Watching the Big Man make real estate...

That is a quote from G when we approached the plume of Pu'u O'o, the active volcano of Big Island (and really an outgrowth of Mauna Kilauea), with its two lava flows going into the sea. Otherwise we all had the quote from Austin Powers in our head: 'hotttt llllikwid mmmagma'.

Today was another busy day thanks to the reappearance of the L clan (minus P the sister), back from their family wedding in Honolulu over the week-end. We left Kailua-Kona at noon after a morning of packing and drove the rental car to Hilo. Thanks to cell phone text messages (there is reception throughout the island!) we managed to meet the L brothers at the entrance of the National Volcano Park at 16h00. We changed into our hiking gear, logged some water and extra batteries and hiking sticks and proceeded down the Chain of Craters Road to the coast to find the places where the lava from Pu'u meets the sea.

Lava plume before dark

The end of the road!

Cold lava close-up

We started the hike around 16h40, walked on the lava rocks and the trail all through sunset, then continued at night with our head lamps and dive lamps put to good use. We were prepared for all sorts of weather, with long pants, gore-tex jackets, extra batteries, snacks and water, and a very complete first aid kit thanks to S the team pharmacist. Hiking on lava is treacherous; it is like walking on ground glass, and as my hands and left knee found out, when you trip, you cut yourself quite a bit. Thanks to G for his diving gloves! We saw the lava shining orange in the dark at the end of the marked trail and I was too tired to continue hiking in the dark and rain looking for little lava holes past the trail... it had started raining and we had hiked already a good 2 hours. We ended up being soaked to the bones, and I'm not sure that it wasn't rain tinted with some sulfuric acid from the lava plume! But it was worth seeing the lava at night entering the sea, with its red glow. Nature at work. Real estate being created on the Big Island.

Lava plume a lot closer at the end of the trail

On the way back, which was in full darkness, we kept on bumping into unprepared hikers and became the rescuing team of the evening. G first gave his extra D batteries to an elderly couple who seemed to know what they were doing but whose lamps was starting to fail. Then we bumped into a young Japanese couple who were walking very carefully with crappy lamps, with the lady looking terrified and with inadequate shoes. Then we bumped into the worst team of them all, a group of Canadian ladies here for a teacher's conference. They were wearing short skirts, no jackets, no water, one was in flip flops with socks, and they were barely 1/3 of the way in when it had started to rain and they thought that they would proceed; we discouraged them to. Shortly after, one of them fell and cut herself quite deeply on her knees and left fingernail. A, being the more extraverted emergency doc on the team, proceeded into doing his thing and borrowed some supplies from the team pharmacist. The lady was completely hysterical and kept on repeating in a little girl's voice 'Why does this always happen to me?!?!? I am soo unlucky!!!'... Phew, this reminded us why we need vacations from our jobs sometimes :). Then finally, when we got the the car, G sold his headlamp for twice what he paid for it to a young couple who was going to start doing the hike; they also looked unprepared but looked fit. We are betting that they turned back after the wet and difficult conditions, and the fact that all the people that they saw coming back looked freaked out...

Overall this was a tricky hike on treacherous terrain with nasty conditions at night... a good 5 hours... but it was well worth it! And we were a rescuing team, which seems to be a theme each time I travel with the L brothers :)