volcano surfing

Hi guys
It takes one comment by a passing traveller to plant the seed in my mind... "you should try volcano surfing.. its great.."

Extreme sports.. not my thing anymore after getting fished out of the Zambezi River in 1997..... whilst whitewater rafting in Africa.I cant surf or stand on a snow board.. out of the question....

But the damage is done...and the seed is planted... Anthony Robbins once said... "if you CANT then you MUST"....so yep it goes onto my 101 things to do when travelling list......maybe i will do it some day...

So I kept travelling... enter stage left.. one new travel buddy... Ben Kelly from England....and when we got to Leon in Nicaragua.. you know what was on the top of his list of things to do.............. VOLCANO SURFING....

Ben says... "you should do it".... and I feel sick at the thought of it..... but he books it anyway....

Now let me put you all in the picture of how this is going to work...
Take one live and active volcano called Cerro Negro which is 728m (2388ft) high... it has errupted 23 times.....usually every 7 years....
Its last erruption in 1999... when it burried a small town in 4 ft of volcano ash...
For all you maths geniuses out there... yes it is overdue by 4 years...

Somepeople have surfed it doing 80km per hour... someone has died climbing it and for those adrenaline junkies... Eric Barone tried to break a record riding his bike down ......it when he came off doing a mere 172KM or (107mph)and spent 3 months in hospital.
(check his crash out on u tube).

Anyway back to the picture..then take something that looks like a snow board(for standing) or a plank of wood with a rope (for sitting), a fireproof jumpsuit, a set of goggles, a set of elbow and knee pads and sit ontop of a active volcano and go as fast as you can down.... making it down to the bottom unscathed....
Now do you get the picture??????mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Dam that list.......

Neverless I awoke at 6am in the morning.... felling sick and having visions of coming off and doing serious harm....
After putting on my favourite volcano surfing gym gear.... t shirt with FAITH printed on the front ......I spent the next 2 hours listening to every personal development track I had on my Ipod for facing fears....

I then pulled out every personal development tool I had available from Theta, Anthony Robbins, NLP, Demartini... including incantations and pattern interupts...
The bus soon picked us up and we were on our way..I sent the goddess to the spa for the day and Joan of Arch came out to play...there was just me and Robbie Williams present in the moment.

We soon arrived after 45 minutes to sign the register book....I am sure it was for body identification incase the volcano errupted when we were on it...so they could find us..... name.... nationality.... age.......it was at that point I was questioning as to whether I should lie about my age.....I am sure I still look 34?

We visited some reptile cages to fill in time (excellent pattern interupt by the universe) and the parkranger put a Boa Constrictor around my neck..... great..... if I wasnt going to die volcano surfing and I would be strangled by a snake before I even got there....

We put our back packs on with our survival gear..... grabbed our planks and started hiking up the volcano....Piece of cake you may say.....not exactly...

Backpack, plank of wood, no path, and about 100km winds (not quite... but almost).
The skill was not getting down the mountain alive on the board it was getting to the top of the mountain without being blown off....nothing quite like the sweet smell of sulpher to remind you that the volcano was still alive and kicking....

Then it was the moment I will never forget... standing in my overalls listing to Bitter Sweet Symphony on my Ipod and looking down the volcano.....what am I doing here....my heart was coming up to my throat....
Yep more incantations, pattern interupts and of course the infamous firwalking powermove...

And just as the universe likes pushing my buttons....bees everywhere....attracted to my pollen coloured jumpsuit. Now it was a moment of life and death....
For those who know me... I am highly allergic to bees... I couldnt get off that volcano fast enough.....

More incantations and I was off.. down the hill.. I managed to make it to the bottom unscathed and at the same time managed to stay seated on the plank of wood....
I think I had volcano ash in every exposed orifice... mouth.. ears and nose...

Thank you lines men... thank you ball boys and thank you to my boarding buddy.. Ben Kelly....
Tick number 56 off that list.....

kat