The weather on Kauai has been absolutely stunning for the past week and I’ve been doing some fantastic walks. Two days ago I walked the 4-1/2 mile, easy Wai Koa Loop that starts at the putt-putt golf course and goes through the mahogany forest. Beautiful! Access to the stone dam remains closed (a year after the flood) but it’s still a beautiful, peaceful walk.

Yesterday (Easter), I started the morning with a heavenly banana/macadamia pancake at Kountry Kitchen in Kapaa. (I’ve learned to request a “to-go” box when I order. One pancake is seriously so enormous that it’s enough for two meals. Then went for a walk on my favorite walking path, Ke Ala Hele Makalae, the one that starts in Kapaa and runs past Kealia Beach. They had just graded the parking lot at Kealia Beach and that’s where I parked and started my walk. I’ve done this walk countless times. I usually turn back before the end, but this time I went past beautiful Donkey Beach (which was deserted except for one person) all the way to the end. FYI, DH is off island, so I was alone.

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Donkey Beach



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the end of the path


Heading back, I must have taken a wrong turn because nothing was looking familiar. But I didn’t mind because it was ridiculously beautiful, I still had half of my 16 oz. bottle of water, and I figured I would soon recognize where I was and find my way back to the path or the main road. The only negative: there wasn’t any shade and it was getting hotter.

The round trip should have taken about an hour and fifteen minutes. After I had walked MORE than three hours in the sun, I had no idea where I was—and no idea which way to go. I came upon a gorgeous, secluded cove where some guy was wearing a wetsuit that looked like the “Creature From the Black Lagoon.” (He was about to go spearfishing.) When I asked him how I could get back to where I started, he replied that I would have to climb “all the up the mountain” then back down around the side, and ... OMG. His directions were completely incomprehensible, but I did understand that he was saying it would take me 3 - 4 hours (presuming I could find my way!).



This was crazy. I hadn’t come down any mountain. All I wanted to do was backtrack, but there had been countless choice points and I hadn’t dropped any breadcrumbs. I was starting to get really hot and nervous. I did not want to spend 6 or 7 hours hiking in the sun, with very little water left. My phone GPS was no help—maybe because there were no roads. Out of the blue, an older native Hawaiian guy with gold teeth pulled up on a sort of a dirt bike or off-road motorcycle. His directions seemed equally impossible to follow, and I imagined wandering on jungle paths until someone found me passed out from heat stroke and dehydration a day or two later. So ... I asked if I could pay him to drive me back to the path I had been on.



Next thing I knew, we were ZOOMING through fields of sugarcane on a path that at times couldn’t have been more than 12 inches across. At one point he yelled, “Hold on!” and we drove straight through a stream then practically flew over rocks and tree limbs. It was thrilling – but terrifying! I thought there was about a 50/50 chance I would be thrown from the back of the bike.



He drove me all the way back to my car, (a LONG ride) where I thanked him PROFUSELY and showed my appreciation with a very generous tip. End of adventure! Whew!!



I think that was my Passover/Easter miracle! Today, I think I’ll stick to Hanalei Bay, No chance of getting lost there.



PS. Amazingly, I’m still seeing an occasional whale. I thought they would have all been gone by now, but apparently, they don’t want to leave Hawaii.