find a skylight is from it's heat haze. We approached the spot very gingerly as the lava felt very brittle at this point, and knowing that there was a 2000°river of molten rock somewhere close underneath us was a little disconcerting!! As we got closer though we realised that the hole was facing the other way, and lo and behold, as we turned the corner we were greeted with the sight of a hole maybe 3 meters wide and a meter tall, looking down at a river of fast moving lava which was so hot that it was difficult to determine the depth of the tube. This was just truly incredible!! It was like looking down into the inner workings of the Earth itself! We were just amazed at how fast the lava was flowing - and in fact it looked like it was actually flowing uphill!! I'm sure that was due to some kind of optical illusion due to the heat though!! Once again this was another highlight - it's really difficult to explain the effect that seeing this flowing lava had on us, we felt extremely privileged so have

witnessed such a display of the Earth's raw power! There were a couple more points further on that also had heat hazes, but we couldn't get anywhere close to them safely so we decided to quit while we were ahead, and start the long journey back to the car. We had to cross over where we now knew the lava tube to be, and were glad once we'd reached the other side!! Another long hike in the Hawaiian sun found us back at the car exhausted, but very very happy! We had one last look at the lava entering the ocean from the road back up, which from a distance in the dark looked like a huge forest fire, and said goodbye. I can't help feeling that this won't be the last time though, the lava conditions change all the time, and I'd be back in a shot if I thought there was a lot more to see!! The next morning though it was time to leave volcano national park and head off to see what the rest of the Big Island had to offer. Paddy and Jill had decided to come with us, so our merry band of four was to cont