Volcanic views and forgotten graves in Indonesia’s Banda Islands

Back across the channel, on the southwestern corner of Banda Neira, guest house verandas line the shore by the town’s main market. I spot the wooden loungers of the Matahari Guesthouse, where I am staying and from where my wife and I first assessed this climb to Api’s almost permanently cloud-shrouded caldera.

“How do we contact you when we come down?” I ask Ambon, as I set foot on Banda Api, an island 3km in diameter and 100 per cent volcano. He gives me a smile, followed by a benevolent stare that I interpret as, “Don’t worry, I’ll find you.”

We set off up the almost 45-degree slopes of the brooding, 640-metre-high volcano, and after about 90 minutes of winding through overhanging vegetation, rise above the tree line onto black volcanic soil. I sit, feeling the mountain’s heat radiate through stone and into the seat of my hiking trousers as I observe Banda Neira sprawled below us like a south-pointing tear, one of 11 islands speckled like crumbs in the rough Banda Sea, 250km southeast of Ambon, the capital of the remote Indonesian province of Maluku.