We woke to the sound of rain hitting the clear plastic, corrugated roof of our bedroom. The sun was coming up and the room came alive with light. It must have been raining for several hours. We packed our bags, because we didn’t know if we were coming back. I took a cold shower. The hot water heater was not working. But it was awesome to shower out in the open in a rainforest!
We had to drive the Hana Highway to the crater for today’s activity. I followed someone who obviously had driven the road before. I started to master the technique of mashing the gas after you started around a sharp corner and mashing the brakes when we came to the next corner. I’m really starting to like this road. Kim was not happy with my new technique.
We arrived just in time to start the crater ride with the Pony Express tours. The tour started at the rim of the Haleakala Crater. Our guide Ra sized us up and selected a horse to carry our weight. He led us over the rim and down to the crater floor. He would stop periodically to tell us about the crater or the plant life. He also watched for any problems. He would adjust stirrups or saddles for people having problems.
The crater was formed 145,000 years ago and probably last erupted about 500 years ago. Inside the crater, there are several smaller cones from later eruptions after the big crater was formed. The colors inside are multi-colored, but red seems to be the most common. Ra got us to the bottom safely. We had a lunch and short break to get our knees to work again. We had an easier and quicker time going up.
Neither Kim nor I had been on horseback for this amount of time. It was a great experience to go into the crater and not do the walking ourselves. However, we did get saddle sore and have sore knees when we were done, but it was worth it!
I wanted to put on some sunscreen before we started, but I thought that because I was in long pants and a long sleeve shirt, I would be OK. Nope, Kim and I got sunburn on the back of both hands!
After an animated discussion, it was decided that we would go back for another night at the treehouse. Kim was going to have to buck-it-up for another night. She was not happy.
Because it seems to rain a lot here, everything was damp. However, the bedding seemed to be OK. They must change it a lot. We used up all of the matches last night and had to wait almost a half hour in the dark before one of the managers brought down some more. We were tired and fell asleep early.
No comments:
Post a Comment