Mount Karthala

Karthala fills the southern half of Grande Comore and carries one of the widest active craters on earth, a caldera some three kilometres across that still steams along its inner wall. The climb starts from a track above Moroni and crosses tree fern forest before the vegetation gives out on black ash. Most people camp up on the rim and look down into the pit at first light. A guide is compulsory here because the route is unmarked and the summit fogs in remarkably fast. The volcano last erupted in the year two thousand and seven.