Notes on an inferno

Posted on October 17, 2009 in Vacation Fall 2009 Video

Dawn was a concept I had heard of, but seldom experienced. the idea of putting myself to bed and then waking at an hour where I might see it slightly worried me The lure of seeing lava flowing directly into the ocean was too powerful to resist. we made the reservations, got up at three, and met the party outside the Aloha gas station in Pahoa.

A twenty minute drive took us through a black jungle — a long pergola of tropical trees that arched over the road and dropped long roots from their branches. At Isaac Hale State Park, we met the boat, which was raised upon its trailer in the parking lot. We boarded via an aluminum handyman’s ladder. They took us to the boat launching ramp andbacked us into the sea.

Here are things I noted:

• The lava jumped out of the cliff or pali as a series of orange falls – a few large ones and fewer tiny tributaries.
• Rocks floated in the water. These were cinders that were still molten at their core. when they cooled through, they sank.
• The guides told us that this was the only place in the world where magma chuted straight into the ocean.
• The shelf had actually retreated by several yards in the previous weeks. It appeared that the forces of Nature were out to reclaim the loss.
• Steam churned upwards in white, obscuring clouds that reeked of sulfur. I ate a whiff of it and had the dry heaves that I shouted overboard.
• Pops of gas welled up from the cooling slag beneath the water and rocked the boat.
• I noticed two people viewing the lava from atop an adjacent pali. When I called this to one of the guides’ attention, he called them idiots.
• “A good day,” the guides declared.” The sea was like glass.”

After the trip, I tipped the guides. We then went back through the now lit pergola. A pair of small mammals that I mistook for squirrels whirled in the road: I had never known mongooses were so small.

The name of the outfit we chartered was LavaOcean Adventures.

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