[ Home | Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Philip Boroughs
Date: 2/4/2004
Time: 10:29:21 PM
Remote Name: 172.144.187.24
There exist places in this world which can not only change a person by the experience itself, but also to change the person far away from the experience. For myself,the memory of one such place not onlyentices the sense, but brings a comforting solice, a place left behind in my memory. My brother guy had moved to Hawaii in march of 2002, a favorite destination of mine already. over that semester i decided to try something new formyself.That summer i decided to visit, which ended up being more than a visit. Acting on impulse i bought a ticket one way and decided to return in my own good time. my destination was a place called Makaha on the island of oahu. The sight of waikiki and Honolulu is synanamous with hawaii, particlarly oahu. on the other side of the island, there is a much different Hawaii. in this place you can really find the true spirit of the islands, detached from the tourist traps and cliches. its difficult to describe as words do little justice for such a place, but i will try none the less. This is what would be called the countryside of hawaii, you will find no hotels or the familiar restaurant, and the rarest site is a visitor. Makaha is a valley which rises against the sea, very dry with volcanic cliffs on either side of the valley 3000ft high. there are few roads, and at the end of the road,is literally the end of civilization. i hiked many times into the mountains, the higher you go you pass through many different worlds almost. At the base there is desert, after an hour or two of walking you'll find lush rainforest, and the abscence of another human being. one eventful afternoon I tested the limits and decided not to stop until i could go no farther.
at the end of the trail you cannot see past the trees in front of you, everything has a familiarity about to it, feeling as if you've been there before. Eventually the jungle recedes from a break in the sky revealing a place which i can best describe only as "Pure beauty", it seemed almost the essence of nature itself, an unspoken testament to the symmetry of nature. from all directions the other mountains and peaks intersect, for many miles green peaks dominate the sky revealing deep valleys and black rock bruhsed against the landscape.a deep chasm into the earth, teeming with all colors and shapes that nature can be percieved by man. i cannot say with any degree of certainty how long i stood in tht place, absent of all thought and expression before i realized something which escaped me earlier. A sensation I had never felt, somewhere between joy elation and wonder, a feeling i have not found since that moment. i could visibly see for five miles in any direction, and yet sound was completely absent. Manmade sound was absent, no planes which usually flew close by, no birds, not even a breeze. Until one sound became discernable, a low hum which made the air vibrate around me. Fora moment it was as if the earth itself was making noise, almost speaking to me, it was a sound i have found only in that place, deep in the valley of the gods. I could have stayed a lifetime it seemed, but eventually I wanted to head home before darkness fell again. So I made my way down eventually coming across an old utility road the army built in world war II for one of the observation posts, long overgrown as the jungle slowly claimed it. after a few minutes i noticed something on the other side of the curve in the road. at first it was only a figure, then several, the closer i came i realized they were wearing camoflauge. At this point i began to worry fearing i had tresspassed onto military land by accident. once i got closer it was apparent these were not military servicemen, but locals armed with assault rifles and assorted handguns. i didntwant to make my situation worse by leaving the road so I decided to keep walking to whatever awaited at the end of the road. all this hapened in only fifteen seconds but seemed far longer, until the group spotted me. when we got face to face they smiled and said hello, even offered me a drink which seemed to be homemade whiskey. We talked for a bit, and were curious about me, saying almost no one came to hike there, let alone a caucasion from the mainland. they warned me not to go too far off the trails saying it was very dangerous due to all the marijuana fields which grow in the mountains, and people that find them usually dont return. As a final gesture of good will my new acquantices didnt want anything bad to happen to me on my way back. So three of them, well armed might i add walked me back to the trail which would take me home. Once i was in a safe spot to head back we parted ways and wished the others goodbye. Finally i came out of the clearing and back into the modern world as a different person, forever attached to that time and place. To the one perfect place i've found in this life, and hopefully will return again.
didnt mean for it to be so long but i thought i would at least make the experience clear. Hawaii is one of my favorite places to visit, this particular experience, cannot be exceeded by any other. Philip