Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Journey to the Center of the Earth”, was written by Jules Verne. The book is science fiction and is one of my favorite books. The story begins with two people in Hamburg, Germany, Professor Hardwigg and his nephew, Henry. When Henry helps his uncle crack a secret code, they decide to follow the clues from the decoded message and try to reach the center of the Earth! They go to the Heil railroad which will take them to the harbor, so they can get on a boat and sail to Iceland. There they would attempt to go down an inactive volcano called Mt. Sneffles and travel to the core of the Earth.

It was at least a seven day voyage to get to Iceland. It was windy and overcast, but they made it to Iceland safely. They start their journey to Mt. Sneffles the day after their boat lands. On the journey to the volcano, they meet Hans, who ends up guiding them on the journey.

It was cold outside when they reached Mt. Sneffles. Their descent into the volcano was extremely long. When they reached the bottom they enter the caverns under Mt. Sneffles. By then, they were ten thousand feet below sea level. Later they enter a coal mine in the caverns.

After they got out of the coal mine they were right under the ocean floor. Soon they ran out of water, but thankfully they found some more not long after. Now they are twenty-one miles below the surface of the earth!

The next day, Henry gets lost! He falls down a deep hole and passes out. When he woke up Hans and the Professor were looking for him, and finally found him. When they continued their journey they discovered an underground ocean which Professor Hardwigg named “The Central Sea.” They also found a forest of mushrooms with mushrooms that were forty feet tall!

Hans begins to build a raft so they are able to cross the sea. When it is finished they begin their underground voyage on The Central Sea. By now the temperature is much warmer. They catch fish that are extinct on Earth, but not in the Central Sea. They even watch a sea monster fight!

When they land the raft on an island they explore a forest and find a cave. The cave was full of bones. They quickly leave the cave and find a herd of enormous elephants. While they were going back to the raft, they find a rusted dagger, not belonging to any of the three men. They realized that this was the same path that the first explorer, Arne Saknussemm, had taken on his journey to the center of the Earth. They find a boulder blocking a cave by the dagger and they wanted to get inside. So, they tried to make the boulder explode to get inside the cave. Well, they do blow up the boulder, but they were taking cover on their raft and the explosion made them drift out into the sea.

They drifted into a shaft and began rapidly rising. The water was boiling, the walls were burning, and worst of all, they ran out of food. They were in the shaft for at least one day. The water is getting hotter every second.

It turns out that the shaft they were in, was actually part of an active volcano! They were shot out of the top of the volcano located on the island of Stromboli off the coast of Italy. From there they catch a ride back to Hamburg, Germany. I loved reading “Journey to the Center of the Earth”! I have only seen the movie, but the book was more interesting. I loved all the adventure and the excitement that the characters had on their journey. It would be amazing if any of this were to ever happen!