Volcanic escapes
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I like my scenery big and bold. Deserts of improbable coloured sand rolling like oceans, canyons like gashes in the earth’s surface lined with layers of rock, and mountains rising stony and steep out of open plains, so volcanoes with their volatile promise of gushing molten lava, spitting rock and shooting gasses have a definite appeal. Even post eruption, volcanic scenery is like nothing else on earth. Shiny hardened lava tunnels that look almost like glass, and bubbling lakes tinted by sulphur, gasses seeping out of vents, the occasional puff from the caldera: it’s a scene in flux, things are happening, alluding to what’s happening inside the volcano, and what’s happening inside the volcano is exciting… Maybe hinting delicately at an interest in courting danger by climbing a volcano or even strolling around the base is part of the appeal. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to see an eruption but it’s likely that you’ll see something you don’t see every day, and what if that something was a spit of burning rock or a leak of lava? You’d definitely be adding dangerous to the list of adjectives used around your name.
The most active volcanoes are at the top of my list, Etna, Stromboli, Pompeii crusher, Vesuvius, beautifully smoking in the jungle, Arenal and sulking ominous Yasur, but there is a hidden drama to every volcano. |
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