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Hi I'm Danny! I'm travelling around the world! Follow me.

When we booked our trip to the Democratic Republic Of The Congo I knew about the volcano in Virunga National Park, but I had no idea that the lodge we'd be staying in for NYE overlooked Nyiragongo.

Mount Nyiragongo stands over 11,000 ft tall in the Virunga Mountains. Inside the 2km volcanic crater there is a lava lake. This lake has been measured at times to be over 600m deep.

In 2002 Nyiragongo erupted, causing a massive fissure in the volcano to open. The lava flow went right through the city of Goma, and in some places was 1000m wide and 2m deep. The city was split in two - when we drove through Goma on this trip we were driving over this molten rock for miles upon miles. The evidence of its disruption was all around.

Some people that are braver than me choose to stay right on the edge of the Volcano in one of the many lodges that look right into the Volcano.

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We climbed a pathway up to the lodge and as we dumped our bags and turned around all we could see was the volcano. We settled down in our seats and as the sun went down the plume of smoke from the lava lake started to glow bright red.

It was such a vivid and surreal experience as this volcanic smoke illuminated the whole sky.

This New Years Eve we didn’t need bars or pubs, we just sat around with a couple bottles of wine, around our fire. It made for an incredible and unforgettable experience.

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