Black Sand Beaches of
Big Island, Maui and Daman.
I was introduced to black sand
beaches during my stay in Honolulu. Before that I did not know there is
something like black sand found on a
beach. I knew there are yellow sand beaches, brownish yellow sand beaches, pale
brown sand beaches, off white beaches , white sand beaches and so on. But
Black! I had not heard of. Visiting black sand beaches was the “tourist thing”
to do while in Hawaii. All tour brochures and pamphlets advertised and
described “ Black Sand Beach”. It was a
“not to miss “ kind of destination. So I did visit the black sand beaches and
they were definitely different as far as beach colors are concerned. They are
generally found in volcanic regions. Therefore in Hawaii one does find such beaches.
In India was it possible to find a black
sand beach? My friends did not understand my desire to find a black sand beach
in India. Surely a black sand beach would mean a dirty beach! I was delighted
when I found out that there was a black sand beach in Daman
the Union territory, located inside the state of Gujarat. It was so
close to my home in Mumbai. I could easily visit Daman during a long week end.
That is exactly what I did. Most people go to Daman for beer and alcohol
based beverages, because these are easily available there. I was travelling to
Daman to see the black sand beach. We were six friends travelling by road to Daman. We followed the
Western Express Highway , that later joins the National highway (NH-8). The
Highway is a beautiful road and maintained well. It is a pleasure driving on
the highway, specially after the rainy season, because the road side is green with foliage. At the
Gujarat entry point we paid the toll at the Surat-Dahisar Tollway. We also paid
the road tax at this point. Within two and a half hours (and approximately 100
kms) we had reached the “exit” or turning towards Boisar. We did not go towards
Boisar, but I kept it in mind to go there on my way back. In another hour and
half we had traveled about 90km and were
at the “exit” or turning for Daman. So we left the highway and entered into
this narrower road. We drove for a while before a large gate across the road
announced that we were welcome to Daman. We followed the sign boards and made
our way to Jampore Beach. We parked the car under a Casuarina tree. This was a
Casuarina grove stretching out far, and it doubled up as a car parking lot. Surprisingly
I didn’t see any coconut trees and definitely none lining the beach. The sand
here was a darkish brown. We walked towards the waterfront. There were many
shacks with plastic chairs and tables laid out for visitors and catering to the
tourists. One can have beer and other beverages, fish fry, chips and a variety
of other eats. To me, the water was beckoning. I left my slippers under a corn
sellers cart , folded my trousers at the ankle and headed for the water. It was
low tide so I could easily walk quite far into the sea. The sand was a deep
chocolate brown but not black and it was very very fine , almost like clay.
Since it was low tide the floor of the sea was visible. I walked through a long
stretch of rippling patterned sand formed by the interfering water currents.
The rippling pattern formed little cusps of water, the ideal place for snails,
mussel and oyesters. The colorful tiny creatures moved around in this secure
space. I moved further into the sea, perhaps two kilometers almost and yet the
water level was at my ankle. The rippling sand pattern was perfectly described
by a bunch of kids who ran and splashed past me. They said it looked like
“Cadbury Diary Milk Chocolate with Waves”. That is exactly the color of the
sand here--- chocolate brown. I had to still find the black sand beach. From
the sea side I looked towards the land , to find a lovely canvas spread out in
front of me. The canvas had a strip of chocolate brown sand , a band of green
Casuarina trees, a wide strip of pale blue clear sky and an occasional ,
colorful parasailing canopy floating past. Spoiling this perfect picture were
the blue plastic tarpaulin covered shacks. Actually there is no need for so
many shacks at the beach.
Jampore beach is in Moti Daman. The
Daman Ganga river flows into the Arabian sea and Moti Daman is on one bank of this river. We drove through
Moti Daman, crossed the river via the Rajiv Gandhi Bridge, and entered Nani
Daman. I did spot some coconut tree groves along the way. We drove towards
Devka Beach. First we located our hotel somewhere along the Devka Beach road
and settled in our respective rooms and refreshed ourselves. Then we were ready
to go again. There are quite a few small hotels along this road. The hotel we
had moved into, was neat and clean with a swimming pool and a dining space
around the pool and garden. The most attractive part about this hotel was its
proximity to the beach. We could just walk across the road and be at the beach
at any time . Here again there was a
stretch of Casuarina tree grove that doubled up as a parking space. The sand at
the base of the trees was almost black. I had come here bare foot. I stepped
into the beach area made of completely fine grained black sand. There was a
stretch of this sand before a black rocky stretch and then the sea. So over
millions of years with the constant lashing waves the rocks had worn off to
form the black sand beach. The sea shore and the black sand beach stretched far
and I could see the Casuarina tree lining of the beach for miles and miles in
front of me. It was 5O’clock in the evening and there were quite a few beach
revelers. And here again there were many semi-permanent shacks where a variety
of snacks and drinks were being prepared, to cater to the visitors. I sat on
the beach nibbling at a roasted and spiced up corn stick. I waited till the sun
set beyond the rocky shore. In the subdued evening light I had a beautiful
canvas in front of my eyes as I looked along the shore line------A band of black
sand and a band of green Casuarina trees, stretching into infinity. At this
beach too the numerous blue plastic tarpaulin
roofed shacks destroyed the otherwise
beautiful shore line. The next day I was at the beach during high tide. The sea
water had covered the rocky area and the black sand seemed to smoothly
merge into the sea water.
Since the beach is hot during the day, we
were at the beach after 3pm during the two days that we stayed there. During
the first half of the day we explored Nani Daman and Moti Daman town. We
shopped at a famous market of Nani Daman. We were amazed to find a large
variety of goods sold here under one roof and in an area much smaller than any
Mall. In Moti Daman we visited the Fort. We could take our car inside and park it
within the fort area. This enclosure houses the administrative buildings, a
post office a bank and a few other service departments of the government of this
Union territory. There are two churches here built by the Portuguese, with
beautifully and elaborately carved wood that makes up the alter, pulpit and
pews. Even a few old Portuguese style residences are here within the fort
premises. The caretaker sitting at the church entrance told us that there are
very few local church goers now. Most of the people who lived here have
migrated to Europe with a Portuguese passport. Those people who lived here
before independence and during the Portuguese rule in this area are eligible
for a Portuguese passport. Not only those who lived here during the rule but
also three generations of their descendants can get a Portuguese passport. After walking
around this area of the fort we drove to another end of the fort. We had to do
a bit of climbing of large stone steps before we found ourselves standing on
the fort wall and looking at the Arabian sea, just at the mouth of Daman Ganga
river. This was a good panoramic view of Daman from a height-----A busy river
front (with boats , barges, motor cruisers and yachts) , the vast expanse of
the busy town and the sea itself stretching into the horizon.
The next day we left the hotel after a
filling breakfast. We were on our way back to Mumbai. We took a detour at
Boisar as I had planned. We took the narrow road to the villages (about 25km
away from the main highway) and then to Chinchini beach. Though the area was
green with a variety of trees, the number density of coconut trees was not as
much as I think a coastal area should have. I had come here to check the sand
color. It was a mixture of grey and dark brown. When the Indian sub-continental land mass was
drifting away from the African land mass region, towards the big Asian
continental land mass, it passed over a “hot spot”. “Hot Spot” is a location on
the earth’s surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period.
This volcanic spot is fed by the underlying earth’s mantle, and may be far away
from any tectonic plate boundary. During this drift over the hot spot , volcanic
lava spilled onto the Indian subcontinent, creating the black rocks and black sand
of Devka beach.
The chain of Hawaiian islands too are
located on a “hot spot”, almost at the center of the Pacific Ocean. The
Hawaiian archipelago actually consists of about 150 islands, reefs and shoals but
the eight major ones inhabited by man are
Oahu, Maui , Big Island, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe. Big island as the name suggests is the biggest
of them all and has an active volcano. Maui consists of one extinct volcano and
one dormant volcano joined together at the lower slope of the volcanic peaks.
We flew from Honolulu (in island
Oahu) to Maui by Hawaiian Airlines. Maui
is at a distance of about 160 kilometers from Oahu. It was a short flight of
about 20 minutes to Kahului Airport . We (myself with my family) stayed at a
sea side hotel not very far from the Airport. A drive along the island’s coastline is the
best way to experience and sense the atmosphere there. We contacted a tour
operator who arranged for a day’s tour .
We were introduced to other tourists who would be our fellow travellers
in a mini air-conditioned van . It was a fifteen seat vehicle that we were
travelling in and we had a “bubbly” enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide with
us. So we were travelling on this road called the Hana Highway. The road is
along the rim of the island, built at different heights from the sea
level. We got some stunning views of the
deep blue Pacific Ocean from various levels.
We saw water falls along the way as we passed through Rain forest
terrain. I was glued to the scenery outside my window and my ears were tuned to
the guides’ commentary and explanations. I saw some terrific views of the
ocean. The deep blue waters glistening in the sun, the huge waves dashing
against the black rocks, wind swept coconut trees and many more stunning views
which cannot be described in words , but can only be sensed and remembered
forever. For most parts of the travel we could see the ocean on one side and
the green foliage covered terra firma on one side. But some parts of the road
took us to areas were we could not see the ocean but had greenery of the forest
all around. We stopped on the way to savour coconut water at one point . We were heading towards the town called Hana
and beyond, to the Waianapanapa State Park. A very interesting spot along this
route was the “Seven Pools”. When we
reached this place we found quite a few other tourists gathered at the fresh
water natural pool at the base of a water fall. It was a jungle like green
surrounding and the picture was straight out of Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle
Book”. A young boy and a young girl were
standing at the edge of the steep rock structure that created the water fall. The
height of the water fall must be more than an Olympic diving tower height
(surely 10 meters). They jumped into the pool below one after the other. We and
the other tourists gathered around the pool with bated breath until the two
emerged at the pool surface. We all clapped and cheered. The water from this
pool flows down into another such enclave with a water fall and pool at a lower
level. In total there are seven such water-falls and pools of varied size and
height, before the stream cascades down to meet the ocean. A beautiful and unique natural structure. Our
van moved on from here further into the Park area. We were moving slowly to the
sea level and soon we were at the Black sand beach. From a height it looked
gorgeous ------- a little cove set amongst the lava cliffs. The sand is
glistening black and from a height the cute beach looks like a gem caught
between the cliffs and the deep blue ocean. The sand is not very fine grained
but actually tiny smooth lava pebbles in a large part of the beach. This is the
black sand beach of Honokalani. Black sand beaches are formed under some
specific condition where the hot lava drops down into the cold ocean water and
splatters into millions of parts and these tiny parts cool and wash up to the
shore to form the black sand beach. Maui has a red sand beach too. We did not
have time that day to explore that beach. The colored sand beach is formed,
because the lava that oozed out in a particular region is composed mainly of a
certain chemical compound. In order to see all the possible colors of sand we
traveled to Haleakala Crater and national park, the next day.
Haleakala means “House of the
sun” in the local language. Again we were travelling with another set of
tourists in a mini coach (van) the next day. We took the Haleakala highway from
Kahului town center. The road took us up the slopes of the dormant volcano,
toward the eastern side of Maui. There was a lot of greenery here, but as we
neared the top of Haleakala Crater, the greenery gave way to a more stark and
barren scenery. It is about 10000 feet above sea level. It is quite chilly
here, even in the afternoon. The 21 square mile crater has a stark moonscape
like look with its many cinder cones and lava flow slopes. The colors that make
up the crater are like smooth brush strokes of yellow ochre, red, brown , moss
green and black. This crater is nicknamed as “Pele’s paint palate”. Pele is the
god of volcanoes and fire! The colors are attributed to olivine basalt, andesites, picrate-basalt
black augite and other similar compositions of rocks. There are trek trails in
the crater that one can follow to experience the stark, barren and dramatic
landscape. The only vegetation that we could see was the Silver sword plant. We
spend some time here walking around this different terrain. There is an
observatory here too. The “Haleakala Observatory”, an astrophysical complex,
that is situated on this dormant volcanic crater platform with “superb seeing
conditions”. With the clean atmosphere and clear skies possible here ,
Haleakala, is the ideal place for an
observatory and telescope , to study the stars, sky and the galaxy. After this we went back down the slopes of
the dormant volcano, and we were back at our hotel by evening. Next day we took
the flight back to Honolulu.
My next destination was the Big
Island and my quest for the black sand
beach continues. It was a 45 minutes flight by Hawaiian Airlines, from Honolulu
to Hilo (346 kilometers), a town on the South East of the Big Island. As we
approached the Big Island (also called Hawai’i) , the pilot announced that we
were flying over Mauna Kea, the highest peak in Hawai’i. The peak is at a
height of 13796 feet above sea level and most of the time it is not visible
above the cloud cover. I looked out of the window. It was relatively a clear sky,
but in the late evening light , I could just get a faint glimpse of the peak. I
spend four days here on the Big Island, along with family and friends. We
stayed at a nice sea side hotel. The rooms were big and clean with two huge
beds in each room. At the end of each day’s tour these comfortable beds melted
away our tiredness overnight and we were rejuvenated and ready for the next
day. We hired a car and the best driver amongst us drove the car. The rest of us had a map each and we were all the navigators. On the first day we
travelled to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. We followed route number 11
from Hilo, to reach the National park which is a UNESCO world Heritage site .
Once inside the park boundary we drove along the Crater Rim Drive. There are
many things to see here in this active volcanic region. The area is barren in
most parts. There are steam vents spewing out steam constantly and sulfur banks
with yellow colored rocks with the distinctive smell of sulfur. It was cold out
here and we were all clothed with two layers of warm apparel. Is it not
ironical, that here we were facing a very cold atmosphere at an active volcanic
terrain and the same surface was spewing out hot scalding steam.? There is a visitor center here (The Kilauea
visitor center) , that provides a lot of information and also tells the best
way to see the National Park. We drove along the Crater Rim Road. Around this
road one can find a museum (Thomas A Jaggar Museum), a volcano Art Center and
the Hawai’i Volcano Observatory. The observatory keeps track of the variety of
volcanic activity of this unique park and is engaged in a lot of geological
research. A major attraction along this crater rim is the giant lava tube (The
Thurston Lava Tube). The lava tube was formed when a river of hot lava cooled
and crusted over and the still molten interior continued to flow down-hill.
Eventually the lava drained out leaving a cave like shell. The Thruston Lava
tube is in an area full of ferns. These ferns are huge , almost as big as trees.
The fern –laden trail to this lava tube was accessible by a bridge structure
and the lava tube has a near perfect circular cross-section. It is lit up by lights placed at regular
interval inside and a tall person can easily walk in upright. There was water
seeping through the walls, making the interior air humid. We had spent about
four hours here in the crater region and then we drove down the “Chain of
Craters Road”, towards the Ocean. It was a long drive through barren and
blackened landscape. As we descended closer to the ocean level we began to feel
warm and finally we had to remove all the warm clothes that we were wearing.
The black slopes of the hillside was the cooled and hardened lava. Though these
were all black lava rocks , right up to the ocean, there was no black sand
beach here. After a while the road came to a dead end. We got out of the car
and walked about on the hardened black lava. There were sign boards here which
warned visitors not to go any further. This is because we were now in an area
where there was a big probability of an eruption or the ground could just break
up and let the red molten rock through. At a distance I could see a tall column
of steam and vapor rising up from the sea. This is the hydro-magmatic explosion
that occurs when lava meets the ocean water along the parks coastal boundary. So
this is the Kilauea volcano that is pouring out red hot lava into the ocean
continuously, 24X7. This lava is adding land mass to the island and making the
Big Island bigger. I found many visitors treading the dangerous lava rock
terrain and walking towards the main large lava flow that was creating the
spectacular column of steam. I couldn’t stop my reckless self and followed the
others , treading carefully over the contorted , distorted and twisted lava. I
could feel the heat emanating from the ground and I could not keep my feet in one
spot for too long. I was moving all the
while. Some of the tourists were well prepared for the conditions here-----They
had absolutely bare minimum clothes on, but were wearing thick soled heavy
boots. I did not have the right foot wear, but dared to walk on. The
silver-black lava had to be avoided because these were freshly crusted and
cooled lava. So they could break under the pressure of your foot fall and land
you in the molten lava below. I hopped over the dark black lava rocks. After
hopping for a bit I heard excited squeals from the other reckless and
adventurous tourists. The ground had broken away and a small ,red, hot molten
lava stream had surfaced. We all gathered near it and watched the flow. This is
how nature works. This sight made my day . I traced my path back to our waiting
car. We drove back to the hotel and I had a good nights sleep.
The next day we had breakfast at the hotel
and then we were on the road again. Today our destination was the black sand
beach. We followed route number 11 again to the Volcanoes National Park. We
visited the unique fern forest again and walked into the Thruston Lava tube
once more. Then we were back on route 11 , in the region of the “Southeastern
Rift Zone”. The land scape was rugged, rocky and barren .In many places we saw
roads that were built earlier ,and now covered over and blocked by flowing lava
that had solidified on the road. Some roads
were simply cracked across with a wide rift between the two parts. This is
quite common on the Big Island. Routes and roads that are rendered useless,
after a volcanic eruption and lava flow. After a long drive we were at the
Punalu’u black sand beach. It is quite a large stretch of black sand ( much
bigger than the beach in Maui). The beach was fringed with coconut tree grove.
The sand was not very fine but the sand grains were smooth enough to allow
comfortable walking , bare footed . We saw just one or two people walking
about. In fact the local population is sparse. In fact the Big Island itself is
sparsely populated. So we (myself and my friends) practically had the beach to
ourselves. Sorry!!. At that moment we were sharing the beach with a turtle.
There was a Pacific Green turtle basking on the beach. We went close to him and
touched his shell. His eyes were closed and probably he was oblivious to our
presence. We sat close to him but he did not seem perturbed. This was a
beautiful place---un-spoilt natural beauty----The blue ocean, the black sand ,
the green coconut trees and a green turtle. Though we did not want to leave
this picturesque place, we had to leave because it was getting dark and we had
a long way to go before we could reach Hilo. On our way back the weather turned
nasty and it started raining heavily. The rain along with high speed wind
created quite a storm. It was difficult to see even a couple of feet in front
of our car. At the same time we could not stop the car on the highway. We drove
on slowly and carefully and prayed for the weather to improve. It took a while
for the weather to clear and we reached the hotel pretty late in the evening. A
slight drizzle any time during the day is very common in Hawaii and one can see
a rainbow almost everywhere and at any time. Heavy rainfall and storms are not uncommon either,
so one has to be prepared for it.
The next day we planned to reach the
summit of Mauna Kea. We travelled north
of Hilo and reached “Mauna Kea visitor information center”, a place quite high
up the slopes of Mauna Kea. But beyond this point it was very difficult to
drive up the steep slopes of the mountain. We did not have a four wheel drive
vehicle and neither were we seasoned drivers. Walking up the slope did cross
our mind, but it was very very cold and windy. So we gave up. Instead of
reaching the summit we drove along route 200 ,or “Saddle Road” and reached
Kona, the town on the west coast of the Big Island, and explored the coffee
plantations there. The plantations here
produce the famous Kona coffee beans, that has a specific taste , fragrance and
aroma that can be attributed to the volcanic soil and unique weather. From here
we drove along route 19, that later merges with route 11.We diverted off this
main highway to a smaller road that took us to the southern most area of the
Big Island. We were looking for the “green sand beach”. The road that we were
driving on came to a dead end . Beyond this point the only way to the green
sand beach was on foot. We were all in two minds—should we go ahead or should
we return back to Hilo.? We saw a local man there and asked him whether the
green sand beach was truly green. He nodded, and said that certain angle of the sun’s rays made the beach
look green while at some other angles it may not look green enough. This really
put us in a fix. Finally three of us decided to trek and the rest waited for us
in the car. We walked over rocky cliffs and followed the path way created by
others perhaps before us. There was no one else in the vicinity. We could not
ask any one whether we were following
the right path or not. There was this niggling doubt that perhaps we would
never reach the destination. We walked on , keeping the ocean in sight always.
Finally after one and a half hours , a small inlet of the ocean amongst the
rocky cliffs, emerged. Yes , this definitely was the green sand beach. It was a
very small curved stretch of olive green hued beach. We were standing on top of
a lava rock cliff, and the beach was there at a distance below. We did not
venture any further, but we could see a bunch of adventurous tourists exploring
the beach. They had reached there with a four wheel drive vehicle. We did not
spend much time here, because we had to trek back a long way and our friends
were waiting for us. While returning back I noticed that our path had many tiny green colored
Olivine crystals. We were all the while walking over the ingredients of the
green sand beach. Perhaps these crystals from the beach, were carried by
travellers in their footwear. Or may be
this region is full of these olivine crystals, a product of a volcanic
eruption, when the earth oozed out olivine compositions.
This trip has brought out the curious
explorer in me. How beautiful and breadth taking , raw and un-spoilt nature can
be!!
We were back in Honolulu the next day. A
few months later I travelled half way around (13000kilometers) the world,
leaving this beautiful Rainbow State of USA. I was back in Mumbai, India.
I
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Devka Beach at Nani Daman
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| Devka Beach- Black sand ,Casuarina trees and makeshift shacks. |
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Rocky part of the sea- Devka Beach, Nani Daman
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| Reflection of the setting sun---Devka Beach |
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Reflection of the setting sun & the rocky part of Devka Beach-Nani Daman
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Maui---Deep Blue water of the Pacific against the lava cliffs.
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| Maui & The Pacific----Waves lashing against the lava cliffs. |
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Maui---Water Fall at one of the pools of "Seven Pools"
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| Maui----Water Fall---Girls&Boys preparing to jump into the pool below. |
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| The jump @ Seven pools. |
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| Swimming in the cool, clear, fresh water pool.----Seven Pools-Maui. |
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