As promised the rest of the Manta diving story:
The night dive is kind of a tourist attraction: all dive operators come with divers and snorkelers and bring lots of lights. Crates of them on the bottom shining up, and surfboards on the surface with lots of light mounted on them shining down. On the bottom all divers sit in large circles on the bottom around these lights, and on the surface the snorkelers hang on to the surfboards: giving the Manta's lots of space to roam about.
The effect of using all these lights is that it attracts the plankton, which in turn attracts the Manta's: lots of people, lots of Manta's. Seeing this surreal night time ballet was amazing, but all in all I again have mixed feelings about this dive. Attracting the Manta's is not really natural, and having all the people sit on the ground really destroys the reef. However, I think this is the best possible compromise: having all these people all over the reefs will damage lots of places, in this way it is only one site that is damaged, the people go home happy having seen Manta's and the Manta's go home happy (oh no wait, they're home already) because they have had their bellies filled again. And all the operators go happy having earned some cash from the divers.
Sitting on the ground while diving was totally awkward and very difficult for me: I'm used to controlling my buoyancy, and never touching anything, as a good diver should. Trying to sit down, even with maximum deflated vest was awkward, and due to the waves we were being pushed back and forth, constantly bumping into rocks. Also, where to put your legs? You have fins on, you want your legs outstretched as far as possible so that you can push off against the current, but there's rocks everywhere... haha, and try to keep track of all this while you are enjoying the incredible Manta's all around you: interesting dive :). Anyway, I wouldn't want to have missed it and seeing these Manta's was an amazing experience! More footage (this time at 'night') below:
All the 'dust' you see in front of the camera is actually plankton: the stuff the Manta's are here to eat. If you would hold your lamp still for a certain time a little cloud of plankton would swarm above it: really cool to see.
The day after the night dive I had planned a roadtrip. Due to the late nightdive, I didn't get up as early as I had wanted and ended up leaving at around 11:00. The target was the Volcanoes national park: where there is a lava lake, and occasionally you can see lava flow into the ocean (not this year though). There is also a site where lavaflows have crossed the road, which I really wanted to get in a picture. However, first I will have to drive for 2 hours: Big island is so incredibly big! I expected to drive alongside the ocean, and when not, to see a lot of great views. However, the road is kind of boring, most of the time you don't have views and when you do there wasn't really much to see (and it was quite hazy). There were some notable things along the route though, which you can see on the pictures below.
I picked up a hitchhiker along the way... some stinky guy who had stranded in Hawaii 20 years ago and was doing all kinds of chores to stay alive. He just got back from a hardware shop where he had gotten a replacement head for his gas strimmer... he was earning some money by mowing someone's lawn. He told me some interesting things to see on Big Island though: Green Sand beach. I saved the coordinates in the GPS, dropped him off and moved on.
What the roads did remind me of was the World Solar Challenge in Australia. Kind of the same landscape as in the North of Australia, and also long straight hilly roads. Some of you might be able to find the picture of the WSC that really resembles this one:
After 2,5 hours of driving I finally arrives at the Volcanoes National Park: also my first contact with the USA style National Parks: They seem to be (over)organizes as some kind of theme park. Gates, visitors centers, parking lots, talks, video's, guided walks, pffft. I am used to parks being unkept wildernesses! After getting a map, and checking out which roads are closed due to SO2 and lava I plan a route: first see the big crater, and then drive along crater road to the Thurston Cave, some more craters and the final destination: the lava fields across the road on the beachside.
First downer: the view of the big crater is all hazy, and you can see a little smoke, but not the Lava (you can on the Lava-cam in the visitors center though). Also it is very busy, so I snap some pictures and move on. In my memory the volcanoe crater we saw on Java was much more impressive (even bigger and with far of smoking cones).
The next crater was not hazy, but had actual clouds drifting into it, totally obscuring the view. You could walk through this crater (which was massive), but because I wanted to get to the lava flow on the beach I quickly got back in the car. You can see how big this crater is though, by looking at the marked person in this picture:
I passed the Thurston cave on the way into the park, there were 4 tourbuses and a full parking lot there, so I chose to do it on the way back, when there would be perhaps less people there. While driving to the beach it became apparent how much further I should actually still go. On the map it was marked as a 90min return drive (if I remember correctly), but when I was about halfway I could see to the ocean.
This still looked so far, and by now it was 15:00 and I had already been driving for 4 hours... if I wanted to get back before dark and also take a look at some of the beaches on the way back I would never make it. So I decided to take a final view of the huge lava fields and turn back.
On the way back I got a parking spot at the Thurston cave, put on my hiking shoes, took my headlamp from the trunk and went in. The Thurston cave is an old Lavatube: the outside solidified, but the lava flowed out, leaving a nice tunnel. It lies right in the middle of the jungle, so this was also a nice change of scenery after all the lava. The first part of the cave is lighted and paved, and my guidebook said that the second end was still natural and could be explored on foot if you brought a lamp. However, arriving there after about 100m it was closed :-(.
On the way back to Kona I visited the black sand beach, and due to the time constraints had to skip the green sand beach. All in all this day was kind of a desillusion: way too much driving, with way too little to see. My diving buddies had given me other options: such as going to the top of Mauna Kea (above the clouds), or perhaps I would have liked it more to do some snorkeling in a Marine reserver. I chose volcanoes park however, and it kinda was a disappointment. Too bad, nothing I can do about it, and tomorrow the rental car has to be brought back and I will fly back to Oahu.
Dropping the car off was a breeze: 442km driven in two days... not bad. While waiting for the plane I come across Scott: he's flying back home. Perhaps I'll go and meet him in Portland later on. The flight to Honolulu was uneventful (however, with some nice views):
This time I did have a car reserved in time, so I picked it up, got some cash and drove off to North Shore to my hostel. More of my adventures on the famous Oahu North shore in the next post.
Here's the link for all the big island pictures again: Big Island Picasa
The night dive is kind of a tourist attraction: all dive operators come with divers and snorkelers and bring lots of lights. Crates of them on the bottom shining up, and surfboards on the surface with lots of light mounted on them shining down. On the bottom all divers sit in large circles on the bottom around these lights, and on the surface the snorkelers hang on to the surfboards: giving the Manta's lots of space to roam about.
The effect of using all these lights is that it attracts the plankton, which in turn attracts the Manta's: lots of people, lots of Manta's. Seeing this surreal night time ballet was amazing, but all in all I again have mixed feelings about this dive. Attracting the Manta's is not really natural, and having all the people sit on the ground really destroys the reef. However, I think this is the best possible compromise: having all these people all over the reefs will damage lots of places, in this way it is only one site that is damaged, the people go home happy having seen Manta's and the Manta's go home happy (oh no wait, they're home already) because they have had their bellies filled again. And all the operators go happy having earned some cash from the divers.
Sitting on the ground while diving was totally awkward and very difficult for me: I'm used to controlling my buoyancy, and never touching anything, as a good diver should. Trying to sit down, even with maximum deflated vest was awkward, and due to the waves we were being pushed back and forth, constantly bumping into rocks. Also, where to put your legs? You have fins on, you want your legs outstretched as far as possible so that you can push off against the current, but there's rocks everywhere... haha, and try to keep track of all this while you are enjoying the incredible Manta's all around you: interesting dive :). Anyway, I wouldn't want to have missed it and seeing these Manta's was an amazing experience! More footage (this time at 'night') below:
All the 'dust' you see in front of the camera is actually plankton: the stuff the Manta's are here to eat. If you would hold your lamp still for a certain time a little cloud of plankton would swarm above it: really cool to see.
I picked up a hitchhiker along the way... some stinky guy who had stranded in Hawaii 20 years ago and was doing all kinds of chores to stay alive. He just got back from a hardware shop where he had gotten a replacement head for his gas strimmer... he was earning some money by mowing someone's lawn. He told me some interesting things to see on Big Island though: Green Sand beach. I saved the coordinates in the GPS, dropped him off and moved on.
What the roads did remind me of was the World Solar Challenge in Australia. Kind of the same landscape as in the North of Australia, and also long straight hilly roads. Some of you might be able to find the picture of the WSC that really resembles this one:
After 2,5 hours of driving I finally arrives at the Volcanoes National Park: also my first contact with the USA style National Parks: They seem to be (over)organizes as some kind of theme park. Gates, visitors centers, parking lots, talks, video's, guided walks, pffft. I am used to parks being unkept wildernesses! After getting a map, and checking out which roads are closed due to SO2 and lava I plan a route: first see the big crater, and then drive along crater road to the Thurston Cave, some more craters and the final destination: the lava fields across the road on the beachside.
First downer: the view of the big crater is all hazy, and you can see a little smoke, but not the Lava (you can on the Lava-cam in the visitors center though). Also it is very busy, so I snap some pictures and move on. In my memory the volcanoe crater we saw on Java was much more impressive (even bigger and with far of smoking cones).
The next crater was not hazy, but had actual clouds drifting into it, totally obscuring the view. You could walk through this crater (which was massive), but because I wanted to get to the lava flow on the beach I quickly got back in the car. You can see how big this crater is though, by looking at the marked person in this picture:
I passed the Thurston cave on the way into the park, there were 4 tourbuses and a full parking lot there, so I chose to do it on the way back, when there would be perhaps less people there. While driving to the beach it became apparent how much further I should actually still go. On the map it was marked as a 90min return drive (if I remember correctly), but when I was about halfway I could see to the ocean.
This still looked so far, and by now it was 15:00 and I had already been driving for 4 hours... if I wanted to get back before dark and also take a look at some of the beaches on the way back I would never make it. So I decided to take a final view of the huge lava fields and turn back.
On the way back I got a parking spot at the Thurston cave, put on my hiking shoes, took my headlamp from the trunk and went in. The Thurston cave is an old Lavatube: the outside solidified, but the lava flowed out, leaving a nice tunnel. It lies right in the middle of the jungle, so this was also a nice change of scenery after all the lava. The first part of the cave is lighted and paved, and my guidebook said that the second end was still natural and could be explored on foot if you brought a lamp. However, arriving there after about 100m it was closed :-(.
On the way back to Kona I visited the black sand beach, and due to the time constraints had to skip the green sand beach. All in all this day was kind of a desillusion: way too much driving, with way too little to see. My diving buddies had given me other options: such as going to the top of Mauna Kea (above the clouds), or perhaps I would have liked it more to do some snorkeling in a Marine reserver. I chose volcanoes park however, and it kinda was a disappointment. Too bad, nothing I can do about it, and tomorrow the rental car has to be brought back and I will fly back to Oahu.
Dropping the car off was a breeze: 442km driven in two days... not bad. While waiting for the plane I come across Scott: he's flying back home. Perhaps I'll go and meet him in Portland later on. The flight to Honolulu was uneventful (however, with some nice views):
This time I did have a car reserved in time, so I picked it up, got some cash and drove off to North Shore to my hostel. More of my adventures on the famous Oahu North shore in the next post.
Here's the link for all the big island pictures again: Big Island Picasa
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