Hawaii's big island

by Bob Lyness, 1999

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I'm at an internet cafe kind of place in Hilo. Having a good time on Hawaii after two fairly miserable weeks working ten and 12 hours days on Ohahu in buildings with no windows. Went on a night dive off of Kona, snorkeled with some sea turtles, and I saw Kilauea actually erupting last night.

It's currently flowing down the mountain in underground tubes and emerging in the ocean right by the shore, so you can hike out there past where the road ends, and actually go over the lava tubes and watch the steam rolling up from the water. I got there at about 5pm and ended up staying until 11 or so, and was rewarded with massive explosions and I could see the molten flowing lava - my unfullfilled dream of nine years ago. After dark it's really something.

Then I tried to camp on the moonscape, but there's no way to stake down your tent, and then these huge rain storms came in and almost blew me away, then I started to smell sulfur fumes and the steam flowing out of the rocks was quite hot,and I remembered I was right downhill from where the lava was flowing down the mountain, so I broke camp at about 4 or 4:30 or so, and then hiked my way the four miles back across the moonscape in very bad visibility, occasionally having to stop because I couldn't see anything in the steam and the mist, except the red glow from one of the open vents.

What fun!

Bob