Mike: Up at 8. Yes, 12 hours in bed, Fitbit says 10:40 sleeping so another tired night amid pounding surf just outside the tent. Heard several planes taking off next door; turns out they are each loaded with 6 skydivers, most are the double person first timers. Plane goes up, circles for altitude, drops the 6-12 people out the door and lands while the parachutist/paragliders who circle and perfonrm pukifying stunts on the way to land on our end of the air strip. They were basically taking off and returning steadily until about 2pm.
We on the other hand relaxed on the beach, watching whales and fisherpersons catch nothing, and even a bit of snoozing… like we needed that!
After a quick brunch, we went for a drive to charge up the batteries and look at the surf further toward the point land called Kaena Point. Surf was lovely at quite a few places along the way but we drove to the end of the road – except for off road vehicles (no quads, just Jeeps and Toyota 4-Runners, etc.)
There’s also a hiking trail which we took for a couple of miles toward the point of land. Rough country but a small island. 13,000 steps for us today.
Susan: Past the end of the road, it is a protected area because of rare birds nesting and rare monk seals who come ashore here. It is pretty remote, maybe the remotest place on the island? (Except for the mountain tops, where we wondered if anybody actually goes.) Some interesting plants and some mud holes created by people driving in jeeps.
There used to be a little rail road around this point but it got wiped out in a tsunami in 1946 and they didn’t bother to rebuild. It was used to haul pineapples down to Honolulu from the Dole Plantation and also by the military after the Pearl Harbor attack.
It was very hot and dry along this trail, so it was nice to come across a little forest of conifer-like small trees or big bushes. Very thick carpet of dead needles underfoot and much cooler than out in the open.
Back to the campground. Susan went swimming with her new goggles which amazingly for the price, actually worked. Saw some little exotic fish while I inadvertently had a Pacific Ocean bath when the waves sucked all the sand out from under my feet. Very fine sand here but lots of rocks and rock coral. Good to have a waterproof phone. Susan had a good swim and lots of exercise.
Susan: a weird thing is that there doesn’t seem to be many sea creatures under the water. No urchins, anenomes, sea pens, starfish, kelp. All I saw was sand, eroded coral, plant debris from the land, and those few fish. Maybe the water is too warm??
Oh no, surf and turf and noodles and veggies for supper again!
Pitch dark at 7pm. A ways away from the Equator but think we are like Baja California latitude. Surprise for me as I mostly thought this was further North but that the climate was affected by being mid-Pacific. Nope.
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