We went to the beach today. Ok, it isn’t a “beach” in the traditional Hollywood fashion, white powdered sand, waving palm trees, cabanas every ten feet, lounge chairs and cabana boys who bring you drinks with the little umbrellas – It is more of a shore line. A rocky shore line with short clifs where the waves crash against and create fountains that splash into the air.
Whittington Beach Park is located just off the highway as it comes down the hill from Naalehu to the ocean. Here, there are not cliffs, but a rocky shoreline that extends out into the water. The waves batter against the rocks some 50 to 100 feet off shore and the water in the “tidepools’ is calm at the shore. At the north end is an old concrete pier from the 1800’s and 1900’s. All the wood decking has either rotted away, or been ripped away by a hurricane in the 1940’s, leaving the concrete supports that are constantly under attack by the waves. How a ship was ever able to remain motionless at this pier, I will never know.
At the southern end is a large lagoon/fishpond. The park has concrete slabs that are the remnants of old warehouses where sugar was stored and processed in the early 1900’s before being loaded on the ships at the pier.
The sugar came from the sugar cane plantations on the hills above. There are also a couple of picnic tables under the trees, and a restroom and two picnic ramadas at Whittington Beach Park.
Just south of the entrance to the park, there is a yellow iron gate in front of a dirt road that leads out to the rocky/cliff lined shore.
We have found a place here where the waves wash over the top of the lava cliffs to a shallow lagoon of sorts – by shallow, it is only about 2 foot deep in the deepest point, with most of it averaging around a foot. More like a tide pool than a lagoon. Where it is about 2 foot deep, we like to sit down in the water. It is typically a few degrees warmer here than the ocean, but yet, still refreshing.
The part I like about this area is the towering shoots of water that get thrown into the air as the waves crash against the cliffs.
Walking out on the edge can be dangerous, as the waves and srashing water could easily sweep someone off the cliffs and into the ocean.
Once in the ocean, there is no way to get out and the waves will batter you against the cliffs. The top surface of these cliffs is the end of a lava flow – very irregular, rough, and jagged.
Almost every house has at least two papaya trees in their yard. You even see them growing alongside the road. Many of them are loaded with papayas – but yet the best price for papayas at the grocery store is $1.69 each. At the farmers market in Kona, you can find them for 5 for $5, while at the farmer’s market in Naalehu, they want $2 apiece. I found a small fruit stand between Naalehu and Waiohinu when I can get them for $1, so when I saw a sign in Naalehu that said “Papayas 4/$1.00″, we had to investigate. The sign was propped against the stop sign in front of the Ace Hardware store, with an arrow pointing up the street towards the hills. Just past the auto repair shop, there was a large flatbed trailer with 6 or 8 bins that were maybe 3′ square. Each bin was full of papayas. I had seen the sign a few days earlier, so there was no telling how long the trailer had been there, and many of these papays were a bit over ripe. On the end of the trailer was a metal box about 6” square with a slot in the top for you to put your money in, but there was nobody around. We were able to sort through and find 4 decent ones, and slide a dollar into the box.
Back at the property, I cut more of the 2 x 4’s for flooring on the porch along with a few more wall supports before it started to rain about mid afternoon.
Sunday 8/29
I poured a small (16″ x 24″) concrete slab under the shed for the solar system batteries. Moving them out of the shed will give a little more room inside and any fumes they give off will also be outside. I used my concrete stamp I created to simulate lava as the surface. I will place wood on top of this concrete for the batteries, as it is not good to place batteries directly on the concrete. I will also build a box around them to conceal them.
I cut the last 2 x 4 as supports in the walls for the tin siding. I only need two more. Then we went back to the ocean.
We drove through the gate north of Whittington Beach Park and out to the ocean end, but turned right and headed a few hundred yards back towards the park. We found a place where we could pick our way down through the lava to a small lagoon/tidepool about 50 feet across and 3 feet or so deep.
The waves crashed against the rocks that are about 100 yards off shore, and then gently wash into this area. The rocks are very slippery here so it took some effort to get in, but once we were in, it was quite nice. We spent a couple of hours here and then headed back to the property – stopping in Naalehu to get ice.
To be continued . . . .
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 