We spent two nights on the lovely volcanic island of Nisiros. The main event was our trip around the island on a hired moped. The first thing to note is that, whilst Phil was driving and I was pillion, there were no accidents.
We had a thorough briefing of where to go and how to get there from the moped hire man at Eagles Nest, who was from the island and had a lot of really good local knowledge. We started with a volcanic sauna in a natural cave up in the hills and then went down into the crater from there.
The whole crater takes up the entire centre of the island, but within this there are two smaller craters. We were able to walk right up to the edge of the smaller and most recent one to erupt, and right down into the larger older one. It was an amazing experience to be in the crater of a volcano. It feels a lot like being in a Star Trek episode, especially as the rocks are all pumice and so weigh nothing, making them feel strangely like polystyrene rocks . The colours of the rocks and sand were also very vibrant, giving them a glorious technicolour feeling. Both of us were glad not to be wearing red.
The abiding memory of the whole experience however will not be the amazing blow holes in the craters or the fact that you knew the bottom was only a meter thick but the God awful smell. Sulphur does not just smell of bad eggs, it burns and tastes of them as well. It hit the back of your throat and felt like a solid not a gas. It made me gag several times and I was not sure I would be able to make it down into the crater itself. I gave it a go and was really pleased I did but you really could not stay for long. I swear that I could smell the smell on my skin and clothes all the way home. Definitely worth experiencing but now I have any other volcanic experiences will be from a distance or with breathing apparatus.
We had a thorough briefing of where to go and how to get there from the moped hire man at Eagles Nest, who was from the island and had a lot of really good local knowledge. We started with a volcanic sauna in a natural cave up in the hills and then went down into the crater from there.
The whole crater takes up the entire centre of the island, but within this there are two smaller craters. We were able to walk right up to the edge of the smaller and most recent one to erupt, and right down into the larger older one. It was an amazing experience to be in the crater of a volcano. It feels a lot like being in a Star Trek episode, especially as the rocks are all pumice and so weigh nothing, making them feel strangely like polystyrene rocks . The colours of the rocks and sand were also very vibrant, giving them a glorious technicolour feeling. Both of us were glad not to be wearing red.
The abiding memory of the whole experience however will not be the amazing blow holes in the craters or the fact that you knew the bottom was only a meter thick but the God awful smell. Sulphur does not just smell of bad eggs, it burns and tastes of them as well. It hit the back of your throat and felt like a solid not a gas. It made me gag several times and I was not sure I would be able to make it down into the crater itself. I gave it a go and was really pleased I did but you really could not stay for long. I swear that I could smell the smell on my skin and clothes all the way home. Definitely worth experiencing but now I have any other volcanic experiences will be from a distance or with breathing apparatus.
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