Mountains of the Moon 9
Eruption
Shankar woke up at the dead of night. There was a noise somewhere out there in the woods, something was happening somewhere in the forest. Alvarez was also sitting up in his bed. Both listened carefully — it was quite strange. What was happening out there?
Shankar was quick to go out with a lit up torch, but Alvarez stopped him. He said — I warned you many times to not go out of the tent like that at night time in these woods. And where are you going without a gun anyway?
It was pitch dark outside the tent. Following the rays of lights from their torches, they saw —
Packs after packs of wild animals — hyena, baboon, wild buffalo — were coming out of the jungle to their west, in a mad dash without pause, running headlong to the hills to their east. Two leopards brushed pass them. More were coming… in groups after groups… troops of male and female colobus monkeys were running with their younglings. It seemed as if they were running for their life from a sudden danger! …. Meanwhile, there was a strange sound from somewhere — a rumbling, deep, yet thunderous sound — as if a thousand Bengali drums were beating afar.
What was this phenomenon? They looked at each other. Both were surprised. Alvarez said — Shankar, make sure the fire is lit properly, otherwise these beasts will trample over the tent with us inside.
The number of animals kept increasing. Even above their head, flocks of birds were flying away from nests. A massive herd of springbok deer came within ten yards of them.
But they were so stunned at the time that they forgot to shoot from such a close range. They had never witnessed something remotely like this!
Shankar was about to ask Alvarez something when — apocalypse struck. At least that’s how it seemed to Shankar. The whole earth shook so much that they both fell to the ground, and at the same time it seemed a thousand lightning had struck nearby. The ground seemed to crack open — as did the sky.
While trying to stand up, Alvarez said — Earthquake.
Right after that the surprise continued as they saw the darkness suddenly disappear with a bolt of light coming from somewhere that was bright enough to be from fifty thousand electric bulbs!
Then their gaze turn to that peak afar. There seemed to be a massive inferno. The whole horizon was bright red from the apocalyptic flame, red clouds seemed to bubble up from the peak to a couple of thousand feet into the sky — and then there was the noxious aroma of sulphur in the air.
Looking at that, Alvarez blurted with shock and awe — Volcano! Santa Anna Grazia da Cordova!
That was a strangely beautiful sight! Neither could avert their gaze for a while. It seemed to Shankar that a hundred thousand fire crackers were going off at once. The cloud of red fire dimmed for a while, and then it rose above a thousand feet all at once, similar to what happens when a fresh wood is thrown into a campfire. And accompanying all this was the noise of a thousand bombs going off.
Meanwhile the earth was shaking so much that it was impossible to stand straight — it was as if they were surfing. Bobbing and weaving, Shankar entered the tent — there he saw a little puppy-like animal in his bed, shaking with fear. It froze looking at Shankar’s torch, with its eyes sparkling like a gem. Seeing it upon entering the tent, Alvarez said — Keep it, since it took our shelter fearing life.
Neither of them had seen a live volcano before, nor were they aware of the dangers it posed — but even before Alvarez could finish his sentence, they ran outside hearing something large fall, it was a burning rock weighing perhaps 15 kg — it was then that Alvarez said in a panicked tone — Run away, come on Shankar, lift the tent, hurry…
A couple, maybe more, of fiery-red heavy rocks fell around them with booming noise even as they lifted the tent. Meanwhile it was getting harder to breath with so much sulphuric fume.
Run… run…. run. After a couple of hours of dragging and carrying their stuff, they made it to the foot of that eastern hill. Even there the air reeked of sulphur. After half an hour, molten rocks started falling even there. They climbed uphill, pushing through the forest in the dark night. They climbed up two and half thousand feet, and sat down in fatigue under a large tree on the slope as the dawn broke.
That terrific beauty of the eruption dimmed a lot with the sunrise, but the noise and the rock-falls seemed to increase. Now it was no longer just rock, a very drab coloured ashes started falling from the sky too…. the trees and vines soon became covered with thick layer of ash.
The inferno continued unstopped whole day — and then the night fell again. That terrific beauty returned at night, with the jungle and the sky and the distant horizon being red with the fire from the volcano — though the molten rocks seemed to have abated a bit. But the cloud of the fiery smoke was still shining bright.
Their drowsing came to an abrupt end after midnight with the loud bang of a massive explosion — frightfully they saw that the peak of the burning mountain had blown off — the forest in the valley down below soon got covered with ash, fire and burning rocks. Alvarez was hit by a molten rock. Their tent caught fire. A large branch fell behind them after being hit by a rock.
Shankar started thinking — this huge natural calamity in this desolate forest would have gone completely unknown had they not been there. The civilised world didn’t even know about the existence of this forrest volcano. They might not even believe it if told.
In the morning, it was clearly visible that the mountain peak looked like a burnt out candle. It was as if someone had taken a bite off the ice-cream.
Alvarez said after consulting the map — The map doesn’t denote this as a volcano. Likely to be the first eruption after many years. But the name in the map is rather interesting.
Shankar asked — What’s the name?
Alvarez replied — The name written is Ol Doinyo Lengai — in archaic Zulu this means The bed of the Fire God. From that name, it would seem that the volcanic nature of this range was not unknown to the old folks of this region. Perhaps this was quiet for a century or two, or even longer.
Hailing from India, Shankar found his palms joining in respect and touching his forehead. Salutation, oh the God of Wrath. Accept my respect, oh Mighty, for letting us witness your awesome destructive power. A hundred diamond mine is insignificant next to your beauty. All my travails have been worth it.
This is the ninth chapter of Shankar’s adventure that I am recounting when in Africa. In the first chapter, we learn about Shankar. In the second chapter, he encounters a man-eating lion in East Africa. In the third, he escapes death from a snake bite. In the fourth, he saves an old man’s life. In the fifth we hear about Alvarez’s adventures. In the sixth, Shankar and Alvarez start their journey. In the seveth, Alvarez talks about the strange beasts that might still be undiscovered. In the eighth, they are lost in the unmapped jungles of Africa.
Ol Doinyo Lengai is a real volcano in Tanzania.
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