The Unforgettable White Island
Salamander
Tue 30 Nov 2010 03:26
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The trip was awesome - a strangely beautiful, but
very hostile environment.
A special treat for Julie, 2 pictures of her sister
follow:
  If you step in certain areas you can fall through
the crust into a boiling mud pool - makes you stick to the track! A miner
disappeared here and all they found were his boots.
The rain here is effectively weak sulphuric acid
and stings your eyes. The guides' clothing and shoes rarely last more than a
season, just dissolving in the acidic environment. They carried inhalers and we
had a brief on what to do in the event of an eruption ('the boat will go away
and come back when it's safe to pick us up')
This live volcano erupts stones, rather than lava,
but used to erupt ash until 2000. Before the stones everyone could walk barefoot
with the footprints disappearing every time it rained. A unique spot to
visit.
     The stream in this pic is pH 0
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