West to the end of the road
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We woke up at 4:30. Not good. Roosters crowing out back. Kauai is covered in chickens. It’s as if God woke up one day and took a salt shaker of chickens and sprinkled it liberally all over the island. They are literally everywhere. Along the road, parking lots, people’s yards, in the mountains, on the beach. You get to the point where if you don’t see one, it’s surprising.
According to the Internet:
Most people suggest that the feral chicken population can be traced back to when Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai in 1992. It’s been reported that the devastating hurricane destroyed a number of chicken farms.
Others say that sugarcane plantation laborers in the late 1800s and early 1900s brought and raised chickens (for eating and cockfighting) and many got loose over the years and multiplied.
The reason could be a combination of the two.
Apart from being a bit annoying first thing in the morning, it’s kind of fun seeing them around everywhere. One thing we did learn is they don’t just crow at sunrise. They crow all the time. They happen to be crowing when the sun comes up, but also when it sets, when it’s dark, breakfast, lunch, 2:38pm. You get the picture.
Anyway we hung out on the couch in the living room and listened to the ocean until the sun came up at 6:30 or so. We decided to explore to the west today. We navigated the traffic circle (the only one on the island we think) and ended up at Spouting Horn, which does. It’s a lava tube with a blow hole. When the water rushes in, it shoots out the hole much like a whale blow hole. Pretty cool. Lots of craft people in booths there, just getting set up. We had a wander through but didn’t find anything we had to have. At least not yet. We continued to end of the road, which was just down the way, then headed back and west to Waimea on the main ‘highway’.
The highway is 2 lanes and the speed limit is anywhere from 25 to 50 depending on the area. You very quickly learn that you’re not going to go racing around to anywhere. I think the DOT people have figured out this gets you pretty quickly onto ‘island time’. After awhile you just relax and go with it. But it’s a bit disconcerting. We noticed more than a few police cars so apparently they’re pretty serious about enforcement.
And perhaps the strangest road sign — we came down a hill, and at the bottom saw a sign saying ‘Begin Construction, 25 mph’ and not 40 yards later, the ‘End Construction’ sign. We passed this section pretty much every day for a week. At no time did we see any construction, any attempts at construction, any construction people or equipment, or for that matter, any need for any construction. We came to the conclusion it was just to slow people down for that stretch since there were a few houses facing the highway. Although why a random 25 mph sign wouldn’t work like they used elsewhere, I don’t know.
We stopped at the Hanapepe scenic overlook, which we would end up stopping at multiple times. A very nice view up the valley formed by the Hanapepe River and as the weather and sun position changed each day, it would always look a little different. We took a detour up to Kukuiolono Park but not much to see there. We took another detour through Hanapepe, an ‘historic’ town as it turns out. Lots of galleries but too early yet so nothing was open. Historic in Hawaii typically means 50-100 years old. Hanapepe is one of the oldest towns on Kauai. And the home of Lilo and Stitch of Disney animated movie fame.
We crossed the highway to Salt Pond Beach. A very nice bay and beach. Well enclosed. Although it’s called Salt Pond because of the salt ponds that have been there since the original Hawaiians, the beach was like a pond too. Especially the ‘kiddie pool’ to one side where a reef protected a shallow area. About a foot or two deep and no waves crashing. Perfect for small children. I walked to the other end, leaving Marion to sun herself. Her sprained ankle was not conducive to beach walking. The Port Allen airport is right there and I saw a couple of ultra lights take off. We liked it there and decided to come back to swim later.
We continued up the road towards Waimea. Along the way we passed a bunch of cars parked along the side of the road for no apparent reason. Over the course of passing it a few more times during the week and seeing the people come and go, we figured out there must be a beach down a path through the trees. Definitely had a ‘locals only’ feel to it and we decided we wouldn’t tempt fate and go down and have a look.
On through Waimea (noting the turn to the canyon we’ll take later) and on to the end of the road at Barking Sands (look, chickens). We passed a couple more nice beaches and the Barking Sands missile range. We would learn later from Captain Trent on the sunset cruise that the facility is pretty large and does contain actual guided missiles for defense. They also do missile testing down range in the ocean. So the residents occasionally get to see missiles being shot off. And he also told us that once a year they hold war games and ‘attack’ the beach there. 30 some navy ships, landing craft, airplanes strafing the beach. Sounded pretty exciting. But they stop the war to let the sightseeing boats through on their way to the Na Pali coast. Pretty funny.
Just past Barking Sands is the beginning of the Na Pali coast. Very rugged coastal cliffs (think Big Sur but much more eroded). Na Pali means ‘cliffs’ in Hawaiian, demonstrating the Hawaiians were a very practical if not very creative people. The road ends there. Just before the end we saw the road to Polihale Beach, the place you’re supposed to go to see the best sunsets (since it faces west), but it’s 4-wheel drive only and the one place the rental car people specifically said not to take the car. I still wanted to go but cooler heads prevailed and if the entire 4 miles was anything like the entrance, probably for the best. We got a few pictures of the beginning of Na Pali, then headed back.
We stopped in Hanapepe for a walk around and some lunch. We had lunch at the “famous” Hanapepe Cafe. It’s run by a very nice woman, very ‘new age-y’. The food was a bit frou-frou and we decided we didn’t need to go back. The baked items also did not inspire so we passed them up. Some nice galleries in Hanapepe though. We found one painting we liked a lot. We discovered there’s a Friday night ‘art thing’ where the stores stay open late and there’s cookies, and punch and such. We may go back for that. And might buy the painting too. It’s become a tradition to buy original art work for our anniversary (which was just a few days ago).
We had a swim when we got back. The pool is nice. Not big but big enough. No kidlets (or anyone) while we were there. I made the mistake of going down there barefoot (it was maybe 50 ft away) and the hot pavement burned my feet. I made it to the water just in time. And learned a valuable lesson.
Then a walk down to Poipu Beach with Marion this time. More surfers (and chickens, although not in the water). All boys this time. No swarms of gnats which was nice. And more evidence that we are glad we didn’t stay at the Sheraton. Not our crowd.
We had dinner at Bubba’s, home of world famous burgers — a place we discovered on our drive to Spouting Horn. And they are pretty good. Basic, just burger and cheese. Funny signs are littered around the place. “Men: No shirts, no service. Women: No shirt, free drinks.”, “I drink to make you look better” and the like. We wandered around the mall which was very nice. A lot of empty places though. We couldn’t decide if it was a new mall or the economy had taken its toll. We ended up chatting with the sales person at the bead store (where Marion found some good buys) and learned it was in fact a new mall. Hope it does well, it was quite nice. We also learned she had been to Oregon to go sturgeon fishing with her dad in the Columbia. We actually ran into quite a few people who had been to, or lived in Portland. They all told us how beautiful Oregon was. Opened my eyes a bit. You get used to a place. It is pretty nice in Oregon. But it ain’t no Kauai.
We drove out to the beach past Poipu Beach (which may still be Poipu Beach). It has this cool geography where it’s two inlets with a small peninsula between them. The water makes it over most of the peninsula but only a little. The waves come from both sides and meet in the middle. It’s shallow and you can walk out there (which I did). We watched the sunset from there.
We made it to 9:30 tonight (at least I did).
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