I have been to Kawa Ijen twice before, but I had never seen anything quite like this before. Ijen is an active volcano and the local people mine the fumarole field at the bottom of the crater for sulphur. It is a tough job ander the best of conditions, but this time the wind was not friendly and the fumes were being blown back onto the miners and onto any visitors to the crater. It was also a day when new pipes were being concreted into the fumarole to direct the gases through those pipes to allow the sulphur to condense. We were in the crater for about 3 hours, during which time we had to wear respirators. The miners used wet rags in their mouths and had to go much deeper into the gases than we did. They really do have a horrible workplace, and this day showed it at it's worst - at least nobody had an acute injury, though many must have had significant lung and maybe eye damage. I'll let the photos do the talking. Remember, these gases are very acid and quite toxic, and the ground around the fumarole is very hot.