WE CLIMBED AN ACTIVE VOLCANO (and it erupted)

Wow.

You can see magma.

We're Kara and Nate. Two days ago, we landed in our 99th country of Vanuatu, where we caught another flight to the island of Tana. We checked into a treehouse and watched fiery smoke spew from one of the most active volcanoes in the world. From our balcony until we fell asleep this morning, we were unwelcomed by a local tribe.

And now the moment has finally come.

Pretty much the entire reason that we flew. Flew to Vanuatu, to the middle of the South Pacific, was to climb this volcano.

Besides a quick trip to a local village this morning, we've pretty much spent the last 24 hours sitting on our balcony watching this volcano erupt over and over and over again.

And now we are finally on our way to climb to the top, to the rim of the crater and stare down into an active volcano.

I'm so scared.

One of us is a lot more excited about this than the other.

This feeling in my stomach is just.

To get you grow from these feelings or you get really cool experiences.

So you two will be in transport number one.

Okay.

Okay. So our night just got so much more exciting. We were being welcomed with this dance by the tribe, and we just randomly ran into the guy who's doing marketing for the. For this island or for the country or I don't really know, but they're here filming some stuff, and he's invited us to come with them. So instead of taking the touristy route up the mountain with everybody else, we are going. We're not really sure. We just said yes. Okay. I tried to introduce you to the vlog, but I think I really messed it up. What do you do?

I'm the marketing consultant for Antonitana Volcano. So I'm helping basically the place to get a better marketing strategy and to promote the clients. So what we do here basically is try to offer the best experience for people coming all around the world, and especially people that don't know about Vanuatu yet.

Don't you practice that?

You see, it's not a very big.

That is crazy.

All right. We just got dropped off at the beginning of the trailhead. It's only about 10 minutes to get to the top. They gave us a rain jacket, goggles, and a helmet. There's a sign about needing a gas mask, but we don't have that. But at the same time, there are, like, kids playing with the volcanic rocks down here.

Like, it's nothing from far away. It was like. Like a little chimney blowing smoke clouds close up. It's just like making the entire sky dark. Over our heads. Wow. I'm sure if it explodes, these will definitely protect my eyeballs.

Can't believe we're doing this. It's gonna be fine. I feel better that we're with, like, the cool crew, you know, like guides. Oh, my gosh.

That's it. That is the volcano. Like, that's it. We're here. Part of me wants to run away, and the other part of me wants to get closer. Like, I feel so confused. Feels amazing up here. Oh, and there's a beautiful view of the ocean.

Whoa.

It's alive.

That was crazy.

It's just sounded like thunder far off in the distance as we've been sitting in the treehouse looking at it. But here you can, like, feel it in your bones.

So the sky is just filled with dark clouds to the point where you would think it would be about to start pouring rain. But if you trace back the origin of all of the dark clouds, it's all smoke from the volcano.

Is this it? Is this the top? I'm so scared.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, gosh. Like, it's, like making all this sound and the smoke. I don't even know what to say.

This is insane.

In case you were wondering about the safety barriers that are keeping us from falling in the volcano, here's this one on the ground.

Smells so much.

Just a white stick on the ground. Whoa.

That was so loud. That was the biggest one yet. Oh, gosh. It gets so much smellier when it does that. I don't even know what to call it. What's happening when that's happening? The sulfur is being released from the earth. So first you hear the rumble and you feel like that. And then. And then this giant cloud of smoke is released from the earth. And then you, like, feel this warmth and you can smell it. But when it's not rumbling, not much is happening. That's the order that happens every time.

Wow. Is that normal?

Yeah, that's normal. And you can see the brown one is ash and the blue is salva. And we have one more smoke, like, white one. We call it steam.

Wow.

You can see magma.

We could see lava being thrown up into the air. And there was a stone from here, it looked like the size of a brick. It was probably the size of a basketball that was thrown well over our head. Like, height wise, didn't go like.

Whoa. It's incredible.

And you will never get that on the other side, actually, you can't see it. So it's very unique place, the VIP place.

Thank you.

You're most welcome yo.

It all to this fans.

As long as you stay behind the very high protective fence. High security, you know.

Zones are huge.

Those were massive.

Oh, man. The wind just really picked up and blew a bunch of ash and smoke over here. It's kind of hard to breathe. Like, I feel like I can smell, like, the chemicals in the air.

I don't know. I don't know if it's gotten more active or if it's just gotten darker. And so we can appreciate it now, but this is. It's one of the most incredible things I've ever witnessed with my eyes in real life.

Unbelievable.

Oh, there's a. Okay. That really hurts.

That was a lot of bash. Pretty much just picture, like, walking into a steam room that smells like rotten eggs and then having somebody throw sand at you.

Yep, that's about where we are.

That's what we just experienced.

And it's cold.

I can't think of anything more incredible that I've seen in real life with my own two eyes. No, it's mesmerizing. Like.

Like the earth is spitting burning lava into the air right now, and it just never stops. It's just constantly going.

I've always been, like, mesmerized by fires. Like, I could just sit there and watch those forever. This is like, take that to the next level times 10.

No wonder you love this so much. Apparently the locals don't pay to get in. And they're just some girls up here with no shoes, no gear, and I'm here, like, ready for anything. And it's just so normal to them.

I gotta tell you, Nate, I was not convinced that this was gonna be worth it for how scared I was, but it was.

It was worth it.

Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

Why you have some. Some ash on your lips. That was everything I hoped it would be and more.

Nate, you just flew the drone over an active volcano. Have all of your wildest dreams.

Pretty much. Pretty much.

Also totally non volcano related. We learned that yesterday we were within about 100 meters of will Smith. He was just here. There was a private jet leaving the airport as we were flying to Tana, and he was on it.

Could have been in the vlog.

Almost got to make a yes theory video.

Look like you're ready to conquer a volcano.

Do I look safe?

You actually look like a six year old doing a science project.

It's the bike helmet that just really.

I'm putting my helmet back on. I'm putting my helmet back on right now.

All right. In case we lose it forever. It was in an effort to capture the volcano.

You might be wondering how we keep everything charged in a bamboo tree house that has no outlets. There is actually a generator somewhere far out in the garden, and they run a super, super long extension cord into the restaurant. And we have brought all of our gear down to charge. I'm a little embarrassed. These vlogs are a little shorter than usual. This is why. Also, I use the term restaurant very loosely. It's another bamboo hut where we eat. I cannot believe I am saying these words, but tomorrow we are flying to our hundredth country that you voted for. So we actually booked one extra day here at this tree house because we just wanted a full day where we could just rest and relax and reflect on the last four years that have led up to this day. And we're actually really bad at reflecting. We don't do it often, but we felt like if we were gonna do it anywhere, this is the place to do it. No distractions. Surrounded by the Junior.