venture below ground to extract a valuable mineral sulfur [Music] all day long loaded like donkeys they cross paths while on this dangerous route with on one side of precipice on the other toxic vapors they are known as the convict workers of sulphur at the foot of kawah ijen miners and their families use the particularly fertile land to grow rice and coffee the volcano feeds them but they fear it according to legend the crater and its smoke marks the doors to hell it's four o'clock in the morning at the foot of kawah ijen mattress n' age thirty one heads off in the pickup truck heading for the volcano [Music] about 50 other miners piled into the truck the trip takes more than an hour the road is narrow slippery and full of potholes the driver zigzags between the holes [Music] one day I asked some of the miners to get off because there were too many but they didn't want to in some state crouched hidden in the bottom of the truck then others got on making sure I couldn't see them in my rearview mirror so I continued to drive and when I got to the hill the trucks started to lurch and then it flipped over fortunately there were no casualties [Music] despite the hell that awaits them the men are in a good mood [Music] for mattress inand the others the workday begins with a two-hour walk a warm-up before facing the dangers of the volcano mattress on has been a miner since the age of 13 Yeti is still scared every time he makes the descent into the crater this place is very dangerous because there are landslides and then the volcano also produces highly toxic gases you have to pay attention to what you're doing especially when you work always be fully alert at the bottom of the volcano pipes collect molten sulfur when it's brought up the contact with cold air hardens it and the miners break it down with an iron bar [Music] the work of these men looks simple enough yet it is fraught with danger at anytime the wind may carry toxic acid fumes which burns their lungs it's like swallowing boiling water no miner here can afford a gas mask their only protection is a simple scarf after an hour of digging around in the belly of kawah ijen mattress on has extracted 80 kilos of sulfur the slopes are very hard to climb but for me the hardest part is the one that starts at the bottom of the crater to reach the summit he has trudged about 500 meters with 80 kilos on his back each step is painful I'm exhausted today and mattress in' has made one quarter of the walk when I drink water it tastes very bitter the bitterness is caused by the sulfur and its distinctive smell of rotten eggs that permeates all the pores of the skin I know that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health but I don't care I just need it out to remove the bitter taste in my mouth the porters of kawah ijen must tread carefully the slightest misstep means a fall which could be fatal I've already fallen climbing up I was so sick that day that I could no longer get up in there to take me to the clinic in the city here the rocks are unstable and I remember seeing a miner die in a landslide right over there there's no time to rest as thick smoke is rising towards him acidic gas highly toxic that in the long-term causes bronchitis fluids in the lung and cancer mattress a needs to hurry the cloud is snapping at his heels within seconds the vapors envelop him despite his scarf his lungs burn it's a shooting pain there's too much and it's everywhere and when we carry such heavy baskets on our shoulders it wears us out even more because the smoke is everywhere in our lungs our skin that's our biggest problem made breathless by the gas met resan has taken two hours to reach the summit of the crater he still has five kilometers to go but they're easier mattress on now moves forward on a flat path and can use this method which is a kind of dance punctuated by the squeaking of baskets I have a technique to avoid losing balance I move my feet to the way my baskets are balanced so I have a rhythm and it's much easier after 20 minutes percent mattress on arrives at the first stage halfway between the crater and the factory this is where the miners weigh their baskets where's 75 kilos but yesterday I did much more than that I had 86 kilos today I don't feel so well I feel weak few men are able to carry more than 80 kilos in one go Mattress n is among the most successful miners his record stands at 116 kilos like his colleagues he receives no salary the factory pays them by weight it's one way for the boss to encourage miners to carry even more the rate is five euro cents per kilo of sulphur the miners are paid at each delivery often with the company accounts and paying them in candy or cigarettes to make up the small change [Music] today I brought two loads and earn 8 euros 8 euros for 160 kilos of sulphur and an 11 hour workday Metris and earns between 150 and 200 euros a month twice the average wage in Indonesia each day the hundreds of miners at kawah ijen bring up ten tons of sulphur it is used in Indonesia to bleach sugar and paper pulp to make matches even explosives it's also found in some cosmetics as this is a very pure volcanic sulfur the or simply needs washing than filtering to make it ready for market for every kilo sold the factory pockets 35 Euro cents seven times what it pays to the miners it's now 4 p.m. and mattress and returns herb and exhaustion [Music] he lives an hour's drive from the factory in a small wooden house with his wife and three children this is a modest little house and it's in very bad condition look look at the state of it floor it's clay you see I can't afford real tiles when it starts to rain the whole house is flooded with water coming in from the roof the whole floor quickly becomes mud we'd meet only once a week [Music] sometimes we don't have enough money to buy any so we just go without there's no radio or television everything mattress and urns goes towards the education of its three children there are few distractions so whenever there's a village feast no one wants to miss it [Music] Matros on wants to show his children what is happening inside this tent [Music] at first glance one would think it's a play in fact it's a shamanic ceremony the men dance until the gods of the volcano wake up although the villagers are all Muslims many still believe in these pagan gods the men dance until they're in a trance then spirits enter their bodies and completely possess them they can eat anything given to them coconut the flowers but worse they swallowed glowing embers or pieces of glass they've become unaware of everything and have no idea what they're doing lucky for them the Shaymin is watching [Music] like this man who has swallowed a glass jar if it injures him it will be a bad omen the gods would be angry and wake up the volcano so not to risk it the Shamer in the men's trance my role is to invoke the spirits so they enter the bodies of the dancers and when I feel it's getting dangerous I make sure the spirits leave their bodies the volcano is feared as far away as in the valley but not for its eruptions of molten rock or lava flows kawaii Chen is dangerous because of gas explosions it accumulates in the waters of the lake to form a bubble that bursts like a bomb this is what seismologists fear the seismograph can detect the slightest twitch of the volcano it's imperative the crater is under surveillance 24/7 and even when everything seems calm if ever there were an increase in seismic activity the volcanologists would immediately prevent access to the volcano an explosion of the poisoned gas could kill everyone who is on the car he Jem [Music] explosions are difficult to predict one of the most deadly happened 30 years ago it was 11 o'clock in the morning when a huge gas bubble burst on the surface of the water that day there were many people in the crater 60 miners and reporters they were there over here everyone even by the side of the lake like smoke came out of the crater insomnia man fainted someone went to help him and he fainted - 11 other men were also affected four of them died were very close friends of mine that was very sad on average there's an explosion every four years but within the crater the danger comes from the sulphur itself on this particular day the men are worried there are leaks it paralyzes production but more importantly there are too many toxic fumes there's too much smoke and we must put a tube through here the only way to fix the problem is to step into the furnace the men who risk their lives repairing the pipes are called a volcano mechanics they're ridiculous masks they would probably survive no more than five minutes in the ultra corrosive cauldron so speed is off the the leaks are finally sealed but a few minutes later there's a new problem this time it's a fire now there is a fire the temperature is 600 degrees the rocks are molten they're burning if we don't manage to extinguish the fire the entire production of sulfur might go up in flames but sulfur tends to ignite easily in the open air and on the site there are several fires each day usually they are quickly extinguished with this water pump only this morning the pump has broken down the machine is worn out and the company doesn't want to buy a new one so for now we're forced to do everything by hand we use a bucket and Goff to douse the flames with the machine it takes about 10 minutes but now it's probably gonna take us one or two hours but the machine is almost new that has been damaged very quickly this is because of the sulfur it's so acidic some porters have been waiting patiently for over five hours to start work and concern is growing because soon as on every afternoon the winds will turn and toxic fumes will invade the crater when the pump finally starts working again it's almost too late fires beginning to spread if we can't extinguish it now we'll have to try again later all that sulphur will burn and there'll be none left the fire is invisible it's hidden behind the smoke screen and to put it out men must in turn again enter the fog of smoke now my mayapur hi-yah it's a very dangerous area you always have to be careful it's impossible to make anything out and it's easy to trip these men who constantly flirt with death are employed by the company that operates the mine all the former miners who no longer have the strength to carry the heavy loads of sulphur [Music] like Andy who began working in the crater at the age of 15 yeah my sandy Dorothy and yet to stop working as a porter because of shoulder problems it was very painful we had boils I think every time he carried his baskets his shoulders began to bleed Andy is less than 40 years old he's a man we know well 12 years ago we had already filmed him at kawah ijen at the time he was still carrying sulfur we'd been moved by his story as he showed us his physical suffering and open the doors to his home we returned to his home to show him the report that we'd made he watches along with his family you see that's where your father works yep there it is that was younger then I could carry the sulphur with my friends then now I'm not strong enough as the film progresses there's an uncomfortable silence and he remains impassive while his wife and daughter are glued to the screen and looking worried they understand the pain and suffering he endured for years a reality he had preferred not to talk about I would never have imagined that he worked like yes I'm very touched by the phone I only now realize how very painful my father's job is especially during those days and he never complained about his working conditions and he never wanted to talk about his work not out of shame but out of modesty at the time he had said he worked mainly for his daughter the most important thing for me is her I wanted to be educated and get a job that's better than mine I wanted to get the primary school college and university my daughter is my life today Andy continues to work for his family but since he no longer carries Sulphur his salary has been hard so when he's not at the volcano he works in the fields grow rice so that we can always have something to eat at home the money I earn and the mine is exclusively for the studies of my daughter the school which Andy's daughter attends as a two-hour drive from their house for her to continue her studies he continues to make sacrifices I find a studio for my daughter to be closer to her school and I pay the rent every month in school and his daughter is taking Graduate Studies and tourism at 20 she is the oldest child and the great hope of the family my father's work means he can't be with me very often or with my mother or my brother but he does everything to make me have confidence in myself so I can succeed in my studies and I don't think he will stop working until I have made a success of my life too he gives me so much hope absolutely must succeed in my studies so that my mom and dad's dream will finally come true in this Indonesian province education remains the only means of escaping poverty for those who are not so lucky there will always be the volcano and this is true for Vartan age 19 this is his first day working at Kauai agent mattress n has agreed to teach him the ropes training begins with the choice of baskets this one it's not bad it's not very rigid so you can load 20 kilos unemployed like 1 3 people and this Indonesian province rotten had no choice I used to work in construction but right now there's no work and I have to help my parents which is why I've come to work here afraid because I've never worked as a porter carrying sulfur just now when I took the path up to here I was totally out of breath and yet I wasn't even carrying anything I'm sure later it'll be much worse I'll still try to stack the odds in his favor Vartan the apprentice has decided to start with the smaller baskets those that can carry only 20 kilos where do we get the sulfur from over there yes down there we'll go this way and it's important you don't forget to wear your scarf around your mouth follow me and make sure you stay on the left so it's not to obstruct those who are coming up on the descent the young man begins to feel more confident but he soon disillusioned when they reached the pipes and the smoke in fact it's difficult I have a hard time breathing [Music] like laughs Carla put your handkerchief in your mouth will not stop with this piece here and then you take it out like this go on grab it good good bro keep going pick it up now lift it Wotton tries vainly to overcome his uneasiness so it's mattress only you must do the work for him technique yet I don't even know where to put my hands because it's very hot the next challenge is to deal with the baskets the car drop I'll show you the proper technique to carry a basket first off you squat down like this now put the bamboo rod in one of your shoulders put your hands there and stand up now now check you're properly balanced looks like your baskets aren't balanced one is heavier than the other okay put them put them down again I have the feeling that album can never be able to carry the basket they're so heavy the two men now reached the steepest part of the climb whoa Vartan and thongs the ascent is a nightmare even with boots on his feet Madison has also had enough just after you talk a fashion I don't wear socks because they would last a week so what I do is put in some cloths they quickly fall apart definitely but if I didn't know that the stones would support my feet so pair come up you're trembling yes I feel as if I couldn't take another step be careful when you walk never look to the left or right and especially never look down you'll get dizzy looking at such small people down in the crater you must only look where you put your feet and it's important that you don't look anywhere else [Music] yeah a new mattress and will stop eight times in the course of the day waiting for his apprentice to catch his breath and when the two men do reach the summit of the crater wattens feats are in a sorry state it hurts here and over there too and here last year I took some youngsters to learn about the business they all had the same problems managing to hold on last year the apprentices had to abandon their baskets of sulfur like they just couldn't continue both men will put in another hour and a half to reach the weighing scales but to Vardhan it's a victory of sorts come here and grab this I think I will certainly continue this work because I haven't found anything else the company needs to give me a salary that is in line with the work which is really very very demanding but for the so-called sulfur convicts only the strongest men manage to earn a decent living and Wotton who today has collected only 30 kilos of sulfur will pocket just one and a half years halfway between the crater in the factory of 2000 meters above sea level 15 men live in these shacks without running water or electricity most a part of the maintenance team here zone D again the exporter that we had filmed 12 years earlier he spends two weeks a month here without going home I'm the slave of the volcano but what can I do keeps me alive gives me money to eat to pay for the education of my children all this is thanks to the volcano if kerogen didn't exist i think there would be a lot of thieves in the village look where all the vegetables so all he's got left are the broth and the peppers those peppers will blow his socks off got often isolated the men who kill time as best they can for us it's very important to work with real friends if we were to get sick we're always there to help us feel down they helped boost your morale sometimes we sing together to help us forget how tough this life is it's at the young nightfall is at 5:00 in the afternoon the men are preparing to go to sleep once mattress and the porter has decided to stay with them I've made my own torch to be able to work tonight on the kawah ijen the next morning he will have to begin work as early as possible to make up for lost time with his young apprentice at nighttime the temperature inside the cabin drops below five degrees to protect themselves against the cold the miners sleep fully clothed kini and pilot I put it on to keep me warm otherwise I'd die of the cold it's called the poor man's blanket it's just an old potato sack for handy like mattress on the night will be a very short one by saying I had to come I see I'm still asleep yeah Nene it's really hard to leave for work at two o'clock in the morning yep and en mattress n' are far from being the first on the slopes of the volcano [Music] on the flanks of the crater a dozen furtive shadows are already flitting about you can't see them but they can be heard at the bottom of the crater the nasty surprise awaits according to Randy the mechanic these are the blue flames produced by burning sulfur and there's a fire that's getting bigger if I can't put out the fire all the porters will have it in for me and my boss will be furious the sulfur won't make it through and I won't be paid if by day putting out the fire is difficult by night it's hell escape and we can't see the path because of our masks you could tumble over any time especially now that the water pump has broken down again and once again Andy has to get close to the flames with buckets of water [Music] [Music] thank you for his part mattress on is already at work while they're only 30 in the 1980s today the miners are now in their hundreds trying to eke out a living on the volcano and often there's not always work for everyone [Music] mattress and takes advantage of the night to pick up as much sulfur as possible before his competitors arrive it will take him barely 20 minutes to fill his baskets the disadvantage is that in the darkness the climb up is even more dangerous than in the daytime one misstep means plunging into the ravine at night you see nothing it's too dark and it's complicated we're forced to use a torch and you have to walk very slowly while during the day we're much faster of course I've got the bad [Music] well tapas Colleen it burns me right here my back [Music] as day breaks mattress inheres off to drop his sulfur the more quickly to return to the volcano and stay ahead of the other miners because of the fire there's less sulfur much of it has been destroyed today for example I filled up the baskets with sulfur to be ready when I come back along tomorrow morning that way I just need to pick them up here mattress n is in a hurry because he has an important appointment he's been breathing in acid gas fumes all day and he's beginning to worry so for the first time in his life he's decided to consult a doctor [Music] because of money very few miners ever see a doctor my legs and back hurt and then I hurt my shoulder as shoulder here is very strong but when I'm tired I change and I put my baskets on this shoulder and sometimes it's infected well one moment one moment is there pus coming out it's because of the weight of basket you have the same thing on the other side yeah but not as much like awful lot when I'm in the crater and sometimes when I'm stuck in the smoke I'm vomit but it's the state of his lungs rather than his shoulders that worries the doctor mattress on is 31 years old usually miners don't seek such treatment he has made the effort to reassure his family but above all he's hoping that the doctor will not ask him to stop working [Music] should he have to stop working it would not be because of his shoulder but because of his lungs he's breathed in sulfur fumes which went right down into his lungs and it can be fatal and I really can't tell you how much longer he has left to live the life expectancy of those who work on the crater floor rarely exceeds 40 years but what happens to those who are no longer healthy enough to work on the volcano in this farming village about 30 miles from kawah ijen lives a former sulphur mine it's 52 Sanji can no longer work he is sick only the massages his wife gives him managed to relieve the pain in his body I started working in the crater at the age of 16 but 10 years ago I had to stop working I had pains all over my back I went to the clinic and then to see a healer but I'm still not cured the former miner has lost everything his health and his work now it's building the elder son will support the family he too has become a sulphur convict I taught my son betrayed when he was still very young now he is 18 and with everything but I taught him become a good sulphur miner at 18 Tilda gets the youngest author at kawah ijen here when the miners are not working for their children it is their children who work for them you value done that my goal in life is not very complicated really I'd like only to build a house and be able to take care of my parents and my brother and sisters and be sure they want for nothing these days once again there isn't much work the fire destroyed some of the stocks of sulfur [Music] got me in the wall there are too many people digging and there is not enough sulfur so I must wait but if necessary I can stay here until midnight or all night in order to fill up my baskets and it doesn't scare me I have to after a two-hour wait he's finally found some sulfur but it's not very large to complete his load he forages four pieces left by others his baskets are loaded with 80 kilos almost twice his own wait till dick is able to carry them but he's waited too long in the crater floor and has forgotten the gas usually invades the slope in the afternoon [Music] we're here on the back of my throat wait I don't really feel it burning [Music] the young man is part of the new generation one that will take over from the old miners who still believe in dragons and spirits such as these men who go to the bottom of the crater carrying the head of a goat they've sacrificed to be sure that the kawah ijen will not become angry every year they offer at this present [Music] with the ceremony we hope that the production of sulfur will be good throughout the year mostly we make the sacrifice for the safety of the miners there have already been too many casualties among our comrades some had been injured by falling stones others have been buried by landslides down there there are others who have fallen into the acid lake so it's better to kill a goat than to see our friends die for 200 years the sulfur workers have been taking the perilous paths at collegian the volcania remains as active as ever to survive mattress on Andy till dick and the others may have to work for a lot longer in the land of the sulfur convicts [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Show Me the World

Views: 1,174,050

Rating: 4.7883544 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, roads, National Geographic, waterways, travel, Deadliest Journeys, dangerous roads, most dangerous roads in the world, most dangerous roads, documentary national geographic, documentary now, documentary history, documentary bbc

Id: PuZeYd48dxw

Length: 50min 49sec (3049 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2019