Falling down a volcano!
Right, fine, sometimes it is dangerous. I know we are forever saying that it’s no more dangerous than it is, say, in Manchester but that is because we forget to mention the natural wonders that can often cause problems.
As I have mentioned before, we really want to see lava, so we decided to go on an overnight hike to one of the ten most-active volcanoes in the world. It was meant to be an eight-hour hike, then overnight camp and another eight hours back the next day.
 If you look in the distance you can see the hill, that is the one we were to go up and over before we even reached the volcano we were meant to climb!
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We had a nightmare on the trek. We knew it was going to be hard work but, for the first four hours, we climbed uphill and of course it’s high altitude so there is not much oxygen. At one point, I thought I was going to have a panic attack because it doesn’t matter how much you gasp there is nothing. I didn’t thankfully, because if nothing else where would I find a brown paper bag to breath in half way up a volcano.
If you imagine climbing really awkward stairs with only five-minute breaks here and there, in the sun, for four hours that would be pretty close to our experience.
That wasn’t actually so bad; we were prepared for some hard work and the views were stunning.
After four hours, we started to climb down. You basically have to climb over one volcano to get to the one that explodes. An hour later Alex slipped and fell over fifteen feet whacking his knee on a rock as he somersaulted forward. I climbed down to him and by that point he had started to feel sick. Thankfully he hadn’t banged his head.
 Alex pre-injury, post injury I had to put him over my shoulder to get him over that cattle fence.
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He went to lie back and as he did he had a seizure. His eyes rolled back in his head so that all you could see were the whites and he started to have a fit. (Which was very mean of him because he knows how much I hate films where people look possessed). The guide was shaking Alex and we both got him sat forward and started pouring cold water over his head and back. An image of someone overheating and having to cool them down really quickly had come into my head; and this was the treatment.
I have had first aid training in the past but this was so scary. The guide was scared too. It only went on for a few seconds, thankfully, and then Alex came around as we sat him up. I had seen my Nan have fits in the past due to low sugar and I realised that we had been walking for hours and not had anything to eat. And in those conditions it’s really hard to make sure you have enough to drink too.
We had taken some biscuits with us and I got him to eat them, and have more water. We kept Alex talking all the time. He came around. He had banged his knee but it wasn’t that bad, more a scrape like you get in childhood. The soil there, being volcanic is really soft so that absorbed most of his fall.
 The biscuits that came to our rescue. Not really of course, the guide came to our rescue and my distant memory of some medical drama that reminded me to pour water on Alex to cool him down – but I like to give credit to pointless items too.
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There was only the guide, us two and a really nice American guy with us. The guide ran to the top of a peak and managed to get a signal for his phone so he could phone his boss and another guide.
It also turned out that the American’s wife was a doctor, so he was able to ring her (amazing this, a mobile phone signal five hours walk from the nearest road.) We explained to her what had happened and she spoke to Alex and it seems that this kind of fit can happen through dehydration mixed with shock. She said that we just needed to monitor him for the next few hours.
We were so far from a road that we had to walk back the way we had come, which took another four hours. The guide was pretty amazing, he took Alex’s pack off him and I took a few bit out of it but he mostly he just strapped Alex’s pack to the back of his already over stuffed pack and carried both.
We eventually made it back to the minibus that had come to pick us up and, thankfully, Alex is ok. He only has a few scratches on him, which is such a wonder really.
And, of course, still no sighting of lava. We got to hear the volcano roar as it let out huge clouds of smoke.
Other than the total terror of seeing Alex fall, the actual day was a real adventure.
 Yes, that is a volcano, but more importantly, I have shared all my hair off – grade 2 – and not cos I had nits so you can take that back right now!
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There is no adventure without risk and this won’t stop us from seeking out adventure in the future. It is always a case of going into these things with your eyes open. That, and perhaps getting more first aid training ASAP.
Let’s be social :)
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