and after a good few hours we finally saw the rangers hut in the distance. On reaching the ranger station again we were all absolutely knackered, but felt absolutely thrilled to have witnesses such an amazing spectacle!! It really was one of the natural highlights of out trip so far!!

The next day we were up early to watch the second England world cup game at the nearby hotel, which had fabulous views over the crater, more interesting than most of the match! The stiffness in our legs meant that a pretty lazy day was in store, but we did manage to go out to see the lava moulds. These are basically holes in the lava where trees once stood, again quite interesting for what they were but not too exciting to look at!! A couple of miles down the road though was the bird park, a nice stroll through a forest where lots of very brightly colored birds live! That was about all we did that day, but over

tea we decided with Paddy and Jill that we would go out again the next day to try and find the skylight which we’d seen on the guides photo. We also decided that we would go back to the hotel we'd watched the England game at and sample their buffet breakfast! We were in for another long walk across the lava only this time we wanted to be back before dark, so we reckoned that a good feed would set us up well. It also had the added bonus of being able to watch the world cup before we left!!

Paddy and Jill were right about it being good value - we were stuffed , and we snaffled a few goodies for lunch as well!! When we got to the end of the chain of craters road the weather wasn't quite as good as it had been, there was a slight drizzle, and we were afraid that the rangers might have told us not to go off the beaten track. We were worrying about nothing though, as the ranger was very helpful,