Day 23: One does not simply walk into Mordor (Masaya)

New Zealand's Mount Ngauruhoe has been made famous by its alter ego Mount Doom thanks to the Lord of the Rings films.

However, if you were looking to destroy the 'one ring to rule them all', you'd be hard pushed to find a more fitting place than Volcan Masaya, known by the conquering Spanish as the 'mouth of hell'.

In 1541, Friar Torbibio Benavente wrote that Masaya was 'the place from which the condemned are thrown by the demons'.

Fast-forward more than 400 years, its fearsome reputation lives on, and even last year the 2,000ft fire pit was closed for a while to the public due to 'activity'.

With such a reputation, who could resist heading up for a closer look?

Not me.

It was a pretty surreal experience, somewhere between a clandestine mission and a school trip.

I booked myself onto a night tour and was bundled onto a minibus just off Granada's main square around 4.30pm.

We drove for 45 minutes before parking up in a huge queue of other minibuses waiting to be allowed into the Masaya national park.

We waited here for about an hour and I took the opportunity to jump out and buy my second ice cream of the day (which dripped down my top in front of my new Japanese friend #classy).

Then is was back on the bus, which moved about 20 metres, and then...another wait, this time for about 45 minutes.

Then shit got real. The driver got the nod from one of the park guides and soon we were zooming up the 6km road leading to the Santiago crater of Masaya.

The driver explained in Spanish something about an elaborate whistle system and without further ado he ran round the bus, opened the door and we all ran out like police on a drug raid.

The first thing you can't fail to notice (other than the orange glow ahead) is the scant regard for health and safety.

By this time it was pitch black and all that was preventing me from going the way of Gollum was a wall that was about three feet high.

Seriously. A wall the height of a small primary school child was all that existed between a gaggle of snap-happy tourists and either death, or the most terrifying holiday acecdote of all time.

Staring into the crater was....weird. It was strangely hypnotic, yet at the same time in the back of my mind was the knowledge that the experience could only last for 15 minutes.

I was torn between wanting to get some great photos and the desire to just stand there staring into the glowing depths. It was sobering to know that this was probably the only time I'd be able to have this experience in my life.

Added to this heady mix were bloody whistles going off everywhere. I had no idea which one I was supposed to respond to so I just stayed at the edge for as long as I dared, risking being the kid who didn't get back to the bus in time on a trip to Alton Towers because they got lost on the way back from Nemesis.

But out the corner of my eye I spotted our driver finishing his cigarette, so I reluctantly jumped back on the bus and within 30 seconds the door was shut and it was all over.

We left Masaya and the souls of the condemned behind us.

What a night.

Travel tips:

1 I booked my tour through Leo Tours in Granada which is run by Leo and a team of local people. I paid $20 and it was a 3.5hr round trip.