Pele vs. Neptune

Here's something you just don't see everyday, an absolute gusher of lava, a flow from a lava tube into the ocean. But this wasn't just a dribble, this is about 2 cubic yards of lava a second. So that stream of lava is more than a meter in diameter (our position was about 0.5 km away), dropping some 30 feet into the ocean, and all of this is making some new Hawaii.  The entire surrounding area was wiped out by a big lava flow not very many years ago, and a few lonely surviving houses sit like totems in a shiny black sea.

Now just so you know that TPP only brings you quality material, this was not an easy place to get to. This location is about 4.5 miles beyond the end of the road (for cars).  So not being of sound mind the Phactors decided to ride in on a tandem bicycle, and indeed it was much faster than walking across a lava field that far, but the return trip while more downgrade than the trip out was into a strong 30 or so mph headwind. It was a real effort, a struggle in fact, and this isn't something we're going to be able to do after a few more birthdays.  At any rate the bar at the end of the road, another road, another end, is just that, an nearby establishment of down home sophistication (the bartender is a philosophy student) in the form of a cluster of little shops, eateries, around a bar and pavilion that Pele decided to spare leaving this little oasis unscathed. Such good cold beer! Well-earned and well-deserved.