Here are more images from our day trip along the windward coast. First is a small bay cut into the carpark at the end of the road at Ka'ena point. There was a rare Hawaiian Monk Seal swimming there, but Dad is too slow with the camera to get a picture of it. Below that is a photo of Yokohama Bay, the most northerly beach on this coast. The sand area is small, but in the winter the surf here is large and rough. Not so when we were there. Instead there were tour boats bringing people to swim with the Spinner Dolphins who are there in the warm months. The other photos are near the town of Waianae. The thing that looks like a pyramid is actually a large section of broken volcanic wall near Makaha, check it out on Google Earth (GE). The beach is at Pokai Bay, another seasonal surfing spot. It is also a favourite spot for homeless campers. The last 2 photos are of Ku'iloloa Heiau, at the northern end of Pokai Bay. This is the remains of an ancient temple where students were taught navigation, sailing, fishing and other oceanic skills. All that is left are the broken outer walls and traces of the ceremonial path to it; check it out on GE.
Coming next are photos from our trips along the north coast, which will finish our round-Oahu road trip photos. I just have to kick the Oldies off the computer for a while......
Labels: Hawaii
This COVID-19 isolation thing has been a real drag on several levels. One of them is that the Oldies are becoming more like old bears in hibernation season every day. By the time I get them out of bed and they have caught up with housework, online browsing and craft there never seems to be time left for me to get computer time. However, better late than never, I will post some images of the last major road trip that we did in Hawaii, the leeward (west coast) road. This completed our circumnavigation of Oahu by road. Tourists are told not to travel this coast on their own as it is the low-income area, has lots of homeless camping on the beaches, and a high crime rate. We went with Kirk, who was our guide for most of our long drives. The road is on a fairly narrow flat strip between the beach and villages backing onto the Waianae mountain range. Our first stop was at Barbers Point lighthouse on the southwest point of the island. There has been a lighthouse here since1888, but this tower was built in 1933. Unlike most of the lighthouses we have visited, it has no lantern room, just a rotating beacon on the tower roof. Nearby there is a batch of communication towers. Actually, as you drive along this road you can see lots of satellite tracking and radar domes on the tops of the hills. On the other side of the range are many of the US military bases. The road ends at a parking bay at Ka'ena Point. There is a walking track that takes you around the point to a parking bay on the other side of the point. There is no road joining these two parking bays, so this track is the only bit of the Oahu coast that we haven't seen.
Labels: Hawaii, lighthouse
