Auckland:
From the fire into the volcano. Catches this week seem to be burning hot.
Ouch! Couldn't resist that, what with yesterday's
daredevil fire stunt and then having found this incredible video on YouTube posted by a film-maker whose team climbed into a volcano and to the "very edge of a huge lake of violently boiling lava."
This, says filmmaker Geoff Mackley, is the Marum Volcano on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean that came into existence as a Republic in 1980.
The New Zealander says his team climbed 500 vertical metres into the volcano last month.
On his eponymous website, Mackley calls his video the greatest show on earth. He describes the volcano expedition thus: "The incredible noise... the heat... the toxic gas... the falling rocks...the danger, nothing else in life will ever compare to the mind blowing rush of being so close to a spectacle like this!"
Just the sight of the molten lava rising in giant, angry red bubbles is mind-boggling. Especially with a tiny human figure in silver standing on a precipitous edge and staring into it. Quite Sam and Frodo standing at the edge of the Crack of Doom and Sam urging Frodo to throw the ring. (From the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
Here's the video without any more ado:
Catch some incredible photos too on Mackley's site
(http://www.geoffmackley.com/).
Mackley's bio makes an interesting read too. He has been a freelance photographer specializing in filming breaking news since 1980 and has covered "fires, crashes, police emergencies, floods, storms etc. He claims to have been first with the best photos. In 1990, he began covering on video too.
Mackley's photos at "the office" are fun viewing. Will make you wish you did that for a living.
He also takes umbrage at YouTube users suggesting that his video is a fake and takes the trouble to reply to naysayers and those who praise him alike.
We are crawling the Web for more great videos, tweets pictures, blogs and people that just must be showcased. If you spot some that make you stop and stare,
send them in here. We'll be happy to credit it to your spidery efforts on the WWW.