Kauai oh why, oh WHY ?

Monday 20th Feb

Well, that was interesting. It seems you CAN sleep in the back of a car on a mountain, just not very well. The big advantage was that there was zero de-camping to be done, so we just drove off to see sunrise from the peak at 6am. Which was initially disappointing …

Then the inevitable rain set in as we attempted another slippery slope trail …

Really no point sticking around , so we drove back to the campsite which was a few hundred metres of bombshell-cratered tarmac road lower, and waited for the cafe to open. This is a gloriously eccentric place , guarded by flocks of feral roosters … Who were kicking off loudly

And after that – drove back down to the south coast hoping for clearer weather. It did briefly materialise, at a lookout point with a one mile “Canyon and Cliff” trail halfway down , and we took advantage

It then poured down just as we got back to the car, resulting in me leaving my muddy walking pole behind as we drove off…but we reclaimed that, right around the time I realised that although I had not lost my A phone last night, the backup phone ( or B) was indeed missing . I am really not fit to be let out without strings tied to all essential possessions. And a luggage ticket saying “Please look after this bear “.

Anyhow, not much else to report as it poured constantly from then on, so we drove back anticlockwise to our final residential destination on the island, KUMU CAMP SITE , on the east coast, at Anahola Beach ( an’ a whole lot of fun it is). Once again, Lianne’s foresight in upgrading our booking from a tent to a bungalow was admirable as the rain lashed down all evening and through the night .

Let’s be honest though – the location is fab, but it’s a shed on stilts, just big enough for a double bed inside. And costs 4x what we’d pay in Europe for a fully serviced caravan hookup – that’s Hawaiian prices !

We also discovered that the advertised cooking facilities were actually 2 charcoal BBQ pits. Getting our rice to cook wasn’t going to work, so we just heated up a pan of beans, tomatoes and mexican spices – which was good value ballast.

Bedtime at 7pm – accompanied by flickering 12v solar lighting which we randomly turns itself on