My experiences/photos are way ahead of my ability to post them. I’ll throw out what I can when I get time.
This was at the very end of the road on the southern part of Kauai, at the end of the Na Pali coast.
I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin about half past dead…
This song recurs to me now and then when I’m on the road. In Puerto Jiminez on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, a kind of dusty border town, the song came to me. And here this morning in Kapaa, on the northern shore of Kauai, I’ve got only a half hour from the airport and I love the place. It’s got the big touristy hotels, but there’s a healthy local gringo culture here, haven’t been here long enough to suss out local Hawai’ian culture, been here less than 48 hours now, gotta check out of hotel soon, so will post some of yesterday’s discoveries before the maid kicks me out:
My Daewoo beater, duct-taped sunroof, $25/day (30 w.tax), perfect, not being the new Avis/Budget/Alamo brand new tourist rental.
Found a place to lay my head, got into ocean, perfect temp., not too cold/warm, oh my! 3 times in water yesterday, each time with fins, once with air mat, which I’m finding difficult to control, squirrelly; a little body surfing; the sand is rough and granular, fluffy, soft, nice to roll around when you come back in. Last night swam in rain. No one else at least here, doing anything like this. I’m like a starving man sitting down to a banquet, the Pacific so inviting and comfortable, unlike the 50 degree NorCal ocean.
Small Town Coffee
Annie Caporufscio set up shop in this converted Ford airport shuttle van with her partner Jeremy Hartshorn; Annie had run the shop for 9 years in rented space, but got tired of the landlords rising the rent and “…didn’t want to be bullied in the lease.” Great barista crema, the muffins make a good breakfast. Local hangout, good vibes…
Kauai Beach House Hostel
$40 shared sleeping room, $80 for a solo room (of which there are 3). Looks doable to me, especially in the land of 2-$300 hotel rooms. On beach, clean, wi-fi, young travelers, kitchen, shared baths, cool place.
Shared room.
Paul Iwai’s Rooster Farm
How many roosters, I asked. 200?
More, Paul said. Are they beautiful! Had great visit with Paul, from a Japanese family, on family land, born here, I know chickens, and we talked shop. Oh my again! Look at these beauties; beautifully tended. You should hear the noise!
I asked Paul where I could buy a knife and he gave me two. We ate macadamia nuts from his trees, he gave me grapefruit, tangerines, I’m sending him 3 books. Kindred spirits abound here.
That’s part of what happened yesterday, gotta pack up and head north now.
I realize that I am afflicted with over-enthusiasm, especially when it comes to communicating my experiences as i move through life. That said, this was just about the most perfect day I’ve ever had.
I was a water person in earlier years, starting at 4 years of age when I fell in a lake and while underwater until my dad fished me out, enjoyed the experience. In high school I swam competitively and one day after a swimming meet at the great Fleishacker salt water pool out at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, a swimmer named Jim Fisher and I went out across the Great Highway to swim in the ocean. I couldn’t believe it. The waves, blue water, invigoration. I was hooked.
Had my first surfboard ride at age 18, then changed my major at Stanford so I was through every Thursday at noon and able to head to Santa Cruz until Sunday night. I was a lifeguard, taught swimming, and then somehow over the years, drifted away from the beach in comparison with my serious surfer friends.
WELL — I’ve come to this small island of Kauai to get back in the water. Today I was in the ocean 3 times — a little bodysurfing, mostly swimming (the last time in the rain tonight) and in a fresh water pool 3 times..
A barista coffee shop on wheels with wonderful coffee, muffins, and vibes. A hostel on the beach with rates (in this expensive resort area — Kapaa –) of $40/$80 per night for shared/solo rooms. A guy in the country with about 300 beautiful roosters and tangerine, grapefruit, macadamia and lychee nut trees. A day of clouds and sun and clouds and rain. This island like a large boat in the Pacific Ocean. A Mexican restaurant that feels like you’re in Mexico with delicious food and 3 TVs with Mexican soccer games.
I’ll try to get around to writing it up (with photos) before long…
Shot from the Cliff House at Ocean Beach
These days I’m doing less posts on this blog and more on The Shelter Blog. I realized that I had a lot of build-garden-homestead-forage experience (and assemblage) to communicate and liked the idea of putting it all in one place.
I’ll cross-reference some of my posts on the new blog with this one, such as this:
1983 Toyota 4×4 Pickup Truck Used on Baja Beaches and Desert
I bought it used from a builder friend. It didn’t have the “Xtra cab,” so the bed was 8′ long.
Tarp for Shade: I had a Yakima Rocket Box on racks on the camper roof, with a flea market tarp (12’×14′) folded up inside. The frame was 1″ electrical conduit, with special connectors tightenable with wingscrews. The tarp was aluminized fabric. It was weighted down with canvas bags filled with sand and hung from each corner (ingenious!). Took maybe 45 minutes to set up. I’d place it butting up to the truck bed.
Read More …
Actually 2 days before the full moon, but it was bright last night. I headed out on my usual Tuesday night solo run—well, vigorous hike is more like it. Beach beautiful, with a 100-foot long glistening inland pond in moonlight, no one there, I had one of those almost chilling moments, surrounded by such beauty, alone, waves breaking, negative ions up the kazoo, super energizing of chi…
I started out in a down parka and gloves, brrrr…I don’t feel like going out into the cold night, but as always, the heart likes to pump, and pretty soon I take off the parka and gloves and climb the hills in a t-shirt. Circulation, circulation, circulation…
As I came back down into the valley, a coyote startled me. It was so close, and so beautiful. There were 2 of them close by and another at a distance. They were singing. Totally. One did a yodel, starting high, then breaking voice down to lower sustained note. Then a distant coyote would respond. Oh my!
I heard this about Australian aborigines: the smoke signals don’t contain the message. Rather, they’re a notice to a group maybe a few miles away to tune into psychic forces and get a telepathic message. Wow!
On the way home, moonlight streaming across the ocean, on Little Steven’s Underground Garage (Sirius): “Beautiful Delilah” by the Kinks, followed by Chuck Berry doing same (his) song.
https://grooveshark.com/s/Beautiful+Delilah/2725La?src=5
The water is SO warm right now. Only one other time in all my time on the Pacific Coast. Especially when sun-warmed water is flowing out of the lagoon. 60, maybe even 65 degrees. We are stylin! Couldn’t swim due to rib injury but I just went in the ocean and floated. Such a difference from normal. Oh, you guys that live where the water’s warm — ecstasy. To be able to swim relaxed, no tight wetsuit.
A fisherman caught this little (3′-4′) leopard shark. It had never occurred to me how beautiful they are. I mentioned this to a surfer friend who was there and he said, Yeah that’s true. It had been hooked in a fin. The fisherman got the hook out and it took off out into the sea. There’s just so much going on in the world every day!
We drove down the coast Wednesday afternoon; there were practically gail force winds flattening the waves, swirling the sand on beaches. When we got to Davenport Landing, the wind had dropped, and in Santa Cruz, it was glassy (and flat).
I love Santa Cruz. Even with all the heavy duty changes since I lived there off and on in the ’50s, it’s still my kinda town. The temp and the water are 5-10 degrees warmer than San Francisco, just a touch of SoCal…makes me want to get on the beach, in the water.
That evening, my son Will took his 3-year-old Maceo on one of his (Will’s) longboards, and the 3 of us skated down a gentle slope. Will put a pic of us on his Facebook page, here. A couple of his neighbors were out watching us and Will told them, I don’t know if I’m more worried about my 3-year-old son or my 79-year-old dad.
