Kauai North Coast

So one day we spent doing waterfalls on the east side of the island and then the north coasts...

Kauai waterfall and pool

Waialeale...the big one...see below

Not the rainiest place on earth, by inches of precip, but by

number of annual days of precip...360

Kilauea Lighthouse

We drove up around the top, shopped at Hanipepe, and visited

the beginning of the Kalalau Trail and the Na Pali coast

Norm and I got as far as the half mile marker; enough,

considering...

The view back down the trail; although it had rained lately,

the trail did not seem nearly as slippery as in February, 2009,

the last time I was on it; nor was I carrying all our

backpacking stuff...

Looking toward the Na Pali and more of the trail; I have some

seriously conflicting feelings about this place...

One of the big wet caves near the beginning of the trail

Return To Rooster Island

So we are on Cow Eye with Norm and Marie, guests of Bob and Beth, at a time-share on the east coast of the island, at Kapa'a. The time-share is right on the water, and we have a great view of the breakers, reef, paddle boarding, etc., from the balcony. Also the rain. Vicki and I spent a week or more here in 2009, doing all the sights, the Kalalau Trail, etc., and I devoted half a dozen posts to Rooster Island back then (search Kauai). So now I have more pix of all this, but I'll spare you, Gentle Reader, these updates. With one exception.

From what we have seen over the past 3 days, the feral fowl population of Kauai has diminished a bit. But one still doesn't have to go very far to find them. Any public place or parking lot will do. Apparently the departments of health and sanitation have done some Avian Flu preparedness drills and thus raised consciousness, if there was any.

A typical specimen; not an endangered species, as they say

So we are at a beach on the south coast near Poopie-Poopie or somesuch when 
there is a great flutterment among the fowl, all making a mad dash, a veritable 
stampede, for the pick-up that has just arrived. Apparently they know this guy.
The back of his truck is loaded with foods scraps, scoured no doubt from the 
dumpsters of the thousands of condos that line the coast here. At first I thought 
he was a county employee, distributing specially-doctored feed to the cluckers. 
(In Venice, they have brought the pigeon population under control by feeding 
them grain laced with sterilizing agents). But no, he was just a kind soul, with 
a special affection and compassion for poultry. "They are homeless, and 
someone has to feed them," he said in response to my innocent query. Obviously 
he hasn't been watching the Republican "debates." "Let him die!"

A homeless family feasts on Cheerios; family values among poultry are still 
pretty strong, despite these tough times

Ground-level view of chicken feed

After the chicken feed, Mr. Compassion turns his attention to a couple of  possibly 
homeless tourist cuties

And some extended hitting on the chicks; compassionately

In any case, the rooster notoriety has become big money here, and I doubt the 
poultry population will decline much more; at least until the pandemic...

Not pictured: Lihue, Kapa'a (Kapa'a Shores), assorted forgettable waterfalls, Anahola, Princeville (ick!), Hanalei, Wainiha Bay, Wet and Dry Caves (and moist caves), Kalalau Trail, Na Pali Coast, Mt. Waialeale, Poipu, the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hanapepe, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, Kalalau Lookout, Salt Pond Beach, Waimea, and more. See the previous Kauai posts. Maybe I'll do a Kauai out-takes post some day. 

California Quotidian, II

So it's been nearly two months since I last posted--the Everest trek retrospective--and I thought I'd do an update. The interesting thing is that pageviews for the blog have gone way up since I last posted, more than 5000 a month. Maybe there's a message here....

Anyhow, we're due to leave soon for a 10 day trip to the Sandwich Islands, first Kauai--"Return to Rooster Island"--and then on to Maui, a place new to us. Then we'll be "home for the holidays."

Of course most of our quotidian is with grand-daughter

Penelope, now a lively 7-month-old; in our 4 months with her

she has learned to sit up, roll-over, crawl, pull herself up on

anything within her grasp, and cruise; she seems to enjoy

nothing so much as being walked around the apartment,

taking everything in; although she smiles abundantly and

squeals with delight, she has yet to laugh, except on the most

isolated and inexplicable occasions; I have tried everything...

Her first holiday season began with Halloween;

she is, I believe, a frog; here she is with her

Mom, dressed up as Minerva McGonagall

The Castilleja staff is really into Harry Poppins

We have been up to "the city" several times, for concerts of

the San Francisco Symphony and also a performance by the

San Francisco Opera of Carmen, a gift from Rebecca, which

I much enjoyed

The holidays continued with Bob and Beth's visit and

Thanksgiving dinner at Rebecca and Jeremy's

You wouldn't believe what a well-behaved little

pre-toddler she is, sitting through the lengthy

holiday meals with nothing but smiles

It helps that she and her mom are exponents of "baby-led

weaning" and she loves to sit at the big table and munch along

with the grown-ups; at this age, at least, she is quite fond of

broccoli; broccoli clumps have convenient handles for tiny

fingers...

Early in December Vicki's sister Marie and husband Norm

came to visit; one of our trips was down the coast from Half

Moon Bay to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz

And on down the Big Sur to Nepenthe

And, another day, the Stanford campus, and

the Hoover Tower, where I gained new

appreciation for Herbert Hoover; a man of

his compassion could never be a Republican

these days; but then neither could Abraham

Lincoln...nor Ronald Reagan, for that matter

One view from the Tower of the sprawling 8200 acre Stanford

campus

Looking north to "the city"; our little cottage is actually just a

few blocks from the tower center-right

Everest Trek Out-Takes, 4

And now, the exciting conclusion of Everest Trek Out-Takes...

Over-all, the trail is really quite good, stepped in many
places; it has been used for centuries and even now is the
main route of supply for the Khumbu, tread by trekkers and
tourists, but also by villagers and hundreds of porters, yaks,
zopkios, and even a few horses; there is no wheeled travel,
however; the only wheels you see after Namche Bazaar are
prayer wheels

And much of it is lined with culture; Mingma, our Sherpa
guide, had excellent English, kept us safe and well-
informed, and answered all our many questions about
the land, its people, religions, customs, history, flora, fauna,
and much more

Back finally in Namche Bazaar, in time for its weekly market

Why you don't want to order yak or beef above Namche...

And why you don't want to fly in to Namche; the place is
a graveyard of aircraft, including this Russian helicopter,
in which a couple dozen people died

And then there is the on-going Tibetan market, goods
hauled over the Nangpa La, the route to Tibet, with a
21,000 foot pass; Chinese customs folk evidently look
the other way (or are avoided) and the prices are pretty
good (we surmised)

A trader's tent in the Tibetan market; note solar panel

So after a few days' rest in Namche, at the Hotel Norling
(a guest-house), warmth, hot showers (our first in weeks),
some better food, and even some beer, we continued on
to Lukla and the flight back to Kat

Khanza, our porter; we hope we treated him with dignity
and generosity

Vicki and Mingma at the Lukla airport, Vicki sporting her
trophy Everest pashmina

We flew out stand-by and had a few hours' opportunity to
observe landings and take-offs and bolster our confidence

Typically terraced terrain between Lukla and Kathmandu

And so there we are, back in the comfort of the Gokarna
Forest Sheraton, outside Kat, tired, hurting, but pleased
and proud of doing our Everest trek

Everest Trek Out-Takes, 3

Continuing the series...

Trail toward Thukla, memorial cairns and shrines all around

At Lobuche, the inn was full, and we ended up spending
the night in this (rented) tent, literally in the yak corral; a
cold and sleepless night, with the yak bells jingling all
night long

In the guest-house/restaurant at Lobuche we found a large
and friendly French party, enjoying pastis, cheese and
sausage--national honor to uphold--before ordering the
rather bland local fare

Speaking of which: click to enlarge and see a representative
guest-house menu (from a favorite, Mr. T's Yak Lodge in
Thukla)

Ditto; I ate a lot of dahl bhat during those 3 weeks, plus
eggs, toast and frites; Vicki would try the "pizza" and
"spaghetti" and such things, inevitably to be disappointed;
"pizza" =a round of flat bread, drizzled with catsup and
sprinkled with cheese flakes of uncertain origin, served
warm; lots and lots of tea, and no alcohol...but it works
and is do-able, especially after you learn the routine and
remember to use your Steri-Pen liberally

We did it! After Thukla and Lobuche comes
Gorak Shep, at 18,000 feet, and the trudge up
a ridge of Pumori to the place known as Kala
Pattar, the closest you can get to see Everest
without being on it; the mountain has been
hidden from view since Tengboche and can
not be seen from either Gorak Shep or the
base camp...

But then, as you trudge up Kala Pattar, it's
suddenly in your face, still 3 miles away and
two vertical miles up; you are just as close to
Lhotse and Nuptse and Pumori and other
giants, but this is the view you can't take
your eyes off

Closer up

Vicki plants a few prayer flags (and brought
a few back to adorn our RV and now our
cottage)

But then there's the way back down, first to Gorak Shep,
where it was 32 degrees inside the guest-house when we
left for Kala Pattar at 6 AM; and then more than a week
walking back to Lukla; by this time Vicki was sick, I had
already been sick but mostly recovered; at least on the
walk down you don't have to take acclimatization days, and
it's mostly down-hill

A few days later we were back in Tengboche, having dinner
with two American climbers headed up, when there was a
commotion in the dining room, everyone grabbing his or
her camera and rushing out the door; it had been a cloudy
day--our first on the trek--but then there was a hole in the
clouds and beautiful alpineglow on Everest, an unforgettable
sight