and gave us rough directions to get to the skylight. Unlike the viewing area for the lava flows at the ocean the skylight was not a documented feature and there were no markers to lead us there, but the first hour was the same way as we'd walked the other day, and then we had instructions to walk "at half ten to eleven o clock for about 1.5 to 2 miles". The lava from this point seemed a lot rougher, and as there were lots of little hills it was very difficult to keep going in a straight line. After a while though we saw some steam coming from a point in the distance, and thought that that would be a good starting point. When we got to the area which was steaming, we all split up and just wandered around. It seems that I wandered a little further than everyone else though, as when I got back to where we'd all started Hel had found some cracks in the lava which were red underneath, and very hot! She had first noticed it, and then realised that her boot sole was red hot! There was an obvious line where the

lava was whiter, and hotter, and there was a series of these cracks with glowing hot rock underneath!! It was amazing to think that just below us was molten lava! It wasn't quite the skylight that we'd come to see, but it was a great start.

Paddy and Jill then wandered off again while Hel and I checked out the areas around these hot spots. After a while we decided to go off in the direction that they'd gone and see how they'd got on. By this point it was getting to within an hour of the time we had to head off to get back to the road before dark, and to be honest our hopes were just starting to fade. Then we met up with Paddy and Jill though, and Jill said that they'd seen a point in the distance where the air looked like when you saw a burned out car!! We had to have a bit of a laugh that only a Scouser would describe it like that, but thought that it sounded hopeful, as the only way you can