Waimea

A hiking day. We did not start as early as we had planned, some folk over the road had a very active and late Sunday. Still we decided that the walk was the way to go. So up into the Waimea Canyon we drove. Interestingly there are lots of eucalypt through here. They were used to reforest the area after the twenties had seen much of it denuded by cattle and goats. We got glimpses of stunning views on the way up but we were headed for the end of the road; Pu'uo Kila lookout over the Kalalau Valley. Stunning, I know the one-off pictures here will not do it justice,Ii hope to get a good panorama from the dozens of photos I took. Helicopters are like bees around here taking people in for aerial tours.

The morning had periods of mist

And the light was nice through the forest

And we were looking good at the top in Pihea.

From here we walked a mile to the Pihea vista. Slight elevation to 4284 feet. The walk was short but relatively tough as it was quite uneven footing in many places due to the extraordinary amount of erosion. Kauai is slowly eroding back to the sea after being thrust up in a huge explosion many millions of years ago. Some nice views back to the other side of the Kalalau Valley and a quite steep climb to the top of Pihea, which of course proved more challenging on the way back. This is half of the trip I'd like to do, depending on Marjan and how she pulls up. Perhaps later in the week.

There is a helicopter in this photo. I just cannot find it now. I took it specifically to show how small the choppers looked.. And that is a tourist boat along the coast.

On the way back down we stopped at Kalalau and it was nice. Stunning views are stunning views and these were stunning. We had lunch at the Koke'e museum come restaurant come camping ground. A picnic in the shade whilst a couple of cocks decided to put on a show. Mostly it was crow, run, and back off, but once they actually got the hackles up and flapped up at each other talons first. Apart from the cock fighting we knew we were not in Europe...the smallgoods from the supermarket were edible....just. The cheese needed to be decribed that way as nobody could tell otherwise...and that was after we chose the 'sharp cheddar'. When travelling in Spain, good food was a given. I suspect we may to work harder here.

Back on the road we stopped at a couple of places to look at the Waimea Canyon. Awesome place, really magnificent. Again the photos do not do it justice. The waterfall is only one qurter to one third of the drop down the canyon. It is pretty dry at present otherwise there would be more falls.

The falls in context....ie without a telephoto

And we were still looking OK

Well, back home to change and head to the beach. We are working our way through the guidebook's best 15 beaches. Today it was Kiahuna next to the Sheraton. A little beach with difficult parking and a very steep drop. Two metres in I was about shoulder deep. The water was lovely but a bit choppy so Marjan only had one swim. So that meant she got to drive home. Her first drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. She did well, a little panicky at first but calmed right down. Must say it was a relief to be a passenger.

An interesting question to chase up here is why such a large number of the 4WD cars have elevated chassis, some to a ridiculous extent. Also why there are so many churches.

Anyway dinner was lovely plain food cooked well, so foodwise we improved over tha day. Made a few phone calls so we are settled in for our hard adventuer mid-week. Helicopter around the island tomorrow, kayak down a river and into the ocean Wednesday, and dolphin chasing in a zodiac on Thursday (Marjan not joining me on the zodiac).

See you later