Hawaii - The Big Island - Part 1

in travel •  7 years ago 

 Before I went to Vietnam, some friends talked me into going to the big island of Hawaii first.  And from there flying to Vietnam.  It had a good ring to it.  Hitchhike around the big island for a couple of weeks before heading to my first foreign country.

I had forgotten though, how rusty my hitchhiking thumb was.  That’s not because I’m predisposed to arthritis either.  In my late twenties my hitchhiking adventures tapered off greatly then stopped.

I landed at the Kona airport at night, walked south towards Kona, and found a place to camp that wasn’t jagged lava rock.  My first morning on the island I was woke by the bite of a centipede on my elbow.  It felt like a hot fire flash through my arm with a pain a bit more intense than a bee sting.  I don’t think I’ve ever woken up and gotten out of my sleeping bag faster than I did that day.

I remember my first day I met some hostile young locals.  An extremely hostile homeless man who I thought was going to start fighting me.  I got within 50 feet of “his spot” at a public park and said “Excuse me sir, you know what is down this way?”.  But I finally found an OK couple of home-bums down along the beach that let me camp next to them.

One thing my hitchhiking adventures taught me was that if a trip started out rough, it was going to be a lot smoother in the long run.  It all seems to run in cycles, and if the rough part gets over with in the beginning, it can be smooth sailing for a while.  My own made up road religion.

My first week was spent in Kona and hitchhiking around the island.  I met up with a guy on couchsurfing and we hitched down to “South Point” to jump off the cliff.  Terrifying but equally awesome.

We saw Green Sand Beach.  This is when I found out that your hands can sunburn.  Everything can sunburn.  I was warned about that, but living outside a lot in the continental US I thought I knew better and was “hardened” to living outside.

My favorite time in Hawaii was camping by myself 10 miles from the road in Volcano National Park.  A guy picked me up and said that there was a back-country campsite in the park that was his favorite place on the island.  It was the park's anniversary that day and there was no entry fee.  I said I’d love to go, but i need to get some more food first.  He handed me a few cans of food and an avocado the likes of which I’d never seen in my life.

With that, I got a few maps, signed in at the back-country spot, and caught a ride to the trail head.  The hike down the side of the volcano was a bit rough.  A lot of pounding the knees.  I did my usual routine before leaving for a physically demanding hitchhiking adventure….playing tons of video games at my parent’s house.  My legs were really angry at me.

I stayed there 2 nights and 1 full day.  It was magical to say the least.  I had the place all to myself almost the entire time.  I even figured out how to open coconuts with a $1 Walmart pocket knife and a rock.  That stretched out my food a little longer.  I consequently learned that eating 4 coconuts in one day is more than my body wants.

On the 3rd day at Volcano National Park I made my way to Hilo, decided it is wayyyyyyyyy to wet there for me to be sleeping outside, hitched back to Kona, then coincidentally met another person on the couchsurfing website.
 

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Amazing! Thanks for sharing your adventures in Hawaii! Would love to visit the Green Sand Beach someday ;) Great to have you here on Steemit! Keep up, mate.

Thanks @wild-forest! I appreciate that. You should do it. I forgot to mention there is like a 1-2 mile dirt road in terrible condition. We walked there and hitchhiked back. There are also locals that drive you there for cash.

@kingoftime - delegated you a bit of SP - hope it is useful to you. Cheers.

Thank you thank you @soma909

Great post like always. I really liked the pic of the white tree thing. It looks really dope. Also congrats on your first viral post.

Thanks @lewik. I've been enjoying your art. And yeah, that tree was amazing. Did it go viral-ish?

Awesome post, from writing to beautiful photos. Keep up the good work! I would suggest you to avoid bold font in the future. We can all read in the normal font. :) welcome to steemit and cheers!

@svemirac Thanks so much. I'm new and the positive feedback really means a lot. I'm very happy people enjoyed this. Thanks for letting me know about the bold font. Honestly I was so absorbed in making sure the writing was ok and the pictures were the right size and how to center them that it completely slipped my mind. I'll pay more attention on my next post. I hope each one gets better.

There are a few good posts about using steemit markdown (which confused me at first because I am used to markup coding!)

I'm new to all of this. HTML editing, STEEMIT, crypto, the likes. I'll make a note to look that up. Thank you @soma909

No problem - you actually don't need to use much HTML. I'll post a link to the markdown explainer soon if you can't find one.

https://steemit.com/@juliank

Buried in here is a good one for incorporating text and photos.

Thanks so much @soma909!

Like👌👌👌👌👌

Thank you thank you. Much appreciated.

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