Sailing with Nine of Cups

Today marks the anniversary of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. The Roman poet, Pliny the Younger wrote letters providing a good first hand account of the devastation and deaths caused when the mountain blew its top. I remember flying over Mount St Helens in Oregon in October 1986 as many small eruptions were occurring. From that safe distance miles high in the sky, it was interesting to view, but I never got any closer.

Then we started sailing and began getting first hand looks at volcanoes. A good many of the Caribbean islands are volcanic, part a mountain chain that extends along the sea floor. Approaching the island of Saba which juts suddenly out of the water, its peak surrounded in a mist of clouds, left no doubt as to its origin. When we visited St. Eustatius (Statia), we hiked to the bottom of The Quill, a huge volcanic crater. Arriving at Montserrat was totally different. Soufriere Hills Volcano was actively smoldering. We couldn't go ashore and had to make sure we anchored outside the designated exclusion zone. This was getting a bit closer to reality.

Martinique offered an excellent, up close view of the historical eruption of Mt. Pelee which totally destroyed St. Pierre, “the Paris of the West Indies” in 1902, killing most of its inhabitants and leveling the town. We wandered through the ruins which are marked with placards, many showing old photos of the “before” which we compared in amazement to the “after”we were seeing a hundred years later.

As we traveled in South America, volcanoes were quite common. In Ecuador, we took a bus through the Valley of the Volcanoes, south of Quito and viewed majestic Cotapaxi.

The alluring Galapagos Islands off Ecuador's coast are volcanic in origin and one of the most volcanically active places on Earth. We rode horseback on the Isla Isabela, trekked over stony rough aa lava beds for view of calderas and fumeroles at Sierra Negra and explored lava tubes, sometimes on hands and knees.

Probably the closest and most dramatic encounter with a volcano, however, occurred fairly recently when we visited Vanuatu. One of the must-sees when visiting this South Pacific island nation is a stop at the island of Tanna to stand on the rim of Mount Yasur, the most accessible active volcano in the world.

A 4-wheel drive half-ton community-owned truck was our transportation from the local village to the volcano. The dirt track was rutted and almost non-existent in parts, but the driver knew his way and after about 20 minutes of jostling and bouncing, we arrived at the entrance to the park. As entry fees were paid and receipts written, we stretched our legs, took photos and heard the first roars of the volcano still many miles away.

Up, up, up the truck maneuvered along a track reminiscent of a Colorado 4-wheel drive back-country mountain pass. The truck labored as it negotiated deep ruts and steep inclines and finally deposited us about 150m from the rim of the volcano. Mount Yasur at 361m, is touted to be the world's most accessible active volcano with a crater some 300m across. At some point in time, the path up to the rim had a wooden railing, but it was rickety and in pieces now, more of a hindrance than a help. We clambered up the ash and cinder slope and there we were...looking down into the smoke and sulphurous vapors of Mount Yasur's 100 meter deep crater. We were the only ones up there and we tenuously chose our steps along the rim to the best vantage point.

Lots of volcanic pix at www.justalittlefurther.com