Friday, April 15, 2005

Last day on Kauai

Na Pali is at the westernmost end of Kauai. It's where the oldest rocks are and where the most beautiful cliffs are. It's the most important thing to see on Kauai. On Monday (our last day), we took a sunset cruise from Port Allen on the south coast round to Na Pali.



The cliffs are beyond spectacular - those shown here are about 1500 feet high. It's hard to grasp the size until you see something familiar. We saw a number of goats at various places along the cliffs but they don't show up well in our photographs. In the photo of me, note the white blob at the top of the cliff - that's a radar antenna of about 50 by 30 feet.

The best time to see Na Pali is probably in the late afternoon when the sunlight is low across the cliffs:



These valleys were evidently full of people about 600 years ago but are deserted now. In the thirties there was a school on a beach here accessible only from the sea. Children from the valleys around and from the two islands to the west were educated at the school house that still stands just yards from the sea.

This is the biggest valley - about two miles across.



Coming back we saw quite a few whales and some dolphins. Boats aren't allowed to go within 100 yards of whales so it's not so easy to see them but the the dolphins came up very close to the boat and swam along just in front of the bow. I was perched right above them and had a wonderful view:



We also saw a monkseal (from a long ways away), a couple of flying fish and a few different types of birds.

Finally, here is Judi with the sunset.



Tim

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those are some incredible pictures, especially the 2nd and 3rd ones. I love the shadow play on the mountainous terrain, it's weird to see mountains with grass on them though. I forgot what the time difference is, so if you could email me, we could set up a time to talk or something.
Love, Gavin