Wednesday, October 2, 2013

September 19

Day 6

Today we are slated to take the Outfitters Kauai Kayak trip to secret falls which has a 7:45 meeting time. Thankfully we are just a five minute walk from the Outfitters office so there is time for me to get our now traditional pancake breakfast cooked and consumed before we have to head out.

I did this years ago when secret falls still had a bit of mystery to it. There were no guided tours then you simply rented a kayak and they gave you a laminated trail map to guide you to the falls. It's much different today. Even if you went the route of renting a kayak on your own by the time you reach secret falls you'll be sharing it with many other vacationers.

We meet our guides for the day. Kevin and Nick. As usually happens with groups there is someone that is late so we get a late start but soon we are loading the van and we are off to the Wailua river.


The trip up river is smooth and Nick offers to take our picture and gives us a gift of a selfie to boot.


The paddle upstream is an easy one and soon after we take a right at the river fork we beach the kayaks to start the short hike to "Secret Falls".

The trail is quite muddy and you do have one stream crossing that is a little over knee deep but there is a rope across the stream for you to hang on with.

This leads me to an observation and a piece of advise. People if you are going to hike on Kauai be prepared for mud and slippery conditions. Don't wear flip flops. You are going to get muddy and you do want some traction. I was kind of chuckling at the divas wearing flip flops and then not wanting to walk through the mud.  Seriously wear the right stuff, water shoes or tabis are best. The worst thing that can happen is that you get injured and have to limit your activity because you didn't protect your feet.

The hike to the falls is slippery and muddy but it is not a long hike. You crest a hill and scramble down some rocks and are at the secret falls. So are a bunch of other tour groups. There is even a dude playing the Ukulele!!
Not exactly how I remembered this but no biggie, there's enough to go around I suppose.
There are many people lunching and we find a place to sit on the rocks and break out our Outfitters lunch of one Turkey and one Veggie wrap. They also come with a serving of pasta salad and a cookie. I am eating my cookie first cause I'm a grown up and I can.
The falls are just a trickle today and not very picture worthy.

Still I am in Kauai and I am doing everything so once I finish lunch its in for a swim. I dunk my head under the slowing flowing falls and get cooled off a bit.

 Once our swim stop is over we hike back along the same trail to the place were we beached our kayaks earlier. We turn the boats around and head back down the river towards the Pacific ocean.

This paddle spreads out the group much more as you are now going against the wind and it requires a little more effort than the morning paddle upstream did.
We had one couple that needed assistance from the guides as they were being blown across the river and they want you to stay on the left side in order to not collide with the Smith boats that are shuttling people to fern grotto.

I consider myself lucky. My Girlfriend is an excellent paddler. Some people in the front of a kayak try to steer and that causes you to go up river like a drunken duck.
We finish the paddle down river and cool sometime waiting for the group to form up again so we can cross the river back to our original launching point.

Soon we are back on dry land loading up the kayaks and gear for the trip back to the Outfitters office in Poipu. On the drive back Nick displays his local food knowledge quoting prices and describing food in extensive detail. One of the things he described was a half grass fed beef/half pork shoulder burger topped with pork belly caramelized onions and cheddar cheese. What!! Beef, Pork, and Belly - the gods must be crazy. Anyhow the burger is available at a place in Lihue called the Feral Pig only it's not on the menu? Say what? Yes you have to ask for the Feral burger. Ok we file this nugget for future use as we have ribeye steak marinating in our fridge.

On the walk home we detour into Lapperts for some Ice cream. Well we actually got gelato. They had a nice dark chocolate and a sea salt caramel. So delicious. Never again on the shave ice, never again.

We head back home and visit with the turtles some more

 We saw lots of turtles this evening  and we decided that we would try to snorkel in the cove. Once we got in the water the visibility was near zero due to the silt coming down from the stream and it wasn't fair to the turtles. The last thing we wanted was to disturb them. We saw people getting too close to them causing them to move off the rocks. We wanted to share space with them but not scare them. All our close photos are with zoom. I am happy to say we never made a turtle move.

When we go back upstairs I notice a voice mail on my phone. It's a message from North Shore charters telling us that our Napali cruise for tomorrow is canceled.
I give them a call back and since our schedule is pretty tight I can't really entertain changing the Napali cruise to another day.
It's onto trip advisor to find a replacement Napali cruise for tomorrow. Read Capt. Andy's reviews and give them a call. They have a 4hr Zodiac type inflatable cruise leaving at 7:30 tomorrow just west of Waimea so we book it. This is the minimalist cruise, no lunch, sit on the pontoons and get wet - it's perfect!!

For dinner this evening we had a BBQ with the Rib eye we bought some purple sweet potatoes and a beet salad. Everything was wonderful and we enjoyed the cooler evening breezes on the balcony.
After dinner we cut into the Mango Lilokoi pie and all I can say is WOW!
This lady at Right slice sure does know her way around a pie. This pie is packed with mango. It has tons of flavor, isn't at all soggy. It's just out of this world good.
We try out the hot tub on the lanai before heading off to bed as we've got to get up early for the Napali cruise.

1 comment:

  1. Another great day on Kauai. Next time you're there, try the lilikoi chiffon pie from Hamura Saimin! As well as more Right Slice pie!

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