Today we took the truck and went to Beach 101 - that's what I call it since it's at mile marker 101. Usually when I drive the truck I am the only occupant, but Reese was my passenger today, and it was fun for him to be one since he is usually the driver. It's 20 miles away down the mountain and around the island, and then another 5 miles down a beauteous meandering back country road. And then you are suddenly at the bottom of the road and out of nowhere a small village appears. A collection of homes that have obviously been inhabited for generations. You instantly get the feeling that people have been in this place for a very long time. The air is very warm and inviting, and you feel as though you are guests swimming on a neighbors beach. We parked about 30 feet from the ocean, up on a sea wall, there to channel any high tide aside from the homes beyond, and walked down the beach to find a spot to lay. The sand is black, tan, green, and coral. The surf picks it up and sloshes it around, letting the different colors settle out at different rates, striping the beach as the waves languish back and forth. The shore is punctuated by low broad pieces of the underlying lava sheet jutting up at shallow angles creating eddies and surf breaks that add their own complexities to the movement of the wind, sand, and water that is the beach. After a while we started to look around and realized that the whole little cove used to be up about 30 feet higher, but that at some ancient point the whole area subsided in one piece, creating a shallow protected bay no deeper than 20 feet out to such a distance that no wave higher than 3 feet makes it to break on the beach. Protected from the waves by the bay and protected from the winds by the cliff makes a very inviting micro-climate, you never want to leave it. But we had to, the day wore on and the clouds came in, and we came home for dinner. But I will always remember the tiny praying mantis, less than a half inch across, who decided to explore me. S/he was green with brown stripes and absolutely fearless, a great hunter/warrior. We spent time learning about each other, then went our separate ways, each a little wiser. The whales were, as always, a special treat to see, but the praying mantis will be today's favorite experience on a beach in Hawaii.
--Tolver
Labels: Hawaii
link | posted by Reese at 8:39 PM