Volcanoes (by Eric)

From the Virunga / Kahuzi Biéga trip we took last month.

I mentioned in a previous post that we visited gorillas in 2 parks in Eastern DRC: Virunga and Kahuzi Biéga. We also climbed a volcano in each park, Nyiragongo in Virunga, near Goma, and Kahuzi, near Bukavu. The two were very different mountains: Nyiragongo is an active volcano with a lake of bubbling lava; Kahuzi was last active about 12,000 years ago. However, both were spectacular in their own ways.

Nyiragongo

Looking into the lava lake at Nyiragongo. The surface slowly churns.

We organized the trip through Virunga Park, and (for a fee) Mikeno Lodge provided us with sleeping bags, backpacks, sweaters, winter coats, a fleece layer, food for dinner, breakfast and snacks . . . and a cook. Our park driver took us directly from the lodge to the beginning of the hike on the morning of Friday, May 15. At the ranger station we met with our armed guides and joined 2 other tourists; I bought a walking stick; and all of us hired porters. Our party of 15 or so climbed Nyiragongo and spent the night at the top. It may be possible to go up and down the same day, but seeing the lake of lava at night is worth the discomfort of sleeping in a tent at 11,382 feet.

Hiking with ant-proof ankle protection, i.e., with pants tucked into socks like dorks.

Nyiragongo has erupted 34 times since 1882, most recently in 2002, when a fissure opened on the side of the mountain facing Goma and drained much of the lava lake, destroying the airport runway and burning a path through the city all the way to Lake Kivu. The runway was rebuilt, and Goma is under construction, but the roads are just bare lava in many places.
The upper portion of the hike was through bare volcanic rock and loose pumice. In that way, it reminded me of hiking up Mount Saint Helens.

Volcanic rock providing sheltering holes for a skink.

The hike started in the sun with a gradual incline, but later the trail became very steep and it poured rain. Fortunately, our packs also contained ponchos! It stopped raining before we reached the top and, over time, the clouds gradually blew out of the crater.

Before the rains

At the top there are insulated tents inside small, dilapidated cabins. Even 88 miles south of the equator, it gets pretty cold at 11,000 ft! Our cook prepared dinner for us over a charcoal fire – chicken and tomatoes, potatoes, soup. It got dark quickly at about 6 pm, and we made a foray to the edge of the crater to see the lava in the dark – a most amazing and awe-inspiring sight, but not one we could easily photograph with our low-tech cameras.

Isaac warming up before the sun set.

The lava is about 1 kilometer below us. There is a steep drop-off.

The following morning: looking towards Goma and Lake Kivu from the summit. The outhouse is visible in the foreground, and below it, the crater left from an earlier eruption.

Nyiragongo is a very steep-sided volcano; the hike starts at 1984 m (6500 ft) and the summit is at 3470 m (11,385 ft). That steepness and the very low silica content allowed the 1974 lava flows to reach speeds of 60 mph. For us, it meant that our legs were feeling the volcano for a few more days after our descent – Karen and I struggled with stairs for a while!

Kahuzi

After Nyiragongo we went to Bukavu, visited gorillas, and climbed Mount Kahuzi. In both Goma and Bukavu, the rainy season lasts most of the year, although it is drier from June to August. We drove from Bukavu to the trailhead along a road that continued all the way to Kinsangani. The road was extremely muddy in places and we were stopped for a while at this traffic jam:

The white truck is badly stuck. Photo taken through our windshield.

A mile or so before we got there, we knew we were approaching a jam because we started seeing people walking down the sides of the road. This was over 20 miles outside of town and this was the park – there weren't villages along the road. They were walking because the trucks or taxi-buses (vans) in which they had been riding were trapped behind the stuck trucks. Unfortunately, our driver thought we could squeak by the right side of the white truck above, and we also got stuck. Perhaps, if he hadn't tried to go around and gotten stuck, we would have turned around and not climbed Kahuzi. As it was, we hadn't been waiting very long before a UN patrol arrived. They were on their way to investigate reports of a new rebel group farther up the road. 
Anyway, the UN patrol was made up of a couple of large, white SUVs containing one officer from Russia, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, Uruguay, and the Philippines each, and 2 very large trucks driven by local contractors (probably Beiben 1629s or something very similar.) I can't help thinking of the Olympics when I see people from around the world working together! They quickly assessed the situation and hooked the stuck truck and the 2 Beibens together in series, and with much wheel-spinning, exhaust-spewing, mud-burning action, pulled the white truck out of the hole it was in. It had spun its wheels so much that it had dug a hole deeper than the radius of the wheels themselves. Everybody cleared out pretty quickly after that, and on the way home there was little evidence of the entire event. We were very lucky because without that UN patrol, we could have been stuck for a long time or had a long walk back to town.
Some distance further along the road was the ranger station, where we picked up 3 guards/guides and left the driver behind as we hiked up into the bamboo forest. This hike was also quite a climb, Kahuzi topping out at 10,883 ft. Coming down the steep parts, I slowed my descent by grabbing onto the giant bamboo along the trail, rubbed shiny by scores of other hands that had done the same thing.

The commanding view of the forested hills around Kahuzi.
These forests may contain both gorillas and dangerous primates (man).

Lots of lichen hanging from the trees near the top.

Isaac and I following our armed guard through the giant bamboo forest on the way down; Karen called it a day about 2/3 of the way to the top, and then headed down ahead of us (and took this picture).

The hike was a lot like summits that I have done in the Cascades – the flora was pretty familiar-looking – the lichen and a heather-like plant at the top. The giant bamboo was new for me, but the biggest difference was the accompanying armed guards. We just don't have that with the Mountaineers.