Dara Tah said those who work at Mount Ijen are a bunch of ‘incredibly strong people’
You might think your job is tough, but you will probably have a new-found appreciation for it after seeing the peril that some people put themselves in to earn a living.
Even daredevil Dara Toh breathed a sigh of relief after clocking off from his trial shift with the sulphur miners who risk their lives at Indonesia‘s Mount Ijen day in, day out.
The YouTuber has travelled the world to visit the ‘deadliest’, ‘most haunted’ and and ‘most infected’ islands, so his 570,000 subscribers know he has a strong stomach. But even he was ‘struggling’ while attempting to keep up with the workers who have one of the deadliest jobs in the world.
In his latest video, Dara explained he had flown to Indonesia with his friend and fellow content creator Matt James to give sulphur mining a go for himself.
The Irishman said: “The workers here have to fight off toxic gases spewing from the volcano, some of which can kill you instantly, and others appear to drastically reduce the workers lifespan. The risks to the workers’ healthare so extreme that it’s hard not to question why are they doing this job…so in order to answer this question, I tried to complete the job myself.”
So, Dara headed to Mount Ijen – an active volcano in Indonesia, renowned for it’s blue flames – to partake in some of the back-breaking labour that’s involved in sulphur mining.
Gas clouds
Dara explained that he would be making his way down to the mine, which is situated at the bottom of the volcano, while documenting the ‘insane conditions’ which people are working in along the way.
The first challenge which employees are met with is the constant stream of ‘gas clouds’ which engulf them, meaning that gas masks are an imperative piece of kit if you’re on shift at Ijen.
“The gas that we’re about to encounter is a mixture of sulphuric gases coming from deep within the volcano – some of which, can kill you instantly,” Dara said.
“We had to just hold our breath and hope that the wind would take away the gas. I didn’t expect to have my lungs irritated, even with a gas mask,” as Matt added: “My eyes are stinging!”
Inhaling this toxic smoke is obviously not good for people – but that’s not even the deadliest part about being employed as a sulphur miner at this volcano.
Acid Lake
In what could be considered as an elaborate booby trap laid by Mother Nature, an acidic lake – which is recognised as the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world – lies on the route to the mine.
Although it looks like the perfect place to take a nice dip, this liquid actually has a dangerously high concentration of sulphuric acid – and Dara wanted to prove just how potent it was.
Looking out across the acid lake, he said: “The workers must avoid falling into a lake full of acid. This may look like water, but this is one of the most dangerous acid lakes in the world.
“We’re about 2 metres away from incredibly concentrated sulphuric acid. It almost looks like you want to jump in and swim around, but you go into that and you will die.”
He then pulled out a metal nail on a string and dunked it into the lake at Mount Ijen to see demonstrate why it was so deadly – and as I’m sure you guessed, the nail promptly began disintegrating.
Dara added: “It’s literally fizzing metal! Holy crap! Oh my God. If the can do that to metal, can you imagine what it would do to a person?”
‘A nightmare’
From there, the adventurer then made the final leg of the lengthy journey to reach the sulphur mine.
Explaining how the ‘world’s deadliest job’ works, Dara said: “There is sulphuric gas building up in the bottom of the volcano.
“They insert these pipes deep into the volcano, and then what comes out of the pipes is the crazy, poisonous, toxic gas – which then eventually solidifies and creates sulphur.
“Sulphur is a chemical that can only be mined from active volcanoes. The world uses sulphur every day. It’s used in medications, cosmetic products and even batteries.”
After watching the professionals do it first, Dara then began chipping a way at the sulphur – which he said was extremely physically demanding, especially as your being hit with ‘plumes of toxic gas and can’t breathe’ at the same time.
“Holding your breath is incredibly important,” he said. “It’s actually incredibly hard to describe how disgusting it is in there. This is a nightmare of a reality for these guys.”
According to Dara, despite being absolutely exhausted by the graft he had put in while mining around a kilo and a half of sulphur, it was only worth $0.25, or 20p.
“You’ve got to get lots of that,” he said. “And this is just the start of the job, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”
The final hurdle
After mining a decent amount of sulphur, workers then place their haul in two wicker baskets which are balanced on a pole across their shoulders.
They then embark on a lengthy trek up the crater – which ultimately proved too much for Dara.
“They have to carry the weight of an adult male all the way up the volcanic crater – all the while trying not to pass out, fall or breathe in the gas,” he said.
As he tried to juggle all these tasks himself, the YouTuber began to struggle for breath as he approached the 100ft mark.
“It is incredibly heavy,” he said of the cargo he was carrying. “It is incredibly sore on the shoulder. I can’t do this.”
By 400ft, Dara was forced to make a pit stop – and despite multiple attempts to finish off the rest of the hellish hike, he just couldn’t muster up the energy.
Speaking after his shift, he said: “That’s definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I tried again and I tried again and again, but ultimately I failed.
“That is so hard. That made me feel sick.
“And they do that [the trek] twice a day! Incredible. Incredibly strong people and unfortunately exploited with this kind of work.”
I’m not sure if Dara did end up answering his question about why workers put themselves through it as he intended – but at least he made it out of the mine alive.