It is about 9:30 p.m., Hawaii time on Thursday (Day 5) and everyone but me has gone to bed. Exhaustion, I guess. I had a nap this afternoon so I guess I have a few hours of free'n'clear computer time to make some notes on this trip. Tomorrow is a pretty unscheduled day so I can even sleep in a bit!
Day 3, Tuesday, was volcano day. The Mauna Loa volcano, also known as the Kilauea crater, doesn't look that far away on a map, but I was assured it was minimally a 2 hour drive because of the nature of the main road, Hwy 11. I've had the fun of doing all the driving so far, and Tuesday was no exception. Happily, I get to drive D's Jeep Cherokee and it is a pretty surefooted vehicle.
Hwy 11 is one of those roads that could, theoretically, be used in movies with car chases involving bad guys careening out of control and down steep cliffs. Because, in spite of being rather grandiosely labeled a "highway", it is a narrow, two-lane road with a rather steep drop on the ocean side, tall rock walls on the mountain side, and lots and lots of hair-pin turns. You know those are coming when the speed limit drops from 55 mph to 25 rather suddenly. But, that is all that happens. Basically, you are on your own to pay attention.
There are two problems with this. First, there is so damn much to see. I usually adore driving but this was troublesome. We were driving by coffee plantations, macadamia nut farms, farmers' markets, all manner of cutsie little shops with interesting signage. Me, I was keeping both hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road. I can only imagine that people who succumbed to simply being interested in their surroundings could wind up at the bottom of one of those cliffs.
The second issue is drugs. There is, rumour has it, a terrible drug epidemic on this island. Crystal meth is called "ice" here and I understand it is rampant. Pot and other drugs, including alcohol, are common. This second problem played a role in the car crash we witnessed later in the day.
At one of the scenic points along the way, we sampled some macadamia nuts offered by a local grower. I'm no expert, although I've been sampling my way through a LOT of macadamia nuts while here. These were exquisite, unlike anything I'd ever tasted. Organic, perfect, amazing freshness and texture… I'll be ordering more from this guy. His website is not great but his product is definitely worth writing home about.
So it did indeed take us 2+ hours to get to the volcano and then we had to budget our time while there. I had visions of seeing red hot lava flying out the top of the crater but that was not to be. To see the red hot lava, one has to drive the extra 2 hour round trip down the Chain of Craters road to the sea to witness the lava falling into the ocean and, literally, creating new land. That will have to happen on another trip as there was no friggin' way I was driving back 2 hours on Hwy 11 in the dark. B agreed with this decision.
The general idea was to drive around the outside of the crater. There were numerous vantage points and lots to see and this was slated to take us about four hours. It would also take us through something like a boreal forest, a desert, a moonscape of lava and a rainforest … all in the span of a relatively small amount of time and acreage. Pretty neat!
First stop were the Steam Bluffs where rain water seeps down through the earth, hits the hot lava beneath, and returns to the earth's surface as steam. The sensation of having steam appearing from the ground and washing over you is pretty strange and wonderful.
There were several other points to stop and take different views of the volcanic crater. Here is a shot taken by another tourist of me and B. You can't see it, but we are standing pretty close to the edge of the crater here, both of us wondering who was going to try to push the other one off.
The intro film that we watched at the visitors' centre talked about how only one new native plant or animal made its way to the Hawaiian islands every 30,000 years. It also talked about how, after the lava flows to the sea, the nature slowly takes over. It was fascinating to see little fronds and plants taking root out in the middle of the moonscapes. Like seeing plants determinedly growing up in sidewalk cracks, although these plants will – over time – take over the place.
Once almost entirely around the crater, we were back in rainforest setting and I was ready to explore Thurston's Lava Tube, essentially a big cave that was created by lava flow thousands of years ago. B wisely decided his body needed shade and water and waved me off to go check out the lava tube. After descending through gorgeous rainforest, the path lead to the opening of a big,damp cave. The walls were all creased with the inverse pattern of flowing lava. Apparently, this particular tube goes on for miles. Very neat – the publicly lit part isn't that long, but certainly long enough to get the general idea.
It was soon time to head back, after some shopping at the art centre and gift shop. I had had enough of B getting all the good scenery while I drove, so I made a point of pulling over a lot so I could see, too!
We were about 30 miles from home and I was navigating a tricky series of turns that I remembered from the morning's drive. I had just made a smart-ass remark about not wanting to attempt this drive in the dark when a white Saab screeched around one of the hairpin turns, speeding past us in the opposite direction, fish-tailing wildly out of control. I was watching in my rear view mirror, but also attempting to get us past the turn that the Saab just screwed up. Both B and I saw the Saab hit the SUV that was 25 yds behind us and then go spinning off.
I got the vehicle turned around and we headed back to see what was what. No one in the SUV was hurt, but the truck sustained a lot of damage. I had thought that the Saab had gone over the edge, judging from the speed he was going and his inability to get his vehicle under control. But, no, there sat a totally wrecked Saab and a surfer dude wandering around, barefoot, coolly asking if anyone was hurt.
It was all we could do not to deck the guy, but we decided to leave that for the troopers. Clearly, the man was in an altered state. No one could be that calm after totalling their own car and nearly killing three other people.
The locals who live along this stretch must see this happen a lot as, suddenly, lots of people were there on ATVs, putting up flares along the road side, directing traffic and generally knowing what to do. This must have been "Accident of the Week" for them.
I was pretty keen on keeping both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road after that. I was also pretty keen on getting home before the sun set, something that happens awfully quickly here. We managed to do that, safe and sound if a bit shaken. I found the driving exhausting, even without the stress of the accident. Thankfully, I'm on vacation and there is lots of chance for stress release here!
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