East Congo: A night on top of the Nyiragongo Volcano
in Planet magazine, Kigali (Rwanda), December 2002
In the course of a pretty laid-back week-end on and around the magnificent Kivu lake, just across the Congolese border, my friends and myself decided to take monday and tuesday off and go climb the nearby Nyiragongo volcano. As everyone knows around here, “General” Nyiragongo erupted last January, devastating an impressive part of the middle-sized city of Goma, 18 kilometers away...To make things a bit clearer for a foreigner, we’re talking about the world’s biggest volcano with open crater currently in activity - the crater is 1.4 km large, at 3600m above sea level.
Magnificent Kivu lake
A building in Goma, 10 months after the eruption
It turned out to be an amazing expedition, especially since we found ourselves 17 wannabe-climbers that Monday morning at the foot of the volcano, where the road stops at 2200m above sea level. We hired about 20 carriers ($10 each for 30 hours...we ended up deciding to pay them $20, you’ll soon understand why) to carry the 4 refrigerated boxes packed with beer, wine, champagne, sodas and even water, as well as pre-cooked skewers and other meats, spaghetti alla bolognese, curry rice, sandwiches...
Unfortunately, we weren’t as well prepared in terms of equipment, with only 4 tents for 4 people each and no mattresses; some of us didn’t even have a sleeping bag, just a basic blanket. I was one of those...
ON TOP OF THE WORLD…
After spending over an hour palavering to get the access ticket to the national park ($50 per visitor) and discussing with the carriers and the compulsory armed guard, we could finally hit the road, or better the track, around noon. The first hour and a half, in the forest, was reasonably easy – but one of our friends still gave up there, sweating like an ice-cream and feeling he wouldn’t be able to finish anyway. So, 16. Keep walking... We took a break where the track meets the “lava highway” that comes down from the lower crater, on the way to the main crater. It is the lava flow that litterally cut the city of Goma in two in January, ending up in the Kivu lake. It’s amazingly wide, much wider than a highway actually, and it really felt like we were on the moon. From what I remember, that must have been the moment when the trip became litterally astounding. And we hadn’t opened any beer yet...
Quite some way to go...
Climbing the lava super-highway and the unstable layers of volcanic rock was the hardest part: better watch your steps, and forget you had nice trekking or sport shoes – now they’re ruined. The surface is like a minefield, as if is made of air pockets and thin layers of lava that break under your feet, uncovering holes the size of which greatly varies. But the sight is a unique experience, as you get higher above sea level and discover the stunning panorama. When we reached the lower crater, huge holes in the ground were pouring white sulphuric smoke and smell in the air. We had made it that far, we deserved a drink.
That’s when it started to rain, first gently, then really hard for about half an hour. We even got hail in the end, but that didn’t last. I didn’t have any jacket, so I desperately protected myself and my backpack containing the few dry clothes I had with a huge plastic bag – Francois had persuaded us we needed those and had cruised Goma to find them…I still thank him for that!
So we painfully climbed up to the small mountain refuge, at 3200m above sea level, walking through dense vegetation and pools of muddy water, but above all, feeling awfully sorry for the carriers, with very bad shoes with holes and flat soles, carrying around 20 kilos on their head or back, helping each other and folding their legs like contorsionists to pass under big branches...
That was hard, mostly because of the rain, and also because our legs were getting tired, and we got to the refuge, a 4-meter large metal tent with numerous holes, totally soaked, cold, dirty and exhausted, but we felt like heroes and shouted our joy - and relief. After this effort, the incredible sight, with the lower crater and its smokes just under you, the lava highways running in and around the city and to the lake, combined to the effects of altitude, can make you feel like you’re the king of the world.
On top of it.
Lower crater, seen from top
Treading the lava highway
We dried ouselves as much as possible over a small fire and a gas cooker – around 30 of us, since we finally all got there. And some of us decided to go sleep by the crater, 400m higher. That was definitely the hardest 400m hurdles in my life. I wouldn’t call this alpinism, but the slope is very steep, and I had to scramble and take breaks every 10 steps or so to breathe and try to relax my dead legs – even those with a much better condition than mine thought that was really getting serious. But we all made it again, after 30 minutes to an hour.
...IS THE MEANING OF LIFE
I had climbed for more than 6 hours, including an hour of breaks, and my whole body was aching, but I truly felt like the old and wise child in chinese philosophy when we got to the crater, with an astonishing panorama and the sight, the heavy smell of the crater attracting me towards the lava and the smoke, the red lights, and the mighty projections of lava coming from the bottom of the crater 600m deep under your feet and jumping up 200m high inside the crater. Mother Earth, I’m all yours. 
The edge of the main crater
Bubbly breakfast
We had a kingly dinner on top of the world, drinking Moet & Chandon champagne and smoking to kill the cold – and that worked amazingly well. No one really cared about the wet clothes and blankets, it became a joke, and we even managed to sleep a couple of hours, just to wake up for sunrise.
Let me tell you, a brand-new world is born when the sun rises for you on the Nyiragongo, high above the clouds, with only nearby volcanoes emerging from the white sea. With my plastic glass full of champagne in my hand, I thought “I have to live until I have grand-children some day, so I can tell them about this”.
Then the clouds slowly vanished, and we discovered all the surroundings, the hills, the lake and the islands, the lava drawings on the postcard. We could feel the heat of the sun on our skins...we were ready to get going. No need to tell you that getting back to earth after such an experience is a bit painful, and not only because of your legs, the mud, or the cold lava falling apart under your feet. Especially when you’re supposed to have a business meeting at 2pm...
I didn’t make it to my meeting, so what? I’m coming straight back from the top of the world, where Mother Earth taught me the meaning of life.
Just live it!
BJ