Photos 4, page 19
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Kayak Kekaha Kai Bay
| December 15, 2007 |
| The guy who sold me my kayak, Kelly, at Plenty Pupule (Crazy) Kayak has somewhat of a kayak club that goes on outings from time to time. This time they launched from Kekaha Kai Beach and paddled around to Makalawena Beach, an undisturbed, almost completely deserted beach on the Kona side. Robin and I drove over and joined them (white line). After I kayaked, Ray and Ellen met us and we went to their house for the night (pink line) and went to Manuka Bay with them the next day (cyan line) and headed home from there (red line). |
| We got there a little late and the group was just disappearing around the corner when I hopped in my kayak and paddled to catch up (yellow line). I didn't catch up until they'd already landed at Makalawena where we all hung out and checked the place out (green line). After a while, I got restless and got in my kayak and headed out again (magenta line) to do some exploring until the rest of the group came out and we headed back to Kekaha Kai. Ray and Ellen met us there and we hung out for a while. We spotted some dolphins jumping out in the ocean and I took to the water again to see if I could get some pictures. Of course they weren't there when I got out there, but were there again as soon as I got back on shore... |
| This was the group of kayakers on the beach at Makalawena. I was relieved to find that they were mostly a bunch of regular middle-aged people, not a bunch of young healthy athletic types! |
| And this is a picture of my kayak after I got back to Kekaha Kai |
| This is a panoramic view of the island from my kayak when I took off from Makalawena and headed north for a bit. You can see the other kayakers on the beach on the right side of the photo. The mountain in the background is Hualalai, one of the five volcanoes that make up The Big Island. This was the first time I had really been out in the open ocean in the kayak and the first time I'd had to deal with surf (although very small in this case). Most of my kayak experience to date had been in Hilo Bay, which is more like a lake that anything else so this was exciting - getting my feet wet, as it were, with some real ocean kayaking! |
Manuka Bay
| December 16, 2007 |
| Here's the trip to Manuka Bay ("Camp") from Ray's house relative to Kekaha Kai |
| The 4WD road down through the lava fields to the coast |
| The green line shows our wanderings... |
| The signage at the top of the road and the beginning of the road down with Ray's truck |
| The road down. Robin got tired of being bounced around inside the car and found it more comfortable to stand on the back bumper of Ray's truck... |
| Ellen decided she'd like to try it too... |
| Ellen didn't like it and Robin didn't like her knees banging against the tailgate so she tried it another way... |
| We finally got to the bottom after about an hour and a half |
| Where we set up a very nice camp... |
| Where we had nothing better to do than barbecue and watch the waves. Life's a bitch...! |
| Following the green line. I was still hobbling from my hike on the 9th so I took up the rear... |
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