There is a cold breeze blowing up my.....

So up early to get to the airport for our flight to the big island. All quite uneventful apart from the confusion with the security staff. Marjan ended up being in the priority line and I was with the plebs. No major hassle but it seems a little less streamlined than in Oz. Oh by the way I was frisked...it tickled....and on entry they took our fingerprints, so I am now on some database somewhere. The flights were smooth and on time. The car people tried to upsell us again. They could not believe two people of our obvious intellectual, if not physical, stature could fit into such a small car.

Maui

So we asked the best way to get to Saddle Rd. And were told twice by different people that we did not really want to go that way. Being me, I of course pointed Marjan toward Saddle Rd.. We almost immediately regreted the route and car. Getting to where we were going seemed to involve going directly up a hill, or mountain by Melbourne standards. Within about a mile or so we were 700 metres or so above sea level. The little car really struggled. Anyway once we were up at that level it evened out and seemed pretty good. In fact the road seemed very new, very broad and the travel quite smooth.

We had decided that on our way to our accommodation on the other side of the island we would visit Mauna  Loa. It is one of five volcanoes on the island and at over 4k is a massive beast. Saddle Rd drives between it and Mauna Kea, another beast. The road itself gets to just shy of Mt. kosciuszko altitude.

Pretty soon we were driving thorugh obvious lava country. Initially grassy fields with quite obvious lava flow underpinning, some dry wall fences, nice rounded volcaning mounds.....sound like the western district of Victoria to anyone. It sure looked like it. In many  places, and particularly as we got along,  tthe landscape was harsher with just plain lava fields in all sorts of rough and grotesque formations. Amazing looking really.

Some hillocks at the base of Mauna Kea

We made it ot the turnoff to Mauna Loa and it looked quite uninviting. I am not sure they want tourists up here. The road start is broken up and rough for about a mile before it gets to be a quite dcent single lane road. At 20mph it was slow going but that was OK. The scenery was amazing. Great views back to Mauna Kea and amazing moonscapes...well really earthscapes. I have seen similar in Lanzarote but the extent here is huge.

The road back to the main road and Mauna Kea

We did not encounter many other cars, which is amazing considering how incredible this drive is. We eventually got up as high as the cloud base and got a bit of drizzle. We got to the scientific base car park and walked up to the base, which is well short of the top but at 3.3k still pretty high. Eventually we required and providentially found.....some rest rooms.

There were two side by side. Whilst concentrating on my own affairs, I hear....there is a cold breeze coming up my........well it was hard to concentrate after that.

Marjan had driven up and I drove down. Seeing it was me I was stopping at every second interesting lava flow. A photographer could spend months here doing lava abstracts.

It was interesting how the zero plant life at the top graduated to some small plants and ferns and then a few bushes and eventually a few trees. We also spooked three goats who were grazing at about the 2.5k mark, but they ran off, like....well goats when we approached.

The saddle under the cloud cover

We got back onto the main road and from this point the road was essentially downhill to Hilo, about 33 miles of needing to apply the brakes to keep the car from speeding up. Had lunch in Hilo and called Chad and Sue who own the place we were booked into. It turned out that the power had not been restored, they had no water and had no idea when it would be back. They knew it would be a couple of days at least. They offered to give us a pass to the retreat next door to them, so that we could use their bathroom and to heavily discount the accommodation. We though it would be just too incovenient.

So we called the young waitress over and asked her to bring us over many more drinks (coffee, water, coke....many of) and hit the internet. It was a little awkward as it was really slow response and some of the sites we had used in the past did not provide direct contact details for the accommodation. That meant we could not be guaranteed of a quick response, and given that the aftrenoon was well on its way we needed immediate responses.

Anyway, with great calm we managed to come to a common agreement, or at least detente, and settled for the Marriot. Perhaps not five star but at least four and rather nice and right on the beach. I managed to get their price down somewhat to frequent stayer levels by telling them our little tale of woe and stressing the Australian angle ( just for that I am registered as Rifiel Sinchez). The one downside was that of course, it was back on the other side of the island. Back over Saddle Rd. Without stopping this time. Not even for another goat that did not spook, nor for a flock/herd/gaggle of donkeys (they have donkey crossing signs). Got there In time to check in, have a swim, check out the sunset, go to the local village for some supplies....we may be staying here, but we can't afford to eat here as well! 

Got back to the room and had a roast beef and salad sandwich on the verandah with a mango for dessert. And finally to sleep in a huge king size.....I could not find Marjan for a spoon during the night.

What will tomorrow bring....stay tuned! It is bound to be fun.