We checked out of Hilo Seaside Hotel before 09:00 and made our way to McDonalds to redeem Ian's breakfast sandwich coupon. My skin was still glowing from yesterday's adventures in Kilauea Caldera.
I should like to add that yesterday I removed a quarter coin from circulation which I will take home as a souvenir. This morning I saw on the news that the Old Man of the Mountain rock in New Hampshire toppled last night. When I looked at the aforementioned coin I realised with horror that it had the Old Man of the Mountain embossed on it. I felt quite guilty then.
On our way out of Hilo Bay we saw, for the first time, Mauna Kea standing proud completely free of cloud and had to stop at the beach to capture the rare sight.
Our drive out of Downtown Hilo and along the eastern side of Saddle road was considerably beautiful as we were travelling to Mauna Loa and knew then that our view across to Mauna Kea would be perfect. We made a few stops along the way to appreciate the beauty of the world's tallest mountain.
The colours of the landscape were exquisite. With no cloud cover we could see the various colours of the land knowing that they were natural colours in good light and not shadows from above. I saw greens and browns and yellows and reds and they all looked gorgeous against the blue sky background. It was picture perfect, only with Mauna Kea being such a large shield volcano I couldn't get most of her in my photographs! The observatories at the summit could be seen proudly reflecting the sunlight like little beacons.
We drove up the northern flank of Mauna Loa along a narrow unmaintained road which wound up and through large a'a lava flows, some of which had had pahoehoe lava flowing over them as if the icing had been drizzled over the cake. The road continued all the way to the weather station at an elevation of 11,000 feet and so did we. I think I might have suffered a bit from altitude sickness though for I felt another instance of dizziness. However, I dutifully stepped out of the car to photograph the stunning scenery set before my eyes. All of the northern volcanoes of the Big Island were in sight. All of them sat high above the cloud that swept across into the valleys. We were stood 2,000 feet from the summit of the world's most massive volcano looking across to Hualalai, Kauna o Kaleihoohie of the Kohala Range and of course, stunning Mauna Kea. It was an unbelievable sight and one that I will treasure forever. We stood and admired the views in silence. It was such a rare moment. We had to make a few stops on the way down Mauna Loa also because it was just so pretty.
Travelling along the western stretch of Saddle road we saw an owl take flight.
At 14:00 we opted for a lunch at the infamous Taco Bell. Like the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I didn't realise that America really did have restaurants that featured in films like Forrest Gump and Demolition Man. I thought they were all fictional. We plucked up the courage and faced with a completely infamiliar menu we chose by the pictures. Surprisingly the meal was very good and exceeded the Mexican we ate last time we were on the western side of Hawaii. It was much like eating home prepared Old El Paso mealkits. So, Taco Bell gets our seal of approval and makes a very pleasant change from McDonalds. We need a few branches of Taco Bell in England.
Ian made a purchase of two Harley Davidson t-shirts which are delightfully cute for his young nephews.
Before checking in to the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook we revisited the Kona Mountain Cafe and utilised their computer while Ian sampled some more of their home grown coffee. I finally admitted to a friend that we will be returning to London a week tomorrow and it really doesn't seem possible that it has all come to an astonishingly quick end. We both have mixed feelings about returning to England and only have excellent memories to cherish forever. Ironically, just as I am about to surprise my parents with a retreat home they have offered to loan us some money to continue with our travels. But, reluctant to incur any debt, regardless of how tempting it is to continue travelling, it is time to return to start my new life. This is an exciting time ahead for me now and I'm keen to face it.
The cafe closed while we were busy on the internet and while Ian made a giant purchase of coffee beans I busied myself photographing the gorgeous bright green geckos that entertained me throughout our time spent in the cafe. The markings on their backs were incredible, very attractive. As I photographed them and moved my lens closer to my subject they lifted their heads and became very inquisitive of me. I thought that they would jump onto my lens! They were delightful!
At the Manago Hotel we discussed our forthcoming trip to Maui and gawped at a couple of interesting spiders in the garden. They were black with yellow markings on their backs and managed to hold their legs in such a way thay it looked as though they only had four legs. The webs that they spun also had an interesting zigzag line formation which I haven't seen before.
We considered our packing arrangements for our remaining flights as we had our peace disturbed by a rather excitable couple who seemed to be getting quite intimate.
A visit to Walmart in Kona provided us with some new holdalls to carry our souvenirs home in and I found a delightful playsuit for my friends' five month old son. Neither of us were hungry so we chose to get coffee from Borders. This also enabled us to peruse the books and music. There was a book on tattoo art on our table which invited us to look inside the cover. The real art of tattooing is something to be admired but most of it was plain revolting and nearly brought my cake back up! There were a couple of postcards that were worth buying but I got sidetracked in a James Mitchener novel with such lovely pages which I nearly bought for that reason alone but managed to leave the shop without spending a dime.
When we reached the Manago Hotel we wrote our journals after trapping the larger of the three cockroaches in the bathroom and packing our new bags. We were also treated to the sound of another intimate encounter from the couple upstairs.
We travelled a distance of 173 miles today from Hilo to Captain Cook.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.