Day 16: Hilo to Laupahoehoe

December 2, 2014

(This is being posted the "next day", because the rugged Hamakua Coast has not a hint of internet connectivity). Watch for "today's" report later this evening, on the next page. Photos - coming soon...

Our ride up the Hamakua coast (first half) was all that we expected. This of course was not a super feat of forecasting, since we had already given it a try yesterday. Anyway, the very tropical foliage, deep gultches -either with bridges or not -and rolling twisty road were interesting and fun. The only off note was the continued, hard to understand, quite heavy traffic, with altogether too many dumptrucks and semi-trailers thundering along.

We got a break on the weather, and had only blue sky all day. This, of course, allowed the temperature to rise to over 35 degrees, but we seem a lot more immune to sun and heat now that we have the DaBrims.

We stopped at a little store in the early morning, looking for muscle rub - which has been helping Dodie's knees. She unfortunately left hers behind at Wild Ginger this morning. No muscle rub was around, but they did have some Bento type boxes. After a breakfast of only oatmeal, I was ready to eat anything, and these looked good. The one we chose had the recognizable elements of marinated chicken, sticky rice, Kimchee, noodles, cauliflower, and broccoli. We asked ourselves if this stuff were Chinese, Japanese, or Hawaiian, and decided it was a fusion. There were two bits in there that remained a mystery. One was like a bit of raw hotdog, and the other was for all the world a slice of dog food. When you are on the bike, more or less in the middle of nowhere, you don't stand on definitions, so I just ate it. It really was a new experience to eat dog food, and I promise you, the smell and texture was exactly right on. There is an urban myth about poor seniors eating pet food. I wish I could report that it is actually pretty good, and that a whole new range of flavour sensations has been opened up - you know, like Fancy Feasts Liver and Chicken Deluxe, and so forth. But no, it was truly foul!

Much better was our lunch stop. We came upon what we took to be a Bhuddist temple. It's name was Honihina Hongwanji. Without internet here, we can not just yet check on what this really is. However, it had a set of beautifully clean and shady front steps, and this is where we put ourselves. All we ended up eating, though, was a fruit salad we had made in the morning. This included what we had thought was a giant orange yesterday, but it turned out to be a giant grapefruit.

We passed by what back home had been our projected stop - Kolekole Beach Park - really early. Despite having an expensive reservation, we carried on - to Laupahoehoe. Just like Hookena, this is down, way down, a long road that we will have to crawl out in the morning. There are lots of pavilions here, almost all boldly marked no camping or even overnight sitting. Thanks for the consideration, County of Hawaii!

Anyway, we have selected a pavilion where we will try out some camping or overnight sitting. As this is being written, we of course have no idea what will come of this. You the reader, of course, can easily skip to the next paragraphs and find out if all was cool, or if we got given the boot in the middle of the night. If it was the boot, than I would have been challenging the officer, or whoever, to brave the newspaper report that would emerge of elderly Canadian cyclists thrown onto the black and dangerous highway in the night. I think this could carry some weight, Dodie doesn't.

Meanwhile, Lapahoehoe Point really is very attractive. The surf comes in very strongly, and swimming is definitely impossible. This is the spot where 21 students and 4 teachers and 4 others were swept away in the Tsunami of 1946 The grounds are expansive and well maintained. Too bad Hawaii doesn't really want us using it!

Here is that next paragraph, being written the next day: Hooray, no one bugged us at all during the night. Also, it rained. So we were really happy about our unreserved, illegally located, tent spot. We were gone before 6 a.m., so our stay was low impact and no trouble to anyone.

Heavy traffic on 19. In fact traffic has a been a constant companion and bug all around Hawaii. This applies particularly to dump trucks, oil tankers, and a crazy number of semi-trailers from a company called "Matson". What on earth can they be delivering in such quantity?

These are the flower we are always finding on the highway.

This is the tree those flowers come from.

Mauna Kea in the distance. The mountain is almost 14,000 feet high, and the temperature at the top is 42 degrees F cooler than at the bottom.

A great fruit stand. This is all they sell.

Oh, oh. We had thought Pahoa was done with Pele for now.

This bento type tray at a small convenience store was swell, except for the dog food-like components. We have found that every small store carries lunch choices like this.

In the convenience store, uniquely coloured bananas. They are probably a cooking variety, though.

A view of the coast from one of the many bridges that span gulches where you do not have to go down and then up.

A landscaped bit at the entrance to the World Garden, a place that seems to feature zip line adventure.

A roadside papaya. There is a ripe one on there, but too hard to reach, through those red hot poker type plants.

The bhuddist temple where we found shady steps for lunch.

The sea really does not feel trustworthy here. It really pounds in to the rocky shore.

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 486 km (302 miles)

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