Black and Green Sand Beaches

Monday we planned to drive down to South Point, but after re-reading the travel guide, we found 'The Road to the Sea' which we thought we'd been on Sunday.  Leonard read that the route we tried wasn't doable (I concur) and we'd obviously taken a wrong turn.  This time we found it and decided to save South Point for another day.

It definitely was a 4 wheel drive only road - some 6 miles long - very rough, and as advertised very straight if you didn't count the zigs and zags around rocks and holes.  Supposedly this is why we rented a Jeep since a standard car wouldn't up to the task (and would cancel the contract), so we kept going, very slowly, in low gear much of the time.  I suspected it might be a bit easier going down hill and wondered what the return trip would be like (1500' down to sea level and back).  It was amazing to see several houses along the way, obviously off the grid, and then several big pieces of machinery sitting at what must be a potential work site even further down the track - how did they get building materials and these big vehicles down on this track?

We didn't time the trip down, but averaging under 10MPH it must have taken an hour.  We found the beach, and had been joined by 4 folks in another Jeep by the time we got there.  With a high surf warning in effect since Sunday and winds 20-25, the waves were rolling in - we had no intention of going for a swim, much less trying to snorkel, but it was fun to watch the waves.  In several places they splashed spray and foam over the rocks giving us a fine misting of salt water - we'd arrived a few hours before high tide.

Watching the surf roll in

 While I was poking along the rocks and beach, Leonard watched an extended cab truck drive up the steep sand hill by the beach.  He was all for trying it, although he admitted the guy had to work to get up through the loose sand.  Instead of following suit, he picked another very rocky track on depicted on the map, and we ended up on  the other beach.  Leonard was having the time of his life, enjoying every moment while I had some very white knuckles.

Panorama of the beach area - the sand hill furthest back is the one we slid down click here for detail (the bottom is behind the hill in front, so it was steeper than it appears) 

When we left, Leonard couldn't resist taking the track down the sand hill - with a big grin on his face.  I would have taken a picture, but didn't think I'd get more than a blur given the constant motion.  The guide book mentioned Mahana Beach, another beach to the west, worth the effort and reached by driving through a yellow gate, but then commented the track was rougher and suggested the prudent thing to do was walk the mile past the gate.

Panorama of Mahama Beach  click here for more detail

Detail of the green bushes above - flowers looked like bead work

With the sun behind some clouds and a stiff wind blowing, walking wasn't bad, and the road was as advertised, rough.  Leonard thought the Jeep could have handled it, but I wasn't so sure.  We had that beach to ourselves, although at just about high tide, there wasn't much beach to walk.  These beaches had black and green sand thanks to the amount of olivine, a semi precious gem in the rocks, and both were listed as 'real gems' in the guide book, and were worth the rough ride to see them. Unfortunately our photo of the green sand didn't make the cut.

If you look closely, you can see flecks of olivine in the rocks larger specimens are rare

As we slowly made our way back to civilization, we met another Jeep heading down.  The driver, an older guy who appeared to be a local, suggested we take an alternate, less bumpy, route out, turning onto a track through 2 white posts just before the hill where the track got a lot rougher.  When we got to the posts, the hill looked pretty daunting, so we took his suggestion.  The road was smoother, but it ended at a locked gate.  There was a very rough track going up the hill just before the gate, but by then we figured it was wiser to stick with the familiar.  If we made it down, we should make it back up and we retraced our tracks.

6 miles of rough track!

By the time we made it back to the farm, we were both exhausted and more than ready to call it a day.  I guess 5 plus hours of  sunshine, stress and wind will do that to a person.  With several more days until we depart, we'll have time to explore the other places that look interesting..