@globustrotterin

_{Thank you so much for your service Hawaii Fire Department –}

They say Hawaii is a sacred land. Therefore, one should keep his intentions well. During my numbered days in Hawaii, never have I ever prepared for things to go south. But an incident did happen here, the unexpected one, which made me feel lucky to just get through it. Fair warning, this might be thrilling for you to digest along the way. But here it goes.

It was our last first week on the Hilo side of the big island. Dave and I just planned to get a little taste of hiking in the lava zone. We chose Pu’u O’o Trail among some other trails due to the distance. Originally the trail was about 14 km long. But, we wanted to do just half of the distance, which is 7 km. We walked and followed the official visible trail until it came to the shortcut we needed to take. We used our usual hiking app, Komoot, to help us navigate the route. The good thing about this is one can see which routes have already been walked by other hikers, whether they are official or shortcut routes. Well, we should have listened to our guts instead of taking the “easy way”. During the hike with this shortcut, the paths were just impossible. We needed to terasspassed bushes and walked on unstable lava gravels. However, we did not lose hope since we saw how close we were to the official route again. 

_{At the beginning of the hike, when it was was still okay}

Hours passed by and it was around 17:30. Dave checked his app, zoomed in and realized that the route to be in the official path again is through the cave, which we wouldn’t do since it was more dangerous and we needed to find the entrance anyway. That was the moment that we knew for sure we f*cked up. We decided to turn around with a little time that we had left with the sun to find the route back to the official path where we came from. However, it was not that simple. The app did not work and we were officially lost. Dave decided to use Google Maps to navigate us. But it was challenging since we were out of nowhere and surrounded by 2-3 Meters bushes. We decided to go Rambo and went in through the bushes, since we saw how close we actually were to the official route, only 150 meters more or less. But, time was not on our side. We could not manage to be there before dark. Dave screamed for help. I was already panicked along the way. 

_{How I desperately wished the sky stayed like this longer when thing went south}

But seeing my husband for the first time ever so desperately fighting for our safety, losing his glasses along the way, and being scratched here and there from the bushes brought me to a survival mode. I took his phone and decided to call 911. It did not work. I did not give up and decided to text MK, the solo traveler from Germany, whom we met at our accommodation, to call 911 and tell us where we were. My message was not delivered. We did not have our accomodation number at that moment. So, we could not reach anybody there. It did not cross my mind at first to call 911 since Dave’s phone couldn’t make it. But, in the moment of despair, I just typed 911 and it was a miracle that somebody over the phone responded. I explained to her our situation, shared our coordinates which were indicated low in accuracy from Google Maps and told her how panicked we were, stranded nowhere with no food and water. Blessed her for doing her job so well and calmed us down. She said she ordered a rescue team to track us down based on our coordinates. But it took time. I swear, it was the longest wait in my life. The night in the jungle was intimidating. I was freezing under my jacket and I could not hear a sound except the birds, the cars, and mostly the silence. Yes, silence has a voice too if you pay attention. 

_{Never have I ever thought to call 911 when in Hawaii}

We were lucky since we had our network, powerbank, whistle, headlamp and jacket. These were the essentials that we needed to survive the wait. I imagine the worst scenario in my head. What if we needed to stay overnight. What if the rescue team had an accident and now the search needed to be prolonged. 

In the moment of despair like this you truly realize how precious your life is. And how you should not take it for granted. I regretted how we did not respect the whole process in connecting with nature. How we just wanted to take a shortcut and not stay on the official path. I called 911 again once per 30 minutes to check how far the rescue team was. In the meantime, Dave and I took a turn in whistling and holding the headlamp. After more or less one hour waiting, finally we heard a voice and saw a light in the dark. We yelled to let them know that we were there. My heart was relieved. I know hiking back would be homework. But I did not care. I was just happy to be found, safe and sound. If you read until this part, I just wanted to say bless your soul and may you be safe no matter where you are. 

_{And thank you for taking the time to read}