The Top 2 Places on my Travel List are Now Gone

This week, I found out that one of the places in the world that I want to visit most is no longer accessible. Back in 2017, operations at the Naica Mine ceased. That allowed water to re-flood the absolutely incredible Cave of the Crystals.

Cave of the Crystals is the second of my to-do list to be lost (though I always knew it was long shot, anyway): The Dr. Seuss-ian landscape of Ol Doinyo Lengai‘s volcanic crater blew itself to dust in 2013. I’d read a National Geographic article about this amazing volcano in Tanzania years ago; the photos were amazing, as were the tales of its inky-black, cool-and-fast-running, natrocarbonatite lava.

(UPDATE: Please be sure to read the extra info about this amazing volcano at the end of this post. One of my most-interesting Facebook friends saw this post and had some great big-picture knowledge of this volcano’s possible role in the development of humanity.)

At one point, hikers were able to walk among the hornitos and lava flows in the crater. And then — boom. It’s still an impressive crater. But with 60-percent grades into it, going into it probably isn’t an option. Notice also how the greenery around the summit is completely gone.

Hey, I started this with the Cave of the Crystals and then jabbered about Ol Doinyo Lengai! Sorry about that. I just happen to love the idea of that place. But the Cave of the Crystals ain’t half-bad, either, with its 40-foot-long crystals nearly 1,000 feet underground. And then there’s the 136-degree, 90+ percent humidity to deal with. Ouch!

People entering the cave had to wear special cooling suits. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t possible for just anyone to gain access. It was a working mine – and a thousand feet underground, like I mentioned. That’s a shame. This would be an amazing, one-of-a-kind experience.

I’ve found conflicting info about whether the shallower Cave of Swords, with its 6-foot-long profusion of crystals, is open for visiting non-scientists. This blogger claims to have been in it, though I’m skeptical (the writing is also vague – if I get in there, I promise that I will do a far better job). There also seems to be very little content devoted to the Cave of Swords minus the bigger Cave of the Crystals.

At this point, I’m just hoping like hell that Thrihnukagigur doesn’t suddenly become un-extinct and blow the Inside the Volcano tour off the map. That would just about make me retire from traveling, I swear.

OL DOINYO LENGAI UPDATE

“Ol Doinyo Lengai has been active for millions of years, it will reform – there are other cool,active volcanos you can walk right up to the edge of, see stuff in the Danikal Depression in Ethiopia for one. But in my opinion Ol Doinyo Lengai is THE most important volcano in the world.

Why” I’ll try to keep this short: it is a carbonic volcano, with very very deep ‘roots’ so when it blows, as it has been pretty much constantly for millions of years, it spews lots and lots of carbon into the air. That carbon floats on the prevailing wind right down to the plains betweeen Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. This feeds the grass there into ‘super grass’ very nutritious and this is why millions of zebra and wildebeest return there every spring to have their babies at that sight so they get a head start in life by eating that super grass. Further, the wildebeest migration is a very likely candidate as to why humans evolved the way we did – with big brains and walking upright.

The whole idea that humans were great hunters is a bit off, we were mostly likely excellent scavengers who occasionally had a lucky hunt. Early humans evolved in the rift valley/Serengeti area and started following the migration to pick off the weak and scavenge kills from predators. You can see this in the footprints perfectly preserved at Olduvai gorge, a site that sits just miles from the fields of ‘super grass’. So, basically, without Ol Doinyo Lengai we might not be who we are today.”

Bonus Images of My Gone-Away Destinations