Day 2: Kona to Captain Cook

November 18, 2014

The air conditioning in the room did its job, and gave us a chance to actually sleep. So we greeted the new day in pretty good shape. Of course we did ultimately go outside, and through the first half of the day the bike computer was giving temperatures in the upper 30's. 37 C is 98.6 F, eh. So that's quite warm (!). It naturally saps your strength and requires that you find and carry many pounds of extra water.

The heat was not actually our #1 concern as we started off on this first real day of a new trip. Over the past months Dodie's knees have been growing progressively worse, despite a course of injections of a synthetic joint fluid. As we have boarded airplanes in the last while, she has asked for preboarding - claiming bad knees. But what at first seemed like a semi-valid way to get your stuff a good spot in the overhead bins has increasingly become the real thing.

So starting out this time, it was not clear how it would go. Conceivably Dodie would make it only as far as the nearest car rental outlet.

At the same time, the cold that I had dreaded catching in Montreal and then in Seattle, decided to hit in Maui, when I came down with a severe headache and runny nose. Through the night I used cold tablets, and in the morning was feeling so so.

So with these things percolating in the background, we cautiously rolled our bikes through the lobby of the Kona Seaside. We were still in the lobby, when we met our first person of the day who was curious about our trip. It turned out to be an elderly (like us) man, originally from Weimar in Germany, but now from Vancouver. He was a very fit looking marathoner, and we had a good time talking about running, cycling, and where we each had been in Germany.

This encounter cheered me quite a bit, helping to wash away the jet lag and the fog from the cold. The effect was amplified at our next stop - McDonald's, to fill up on their offerings of ice water. A couple at an outside table was also interested in what we were doing, and the man in particular attached a lot of importance to it as something really special. We may be getting a bit blase, because he was almost more into it than we are, and he sent us off with standing applause.

Our next stop before really getting going was the Sports Authority - about a 2 km backtrack from our intended direction. But we had phoned them from home, and been assured that they had our gas cannisters. And guess what, they did!

While parked outside the Sports Authority, I fielded our third UQ person, a small but not necessarily frail old (like us) lady, who owns a Dahon. It has been 20 years,though, since she has done any serious distances. At that time, though, she cycled Alaska. So again - more needed encouragement.

On the short ride to the Sports Authority, two things already became clear. The first - for now anyway - Dodie could cycle. She took off quickly, leaving me a bit behind. That was because of the second thing - I had no strength, at all. Just a little exertion had my heart racing. It was just the illness and the heat, but I am so used to having a deep reserve of get up and go that it was a real bummer.

So that was our situation as we set off toward the South, on our route that would take us counter-clockwise around the Island. The first few kilometers took us along the water and the commercial heart of Kona, on Alii Drive. Commercial heart is a bit of a grandiose term, for this area does not have high traffic or glitzy malls or tall buildings. Rather there are just small businesses in small "marketplaces". On every side are flowering shrubs, and giant versions of what for us at home are delicate and costly "tropical plants". The combination of small, often weathered buildings and the lush foliage seems quintessentially "tropical" to us.

This region features several farmers' markets, and we found one in operation. Like what we remember from Hilo, the vendors rely on long metal framed tent structures - quite shabby, really. But the produce! Papayas are a mainstay. Back home, you will miss a car payment if you put your money into one of these. But here - there are stacks of them, almost free. Lots of other tropical fruits too. We went for some miniature bananas. They were a little tart, though they were not plantain. Interesting, and yummy.

Later we also found guavas just lying under their tree. Most were overripe, but we did get one good one. Saved it for supper. Super flavour!

All along the shoreline there are small "Beach Parks", or sometimes just public beach access points. All of this is signed against camping, and we really did not see any other wild camping prospects.

One of the Beach Parks, Kahaluu, featured a moderate stretch of white sand. Lots of people were frolicing in the surf here. The water was shades of lovely turquoise, and the sand - white. I gave it a try but just to the extent of wading. Lovely!

Knoppers - the ideal anti-bonk food, brought for us from Germany by Joe and Karla, from Leipzig

At Sports Authority - real official MSR gas cannisters!

A typical fruit stand in the Kona market

Flowering shrubs like this are everywhere

Alii Drive carries on in the flat area by the water, but only for about 8 km. After that it is necessary to climb up to the main road, Hwy 11. It's a left turn that turns you back the way you came. We are not sure quite what we were thinking, but we kept going straight. This took us onto a road (Mamalahoa Bypass) that wanders up and down in the space between 11 and the ocean. It was here that the up and downing got to Dodie's knees, and she wound up trudging beside the bike, pretty much on every up. During one of these trudges a fellow on a motorcycle coming the other way pulled over to find out what on earth we were doing. He pointed out that the road even got a lot steeper further on, and he expressed doubt that we would have enough water to make it to where the bypass eventually would rejoin 11. He recommended that we backtrack about 8km to that left turn.

Backtracking 8 km on hard won hills just isn't in our vocabulary. So we assured the nice man that we probably have enough water, and bulled on forward. We did this for another hour or so, making scant progress. Then a pickup truck pulled over from behind. We did not recognize the man (Dale) of the motorcycle at first, because he had had on his helmet. Anyway Dale had been concerned and had gone home to get his truck.

When the truck pulled over, I said to Dodie "No way we can accept a rescue on Day 1, tell the man no thanks". "I'm telling him Yes Please", she exclaimed. So we threw the bikes in the back of the truck. The ride was only about 5 or 10 minutes. But in those minutes the truck (even straining a bit itself) climbed 20% slopes that would have taken us forever. Dale, a cyclist himself, dropped us at a McDonald's just up on 11 not too far from Captain Cook village. He had been right - that we should have taken that left, and that we would not have made it up the Bypass.

The McDonald's did not have ready access to water, so I popped over to a gas station and bought 6 litres. In truth we had not really had much water left.

Now, in mid to late afternoon and at a higher altitude, we had rain and a certain amount of cool. With our rainshells on and the DaBrims, which had admirably shaded us in the morning, deflecting the rain, we carried on.

11 itself is not exactly flat, (and as mentioned by cyclists before us - is infested by noisy pickup trucks). Dodie continued to struggle on the slopes, though my own strength had largely returned. I knew Dodie would continue to fight - toward our planned destination of Hookena Beach Park - but I easily predicted we would arrive well after dark, which comes here at 6 p.m. at this point in the calendar.

With this in mind, when we came upon a divers' hostel, and given that it was still raining, we stopped to check it out. They wanted $97 for a room of $40 each for a bed in a dorm. Bleeaggh. We pressed on. However, in "downtown" Captain Cook we came upon the Hotel Manago. This rambling establishment looks so typically Hawaiian - weathered, but surrounded by riotous tropical growth.

$65 brought us a totally basic room - with really nothing in it, certainly not TV or coffee or fridge or anything like that. But it was semi clean and we were attracted by its obvious historical/heritage status, and the friendly and pleasant management couple of Japanese extraction.

We were still ok with the place, even after our closet revealed a really big tropical style cockroach. My regret was that in the gloom in there my camera refused to focus, for a souvenir photo. We did take a little walk, admiring the Koi in a pond, and other tropical garden features, plus a kind of large stick insect that the camera did agree to record.

A nearby business, run by the same family, features home made potato crisps (chips) plus a lot of related salty snack foods. We found the quality of these to be tops, and again the Japanese extraction proprietor to be so pleasant and friendly.

Our probably silly plan made back home had been to cycle down to Hookena first, set up the tent, and cycle back to Captain Cook the next day to check out the attractions. The attractions include several coffee farms and a demonstration heritage garden. After visiting these, we would have gone back to the tent to sleep before pushing on. Now our position is a lot more rational. We are already at Captain Cook, so tomorrow we will look at stuff while making our way to Hookena. We will camp there, and then carry on.

The knees problem, though, continues to hover over the plan. Fighting them along is very tiring, and now, at 7:30, Dodie is very soundly asleep. 12 hours of sleep will give this little fighter another shot.

The road, the lava, and the sea. Here we have a wide shoulder and little traffic, but lots of hills.

Dale correctly guessed we were not going to make it up to Hwy 15 any time soon.

An exotic hitchhiker on my bike. (Identified as a gold dust day gecko, (Phelsuma laticauda) by William Shaneyfelt through the Guestbook)

A not cheap hostel near Captain Cook village

Coffee. This is ground zero for Kona coffee

The founders of the Manago Hotel began in 1917

The view from our room. The sea is out there too, but the camera did not catch it.

A stick like insect (Identified as a type of Katydid by William Shaneyfelt, through the Guestbook)

This moth is an import, brought to control some weed. The moth seems to be everywhere this evening.

A river of Koi in the garden of the Manago hotel.

Salty snacks - lots of types at the Captain Cook chip store.

Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 26 km (16 miles)

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