When is the best time to photograph a volcano?

The most magical time on the volcano begins at night. And not because night is such a mysterious time. And all sorts of witches must fly to the top of the hill to do their strange things.

No. Witches do not exist.

Only tourists crawl to the top of the volcano at night. No less strange and mysterious creatures.

At night, the volcano appears in all its glory. Just one small condition. If he has lava.

This magic word is lava!

She boils, squeaks and flows. She is alive. She is incredible.

With the onset of darkness, the lava lake begins to play with new colors.

Barely visible in the daytime, red flashes in the dark flare up with fiery tongues.

Anyone who has ever seen close will not forget.

Who has not seen ... I highly recommend to pack up, get in and see.

You can endlessly look at the game of fire. To replace the patterns in this infernal pan.

The first night on the volcano we were not very lucky with the weather. Of course, something was visible. But this was something shrouded in a dense cloud. But on the second night, when the clouds finally dispersed, and the smoke of the volcano was blown up by the wind, we really came off in full.

The evening began the same way - in the clouds.

But we appointed duty on the volcano. Every hour at night, someone had to get up and check how the volcano was doing without us.

And at the sight of a lava lake and a crater cleared of smoke - immediately rush to the houses of friends and wake them up.

And now, gritting our teeth from the cold, we met on the edge of the crater. Our efforts and expectations were rewarded.

It was, as usual, wonderful.

The lake grumbled, overflowed and periodically exploded in flashes.

A small volcano pleased us with its salutes.

This year, the lava lake of Nyiragongo volcano somehow intensified noticeably. Togo and look out of the coast.

Yes, and a small volcano last year was very small and only quietly showered with fireworks. This year, he behaves like a real adult volcano. Even lava flows from it.

Dawn arrived. Lava began to fade.

And we had to pack, have breakfast and go down.

Do you think this is where our adventures ended?

In general, yes.

But I’ll tell you just before the curtain how we crossed the Congo-Rwanda border without visas.

Not that we planned it in advance. It just so happened.

We applied for a visa before leaving Rwanda for the Congo. Hoping that in those two days, while we are on the volcano, they will approve of us.

Well, or let's go along the beaten track - we will show the number that is assigned after submitting the application on the embassy website. And the same number is then assigned to the approved visa.

At the Kigali airport, when the guys drove into Rwanda, it was quite a ride.

But at the border crossing between Congo and Rwanda, an unpleasant surprise awaited us.

We were released from Congo, we passed a strict test for plastic bags on the border with Rwanda. There was only one small step - to pay for a visa and get the coveted stamp.

Either because there was almost nobody besides us. Either the border guard had nothing to do. Either he decided to be vigilant. It is not clear what went wrong, but after copying our visa numbers from me, he went to punch them through the database.

And very quickly came back.

- Your visas are not yet approved.

Honestly, we still hoped that we had visas. The three days that are usually required to approve a visa have passed.
But apparently the consulate there was completely confused with our visa applications, filed one after another. Perhaps another role was played by the fact that the last time we hired a consul to speed up the process of obtaining visas, and we were noted. Not quite clear.
However, the fact remained. There were no visas, but we ended up in neutral territory.

“What shall we do?”

- Wait for the visa to be approved.

The calendar was November 5th, Sunday. And if the consulate in Russia observes the Russian weekend, the next day was also non-working.

We could not return to Congo either. Our single entry visa has expired.

Yes, and we did not have to in the Congo. Five hours later, a plane flew from Kigali to me.

The guys were not in such a hurry. But by night they had to get to Uganda to reunite with the rest of the group. And the path to there was not a short one.

We sat on the chairs in the hall.

In addition to these highchairs in the hall, on the one hand, there were passport control racks, on the other, payment of visas, in the middle there was a medical control booth.

All.

The hero of the movie "Terminal" is still lucky more than us.

Sitting on the chairs, we began to reason logically. Although this, of course, is not our thing.

The day before us, seven of our comrades with the same number and non-approved visas were supposed to cross the border here.

Once again we examined the hall, looked under the chairs - they were nowhere to be found.

There were two options: either they were let in, or they were sent to prison / sold into slavery / sent to plantations.

In any case, some kind of movement occurred.

This could not but rejoice, although the second option, frankly, was not very.

Our local escort went into negotiations.

Soon he returned to us with some kind of telephone number on a piece of paper.

- Now I will call. This number should help.

He left. He returned.

“You really don't have visas.”

- And ???

- And ... I don’t know ...

Then I began to ask him to go and once again explained that I personally didn’t really need to go to their Rwanda. I have a plane in five ... Oh no. Four hours later. And on it I plan to leave Rwanda.

He took a ticket and went to negotiate again.

He returned with a new phone number on a piece of paper.

Gone. I called. Has come.

- So you are in transit? Are you leaving today?

- Yes!

“Are you all flying away today?”

Just in case, Sasha and Misha began to shake their heads diligently, showing with their whole appearance that we all have such wonderful plane tickets that obviously give some hope ...

In the next half hour, we were issued checks to pay for visas and issued visas.

And apart from my further adventures with taxis, planes and luggage, our African adventures really ended there.