January 18 - A walk through the grass ... really tall grass

Sunrise over Hana Bay

            We checked out of the Bamboo Inn as late as possible; who wants to leave such a nice place any sooner than necessary.  By then, it was lunch time, so we ate at an open air Thai restaurant just down the road.

   Hana is a very relaxed village, with none of the hustle-bustle of the other big towns on Maui.  This little open air restaurant is a very popular place to eat.  Pranee, the old Thai woman that does all the cooking, prepares the pots of food at home, then brings them here to sell until everything runs out.  Nominally open until 4 pm, they usually run out of food before 2.  We're really glad we got there in time to have some her wonderful coconut curry chicken.

      Our destination that night was the section of Haleakala National Park by the ocean where we would camp.  Lisa is still recovering from surgery she had only weeks ago, and chose to stay in town at a Joe's hostel/hotel instead of joining us for the night.

     It was around ten miles down more windy road to the park, with views and stops along the way.

We're from Ohio - we don't read the signs.

 Hamaa Beach, a popular little cove for swimming and surfing.

     We selected a site in the oceanside campground, then started out on the hike up to Wailua Falls.

 Banyan tree along the way.

     Part of the chasm leading down to Ohea Gulch, wherein lie the Seven Sacred Pools.  There aren't really exactly seven, and they were never sacred, but some tourism marketing guy came up with name a century ago,  and it has stuck.

     The last mile of the 2 1/2 mile trail up to the falls winds through a bamboo forest. It was one of the most amazing walks I've ever taken.  We wondered where the panda bears where.

 Honey ...

 ... I shrunk the tourists.

This is how ants must feel when they walk through your lawn.

The sounds of the bamboo stalks clicking and knocking together was gentled

by the leaves whispering in the breeze.

Flash photo of bamboo 

       The trail came to an abrupt end at this sign.  The falls are 1500 feet high - impressive, but really, after the surreal walk through the bamboo, a little anti-climatic.  And the fussy NPS doesn't want you to walk to the pool at the bottom of the falls.  You'd never see a sign like this in Australia.

After descending the trail, I took a cooling dip in one of the pools.  I now call myself Kahuna Kevin

     Back at camp, we had dinner with wine and beer.  The sun set at around 6:45, and we tried to stay awake as long as possible before crawling into our tents.  I think we made it to 8:30 before our nodding heads kept hitting the picnic table.  The evening was warm and clear, and we debated covering the inner parts of our tents with the flies.  Rain seemed a remote possibility.  Good thing we did, because around midnight it started raining hard.  Our tent did well; Amy had a small waterfall leaking into hers.  Thankfully we were back to an Airbnb the next night to dry everything out.  She's gonna need to buy a new tent, although it probably won't happen before her next trip. We do plan to camp a few times with her on the Big Island; hopefully it won't rain.