Mon 2nd Sep – Lava Flows and Caroles first Port O Loo experience

Today was our lava hike so we decided to conserve our energy and have a quiet morning.  We headed to the  park to view the steam banks (literally steam coming out of the banks) and then walk through the sulphur fields, which was just a km walk, although very hot.  Was interesting seeing all the crystals etc that are deposited by the sulphur rich steam.

Our hike kicked off at 3pm and we had about an hour drive to get there, so after a light lunch and a reapply of sunscreen we were on our way.  Just a note here, the man in this picture is my husband it is just that the sunscreen we got is so thick that one looks like a ghost after applying it, as if his legs weren’t white enough already!

We met our guide from Volcano Discovery Tours; Neil at Kalapana at 3pm.  The 1986 eruption flow destroyed the majority of this town, engulfing houses, roads and everything in it’s wake.  No loss of life as the lava flows slowly enough that people have time to evacuate, and in some cases uplift their whole houses and move them.  This eruption created a whole new coastline, in the last few years people have started building on the lava as land is cheap, however there is always the risk of new flows and in 2010 one of the newly built houses was destroyed, leaving 35 remaining.  Even with the land being so cheap ($5,000USD), and the ocean views it sure isn’t somewhere I would like to build.  It is so barren, nothing but black lava.

The biggest fear for me, other than the falling on the razor sharp lava and cutting myself to pieces was the no toilet facilities whilst walking the lava.  It is highly recommended that one uses the toilets at Kalapana before heading out on the hike, I was expecting proper restrooms, imagine my horror and dismay when I was directed to the portoloos, something I have never every used and was never ever planning to use.  I think I struck it lucky as they had just been cleaned, but still not an experience I need to relive.

Disappointingly the flows into the ocean had stopped two weeks ago, that is one thing with mother nature and Pele there can be no guarantees.  This meant a couple of things, firstly that the telephoto lens my husband had spent a small fortune on was not required, and secondly we had the choice to make of still hiking down towards the ocean where the flows would still be happening, just not into the ocean or a longer hike where a new flow had started up.  While the shorter option sounded good we went with the longer as the expectation would be that there would be no one else at this spot but lots at the ocean one.

While the hike round trip was only about 15km we were on the Lava for over 6 hours.  I do not think that anything could prepare you for just how hard it is to hike on.  There are no smooth surfaces, some of the surfaces are covered in a very sharp and brittle crust that breaks under your feet.

Half way along we twigged to the fact that we were being followed by another couple of people, Neil got us to stop and wait for them to get past us as he did not want to share this new spot of lava flow with them, even though they asked.  As Neil explained this was how he made his living, and as I explained I had paid big money for this tour so if he wanted to use the expertise of my guide he needed to pay half!  They were idiots, they were ill prepared for being on the lava and as Neil had said to them, if you don’t know where to find it you probably shouldn’t be here, two people have died from dehydration after getting lost in the last couple of months.

It was very hot and very hard work, however it was well worth it when we got there finally.  I am not going to say too much more and will let the pictures and video do the talking.  The video is of our first experience of seeing the lava, there is a small crack, then the pressure builds up, the crack bursts and the lava flows.  It is hot, so hot you could not imagine, and you are able to stand as close as you can bear it.  The photo of us with the lava behind was taken at the start, by the end of the night when we were leaving the spot we were standing on had disappeared and the lava had added another couple of feet to the landscape, just amazing.

P.S.  The good news is, it didn’t matter that there weren’t any toilets, I sweated like a pig and so all the water that went in came out, meaning no need to use the portoloo at the end.  Yay!