Crater Caper

A volcanic eruption in 1994 turned a bustling Papua New Guinean town into a burnt-out shell. Nine years later, Nick Hogg turned up to climb the fiery beast.

Every ten or twenty minutes, on a calm day, Papua New Guinea's Rabaul Volcano spews rock, ash and debris into the air. If the wind blows the wrong way, ash rains down on the town like thick grey snow.

Common sense told us the currently billowing peak was probably not the best choice to climb, so we asked locals about scaling Vulcan, the dormant peak across the bay. "Too dangerous," they said, shaking their heads. The thin crust of the earth was too weak to support a booted backpacker, they told us, and heavy rains had been causing landslips. So we asked a few more people until we got the right answer. There would probably be someone from the nearby village to take us up safely for a small charge, if we could get there.

It was market day and the local mini-bus service was jam-packed with shoppers. This was the only transport to the base of Vulcan, and although the buses kept coming, so did the people. Only the most determined managed to lever themselves aboard.

As we reisigned ourselves to a longer than expected hike, a smiling driver of a bakery truck beckoned us into the back. Gripping the sides to avoid being bumped out, we raced along the slippery dirt road, only slowing to give way to the ash-ploughs.

After a few jolting kilometers, we pulled over at a roadside banana stall. Our driver reckoned this was the place to find a guide, but all we saw was a little old lady and scores of yellow fruit. We pointed at the peak of Vulcan and made climbing gestures until the message was clear enough; the banana lady yelled into the trees behind her and out sprang four young girls. These local kids would be our escorts for the journey deemed too dangerous by the town's adults. Our lives would be in the tiny hands of a quartet with a combined age lower than any one of their tourists.

We left the road by squelching down a muddy drain-off. This led through to a narrow valley formed when quakes had split the earth, and rivers of liquid ash had flowed following the heavy rains. In excellent English, the two eldest girls told us how they remembered running from the impending doom. Though they had escaped safely, the slurry of ash had destroyed theirs and many others homes.

Hiking boots followed bare feet up the slope. The girls carefully led us between the gaping crevasses, taking care to make sure we stayed well away from the edge. As we climbed there would be the occasional boom of a landslip falling away. Getting nervous with the occasional boom of earth crashing around us, we probably scrabbled to the top in record time.

The stunning view into the crater was a jelly-kneed moment of vertigo. Sheer drops of several hundred meters fell away from the rim. Only the sound of our breathless lungs could be heard in the silence while we peered down into the gigantic bowl of rock. The quiet was soon broken by an endless echo of raucous "hellos" reverberating back and forth off the walls, amplifying our tiny voices in such a grand setting.

Across the bay, in contrast, Rabaul Volcano was still belting ash into the sky. The cloud of smoke reared into shape like a genie from lamp, as we sat with our smiling guides sharing out chocolate and drinks, almost oblivious to the explosions of the angry earth. Slipping an sliding back to safety at the bottom, we thanked the girls and headed for a cold beer.

Every night is fireworks night in Rabaul, and we drank watching the tracer-bullet loop of the flaring eruptions. For the locals it was the end of just another day in the shadow of a real, live volcano.

Travel Tips

Visas:
You'll need a passport with at least six months' validity and a visa. A two month tourist visa should cost less than ¥500, but must be obtained prior to arrival.

Money:
Take plenty of it. A good meal starts at around US$6; mid-range accomodation will cost you around US$50. The local currency is the Kina (1Kina = 32 yen)

When to go:
Through most of the country the dry season is May to October. Go outside this time and you'll get to experience serious tropical downpours.

Getting there:
Direct flights to Port Moresby leave from Narita on Saturdays only. Other flights are via Brisbane.

Further info:
Papua New Guinea official tourism site:
www.pngtourism.org.pg

Text Nick Hogg