Papu Mashi the nomad: January 2016

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.