not going to be ready for us until 3 pm, wifey had mapped out our
Costco, Wal-Mart and Big Save shopping lists. We got the rental car
(we always go for the cheapest) and made our way around Lihue,
gradually filling up the back seat with liquor, food, water, pop and
the bare essentials. Then we drove down into Koloa to get our snorkel
gear from Snorkel Bobs, as one does, and finally out to Kekaha.
Things change.
This is our third stay in Kekaha and second at Hale Aloha. After
unpacking and getting settled, we discovered that a few things have
adjusted themselves in the intervening years. Some dramatic and some
subtle.
Subtly, the traffic along the traffic along the Kaumualii Highway
between the Pacific Missile Range Facility and the rest of Kauai has
changed dramatically in the four years since we were here last. It's
heavier and starts earlier in the morning.
Around 4 o'clock in the morning.
But the most dramatic change in the landscape is what the storms have
done to Kekaha beach.
Formerly an 11 mile expanse of unbroken and unspoiled beach that
started a mile east of our cabin and extended ten to the west, ending
in the wild and dangerous dunes of Polihale, Kekaha beach has been
decimated by storms, and the beach across from our cabin is gone.
A lava rock seawall has been dropped into place to stop the
encroaching brine, and the mighty waves splash up so high that their
spray almost lashes the road.
Just after we discovered this, the storm god washed his hands of us,
and unleashed a torrential tropical storm so vengeful that we spent
the night and most of the next day inside.
The rains and wind will also keep us out of Polihale, whose dirt
access road through the cane fields is now impassable to our modest
rental car.
So we lie by the cabin in a warm patch of sunlight and wait for
permission to leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment