I recently discovered while reading about South Africa on wikipedia that South Africa politically owns the Prince Edward Islands. I starting thinking that I should pay a visit to this far flung South African destination. The islands have a volcanic origin, and the volcano is active. Technically, this means that there is a volcano in South Africa. How can we not visit the South African volcano?
Presumably because of this (but also possibly due to thinking about Mount Doom) I dreamed that I actually went to visit Marion Island.
I climbed up, but didn’t get all the way over to the edge because it was hot and glowing and dangerous-looking. Then it started to erupt. Kind of. It spat some rocks out into the air and I was worried that I might get hit on the head by them.
I decided it would be a good idea to get off the side of the volcano. As headed away from the crater, I noticed that the other tourists (yes, there were about five other people casually wandering about on the side of the volcano) were all wearing hard-hats. Why the hell wasn’t I given a hard-hat?
I feel a little less enthusiastic about visiting the place now.
The Waffle Group 
Especially if they won’t even give you a hard hat.
On a side note, I too would greatly enjoy visiting one of these places. The birdlife at Marion is supposedly quite spectacular.
When I was at UND they had a programme you could volunteer for, to go and be part of the crew that mans the weather station there. They’d take you out on the Aghulas, dump you there for three or six months, and then bring you back. Sounded quite fun.