Kalalau Beach

Once we landed on Kalalau Beach we snagged the closest camping spot (under a grove of gnarly trees) and set up camp.  Well, no.  The boots came off first.  I set up camp barefoot.  I'm sure no one is surprised.  :)

We were losing light since it was about 5:30 in the evening so we decided to just take it easy and relax on the beach and wait for sunset (beautiful).  We had decided to stick around the following day and then to do the 11 miles back all the following day as opposed to splitting up the trip back.  After all, there was no more hiking after that - just relaxing.  After sunset we went back to the tent, browsed through pictures on the camera, and read a little bit since I don't feel the need to cut out necessities - books - like some ultralight hikers.  The sound of the waves felt as if it was on top of us as we tried to fall asleep. I  woke up at one point convinced the shoreline had moved to just outside our tent.

The next morning we woke up early and groaned collectively at our sore muscles.  We decided that the farthest we would travel the next day was the end of the beach - the Kalalau Falls/Valley were out of our reach.  I suppose that's a reason to go back someday.  Except I'll be kayaking that one with a full complement of cooking supplies.

We stationed ourselves on the beach for the morning - camera, books, and removable cast all in tow.  Drew dug a trench, because men just have to dig.  Imagine us on an adjustable bed with the headrest and footrest raised.  Which bodes well for those who lay on their back (Drew) and not for those who lay on their stomach (Brandy).  We read for a while like that and listened as the few others in the campground woke up and meandered down towards the water.  I pondered the fact that I felt like I was in Jurassic Park the way the fins of rock came right down to the beach. About an hour later I happened to be looking out at the water and saw a stream of spray - a whale blowing water!  :)  They were really close to shore, and stayed there for a bit throwing flippers and clearing their blowholes.  Later that day I would see one, way off to the right of the beach, clear the water in a jump and come crashing down in the waves.

After a while of beaching we went back to camp, ate, and then wandered down towards the other end of the beach.  At one point on the narrow trail we came upon a woman (fully clothed) hightailing it in our direction.  We tried to step out of her way, and instead of whizzing by she handed us a cinnamon roll.  Hot cinnamon roll.  She said something to the effect of, "Fresh from the oven - share!  Bye!" and picked up speed again headed towards the beach.  Drew and I sort of looked at each other, briefly contemplated wether to eat it or not, and then dug in.  And it was amazing...and we incurred no side effects.  :)  I can only imagine they had come directly from a little stone oven she'd built at her site to produce homemade baked goods. 

We found out on our way back to the other end of the beach that it had been a pizza extravaganza the night before produced by the same stone oven.  And wouldn't you know, I looked down at the trail and discovered a cherry tomato.  The more I looked, the more I saw.  I guess this is how they were creating their famous barter-worthy pizza sauce.

We stayed up for another beautiful sunset, made a water run in the waning light and ran across a whole herd of wild goats (they were amazing, and so loud, reaffirmed the whole Jurassic Park feeling, and didn't remotely care that we were there), and then made our way back to the tent.  Knowing it would be an early morning, we tried to get what sleep we could to the sound of the surf lapping at our tent (okay, not really, but it sounded like it).