North. Hawaii, part 03

To read previous part The sun, blue ski, white clouds, green grass and colorful flowers... Hawaii, part 02

Spending all day outside, overwhelmed with new impressions, we slept like babies. But the next morning the roosters woke us up again. We didn't complain actually, the earlier start was in our plans as we were eager to explore more...

Do you know what is the best about Kauai island? The weather. Yes, it is not stable, but... this is incredibly rare having the same weather all around the island. So if it is raining on one end, it'll be sunny on another. All you need is to check the forecast and make a decision, where are you going today - north or south. That morning we were driving to the north end of the road, towards the sun... We planned to go all the way to the end of the road and start exploring from the far end. Once we reached there, we stopped the car and stepped outside, amazed with the view to the taro fields. Popular tropical vegetables growing on the wet fields. Honestly - we never saw anything like this before.

 

The most of the vegetation on Kauai is the tropical forest. Thick and lush. Green and wet. The trees occupy all the space, climbing the rocks and creating the bold dark shadows. The roots are dangling down the cliffs and make you feel like the wizard moved you to the fairy tail.

We call it Kauai parking style. You just throw your Jeep 45 degrees and go to the beach ;)

But... you have to be really careful at this beach on the north end of the island. So many warnings and they put them here not to entertain the tourists but for a reason!

Finally we were ready for the ocean to see. So we found a narrow trail leading us to the beach and... right... the chickens were there too. In fact, if you don't see the chicken for 5 minutes, you feel like something is wrong around here. So get used to seeing them all the time. Or at least to hear them.

Ke'e Beach is not that great. It is the last beach you can drive to so it is a bit less crowded but not very friendly. Most of the people are not staying here but use this spot as a starting point to hike to the Waihuakua Valley and other beaches that can be reached only by feet. But the ocean view is still incredible. And all these trees with their roots so exposed... OMG...

Just look at these ridges... aren't they amazing? And you can go there only hiking narrow trails going up and down or using a boat. But it wasn't on our list for this day to go hiking, so we turned in the opposite direction and walked along the water.

It is almost impossible to show how thick and impassible the woods here are. But every time I turned my back to the ocean and looked at the bushes, I was asking myself - how was it possible for pioneers to walk through... It should take hours to move just a few steps.

But we were lucky, as we didn't need to cut through the woods, we just strolled along the warm sand and enjoyed the water, the fishes, the waves and boats...

We walked about a mile before turning back. The sun was burning, so we tried to use some shadow and climbed to the woods where we found a narrow trail, weaving between the trees. That was a pleasure to walk under the thick canopy in the shadow, still being able to see the water and hear the waves crushing on the sand.

Continue reading Limahuli Botanical Garden, Hawaii, part 04

Pictures were taken on April 20, 2013.