"What a vision!" That's all we could say the first time we looked down the canyon in this huge crater and saw fire rise from the bowels of the earth. The slight smell of sulfur, a big monstrous sound and the size of the crater gave us a real sense of awe. Seeing this show of natural strength in person - it's an experience we will long remember.
There aren't many places in the world where someone can see a living, breathing volcano and fewer places where a person can get a close-up of someone in a state of constant activity. The Nyiragongo volcano is one of the few to be found a few kilometers north of the city of Goma, on the eastern border of the Republic of Zaire. Unlike other volcanoes around the world, Nyiragongo never crusts or plugs over the hole so you can see the fire at all times. This is why Nyiragongo doesn't seem as dangerous as his sister Nyamulagira, who is by his side and sometimes blows up with spectacular results.
Climb on the ledge
My wife and I have decided to look into this phenomenon. We just took a change of clothes and enough food for a few days and followed the winding mountain road from our home in Bukavu at the foot of Lake Kivu to Goma, sixty miles north. We spent the night there with friends and the next morning we drove to Nyiragongo. Here is the great adventure that has begun.
After paying for the ticket and receiving the receipt, together with a large group of foreign tourists we hired a local Tsarean as a porter in the best “safari” tradition and started the trek. Let's go? Yes, and over time the climb got steeper and steeper. The slopes of Nyiragongo are not hot and within a short time it started to rain, not hard but nonstop, and lasted for the next three hours.
When we dived into the bush on the lower slopes the black volcanic soil was very slippery. Sometimes we saw huge worms over 30cm long and beautiful delicate wild flowers. A man stood in front of the group, armed with a pistol and empty ammunition to hunt the looted elephants.
As we went up the path got more bumpy, we were now walking over a crumpled volcanic cliff instead of mud, and here and there we had to negotiate fallen trees and other obstacles. We were very happy to have hired a porter to bring our food and replacement clothes. After climbing for about three hours, we reached a log cabin where we rested, ate and drank for a while.
Shortly after we left, we saw the rim of the crater for the first time, still high above us. The vegetation was now more overgrown and there were fewer trees. It was colder so we took off our sweaters. Despite the load, the tractor managed to get us to move forward, although we had already kidnapped some of the tourists who had left earlier but had not rented a van. An older man had to come back without going up the steep climb.
On New Years afternoon we arrived at where we would stay at the end of the day: two round aluminum cabins with conical roofs with a few rustic beds with foam mattresses. As everyone was tired and wet we decided to stay dry. With more food and the rain was over, we were ready to make the last lap of the ascent to the crater on our own, which is still a quarter of a mile long. It was the most rugged ascent we have ever seen. There was no way to get through the cabins, but our guide knew how to do it. However, we climbed jagged volcanic rocks and more than one person slipped and felt uncomfortable. We climbed almost four at a forty-five degree angle.
But the weather was good for us because the fog that once covered the slopes had disappeared and we had a beautiful view of the plain that we had left seven hours earlier. We also had an aerial photo of Shahera, a small extinct volcano that we climbed on the way up. Far below and to the left, we could see the contours of the magnificent Lake Kivu and to the right and a little higher the majestic snow-capped Karisimbi, now extinct and whose almost perfect conical tip overlooks the night sky. .
We feel our enthusiasm rise as we approach the edge of the crater. Then we were suddenly there! We were on top of the world and we reached over 11,000 feet (3,470 meters is the official number). And what a vision! Right in front of us was the open mouth of Nyiragongo, a huge well half a mile in diameter and steep, almost steep slopes that fell far below; yes, we were right on the edge. From our distance we could not smell the fire, but we could definitely see and hear. Thick clouds of smoke flew up into the sky and the strong, penetrating smell of sulfur filled our nostrils.
A breathtaking sight
The crater rim itself provides outstanding visual aid. There are no fences, guardrails, ropes or anything else that prevents the cramped person from falling more than thirty meters to the bottom of the crater. The bottom of the crater is flat, except for a platform or a "table" in the middle, a concentric circle of dark gray material that rises and falls to 12 meters or more. In the middle of that circle, molten lava could be seen floating and rising from the bowels of the earth.
The guide showed us a ledge just inside the ledge from which we could take some nice pictures and also protect ourselves from the icy wind as it felt now. We walked carefully down the ledge and took all precautions not to get too close to the edge. As we sat at a wooden table at the edge of a living volcano with some other tourists, we discovered that the fire seemed to have a strange hypnotic effect at dusk.
As the outside world was lost in the dark, we got the most impressive sight of our lives. The fire from the volcano seemed to intensify and the flames jumped and danced in front of us, actually several hundred meters away, but apparently very close. Now we could see the glowing lava slowly flowing into the middle of the fire. We could only think of our great Creator, the almighty God Jehovah, and the tremendous power he had at his disposal. Truly a humble experience.
We had driven about 50 km up the hill. Now at 19:30 we go back to the carpenter. It was very dangerous in total darkness. But we agree that it was worth it. After a good night's sleep and one last quick look at the crater in the morning, we come down from "Mulima ya Moto" ("Mountain of Fire"), as the locals call it in Swahili.
