18th August 1991 Day 29

Diary
We flew to Hilo (Hee-low) on The Big Island and then Oz conveniently discovered he'd left his driving licence behind. This meant that I had to drive the left-hand drive, automatic Buick Century, we'd hired, around on the wrong side of the road. The soft git. Once I realised that my left foot was to do nothing and that there was no gear stick on the left of me then it was relatively plain sailing (or should that be, plain driving ?)

We raced off to our first volcano, looked at the old lava flows, the caldera, the craters and the rising steam. It could well have been another planet. We drove down to where the latest lave flow had wiped out the road and then walked across the solid lava up to the sea and a very dangerous point where molten lave was flowing out. Mixing with the sea water it gave off dangerous clouds and the solid ground was in grave danger of falling into the water. Danger doesn't seem to deter a tourist and his camera much though.  

We drove back towards Hilo stopping to do a Carry On Up the Jungle sketch and to walk through a cave caused by the lava flow. Booked into our hotel for the night, turned on the TV and found the Gorbachev had been ousted. It's easy to lose track of current events, especially in the States where they only seem to cover baseball and wrestling. (Whatever happened to Mick McManus, Jackie Pallo, Catweazle, Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks ?).

We walked into downtown Hilo hoping for some cheap food. This was a night like Geneva in 1987. Sunday night, a long walk to town and each time saved by McDonalds.


2011
Neither of us had driven an automatic before (actually Oz probably had as he'd worked in the US previously) and Oz obviously deliberately left his licence back on Oahu so that I'd have to drive. I didn't have a clue, I'd never even been in an Auto nor driven on  the wrong side of the road. Fortunately it was a quiet place to learn.


Technically, when the lava has stopped flowing it's just igneous rock not solid lava. The area near the sea is very dangerous and tourists just ignored the signs when we were there. I think the authorities clamped down on this a few years later when several tourists were killed when the area fell into the sea. In 1991 the only barrier was a rope with a sign that said "danger".


Geneva 1987 - Sunday night on the campsite, hungry, umpteen mile yomp into town, everything shut, found a Maccers, quick meal, umpteen mile hike back. Glamorous.


The only known literary paragraph to contain Carry On, Gorbachev and Giant Haystacks references. Unless Sting squeezed it in the lyrics of a song.


Gorbachev - 6th General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 11 March 1985 to 24 August 1991. So how did we know he'd been ousted ? It looks like he was placed under house arrest on 19th August 1991 which must still have been the 18th August where we were. Phew, thought I'd been reading  the future.