While perusing The Googles, this title
from ABC News caught my eye:
Men Survive 100 Foot Cliff Plunge In Maui
Instantly, I knew
where this was.
It had to be the same cliff side road
we got stuck on back in 2008.
Before you tell me it's just the Road
To Hana and it's not that bad, guess what? It's not the Road To
Hana. This
is something out of Indiana Jones.
This stretch of lethal dirt is on the
opposite side of Maui, and runs along the North Shore.
Hubby, Daughter and I started off in
Lahaina, and figured we'd take a nice leisurely drive along the
coast. Beautiful day, gorgeous view of the ocean.
After passing all the resorts, we kept
driving. We'll just see where the road goes. How could that possibly
go wrong, right?
Most of this road is two lanes and
nicely paved. It starts out as the Honoapiilani Highway, running
along a perfectly safe looking coastal view. Then there's a sign that
says “highway ends”, the road winds to the right, and then a more
sinister sign that reads “Narrow Road”.
This is where the Kahekili “Highway”
begins.
For us though, it will always be known
as “Dirt Road”.
At this point, there is no way to turn
around, so you have to keep going and hope the car doesn't slide off
the cliff (there is NO guardrail for most of it), and pray no one is
coming in the other direction.
We found out later that if someone IS
coming in the other direction, the local etiquette is that the person
going uphill has to back down to the bottom of the hill. There's
usually some kind of widening of the road there, making it possible
to pass.
It wasn't until we got a few miles in,
that I checked the map the car rental agency gave us. There was our road,
highlighted in bright red, with the notice “driving on this
road may invalidate your car rental agreement”.
Well, yay.
Finally the road opened up with a small area to pull off and take in
the view. There was also a shave ice stand inside an old school bus.
I used the opportunity to get some fresh air and kiss mother Earth.
Then we turned around and cautiously made our way back.
By the way, the Kahekili Highway is named after the Hawaiian Chief
Kahekili, who was such a badass that he built houses from the skulls
of his enemies. Which seems to suit that road perfectly.
Don't believe me? There's dozens of videos on YouTube if you search
for “Kahekili Maui”.
Here's the best one, because it's short, and begins almost exactly
where the it turns into “Dirt Road”. I laughed out loud the first
time I watched it because the couple in this video are having the
exact same conversation Hubby and I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment