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| September 20, 2004 |
| The next day, we had an appointment with our real estate agent to look at a couple of properties in Hawaiian Acres ("H" just south of Kea'au) so we headed back to the Hilo side of the island via the Saddle Road. We headed north out of Kailua-Kona, taking the inland road until it intersected with Saddle Road, the rust-red line, which took us across the island via the inland route. CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE |
| The Saddle Road is fairly rough, not well-maintained, and through fairly desolate country, passing in the "saddle" between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. There's an army base in the middle. There are signs along the highway warning of artillery passing overhead and to not go off the road and drive through the countryside. |
| A cinder cone |
| There was this interesting mound that caught our eye as we approached. The signs in the picture below left are on the left side of this mound. |
| This was the countryside they didn't want you to drive in. |
| Sign on left: PUU HULUHULU HUNTER CHECKING STATION DEPT. OF LAND & NATURAL RESOURCES DIV. OF FORESTRY & WILDLIFE Sign on right: KIPUKA PU'U HULUHULU PU'UHONUA O NA LA-AU MAOLI (NATIVE TREE SANCTUARY) AND NATURE TRAIL |
| Just to the right of the gate in the photo at left was this interesting cairn or something. I have no idea what it was. |
| Saddle Road comes into Hilo which we went through and headed south to Hawaiian Acres, right off of Volcano Road, the road we were on the day before heading to Kailua-Kona! Big Island, small world. |
| Subdivisions on the Big Island are a little misleading. In the image below, you see a regular grid of streets that would make you think that there's some sort of suburban-type environment going on there when, in fact, the roads aren't paved and are 4-wheel-drive-rough. Few of the lots are developed and most are completely overgrown with thick vegetation. The subdivision has, however, been subdivided into lots of roughly 1/2 to 1 acre in size. It's just that nobody's bought them or built on them...yet. There are electric and telephone lines but no sewer or water. We came in from Hilo (white line) and met our real estate agent at the Hawaiian Acres Community Association. From there, we check out two houses (green line & magenta line), and then went to check out another house across Volcano Highway (blue line) on Oshiro Rd. |
| The morning of Day 5 was spent visiting a woman who was a local birthing Doula up near Akaka Falls, north of Hilo (white line above). |
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Photos 1, Page 3
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| Friday, March 10, 2006 |
Day 4, From Kona to Hawaiian Acres via Saddle Road
| Saturday, March 11, 2006 |
Day 5, Explore Kalapana Area
| then green line to Black Sands Estates to check out a house, then blue line to Kehena Beach area). We even drove around Kalapana Seaview (white line), where we now live, although at the time we were unaware of this house being for sale. After that, we headed home (right image, magenta line). |
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