SAND
WORTHY
Partly
because I am a collector, partly because I am cheap, and partly because I have
had the great fortune to see a goodly amount of this planet, I collect sand.
What better way to remember a place than to bring some of it home with you?
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| my sand...sigh |
At first collecting sand was a curiosity, a
random act, or an afterthought. There are places early in my travels that I
failed to grab a sample and some places just a thimble-full. But now, after
decades of traveling and collecting (and being cheap) that has completely
changed.
Now
there’s a whole personal science to collecting sand! Travel destinations are
considered viable because I need a sample from there. Is it “sand worthy”? Itineraries are planned not only for sights
and museums, but for sand. After all these years I guess I could truly label
myself an arenophile.
I have driven
miles out of my way to grab sand from some unique place. Readers of this blog
may remember how Team VFH hiked 2.5 miles across windswept, arid south point on
the Big Island of Hawaii to collect green sand at Papakolea Beach, one of only
four green sand beaches in the world. And, the samples I collect have grown in size.
Only filled water bottles or baggies will suffice. Sadly, extra amounts of
sand, after the sample has been recanted and labeled for display, clutter my
basement. Janet anxiously taps her foot with arenophilia as she anticipates the
conjoining of our fortunes! I keep the labeled glass bottles in a little kiosk
in my office. I could use more room… or get smaller bottles I guess. I’m sure
Janet will put the kibosh on this.
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| extra sand! |
I also
receive sand as gifts. Friends who have the great luck to travel to places I
have yet to visit sometimes return with a sample for me. A dear friend in
Australia has sent me sand from Ayers Rock, or Uluru in the native tongue. My
darling daughter, a charter member of Team VFH, brought back sand from Normandy
Beach while there on a high school trip. I have never been to the Canary
Islands, Cozumel or Belize, but I got sand from each country because of the generosity of friends.
Believe it or not at times I also part with some of my precious sand to give as gifts. It's better than a t-shirt, isn't it?
Believe it or not at times I also part with some of my precious sand to give as gifts. It's better than a t-shirt, isn't it?
DISCOVERING THE WORLD GRAIN BY GRAIN
Personally,
I feel the array of countries in my burgeoning collection is remarkable. I had
always considered my quirky hobby to be rather unique, but in researching for
this blog entry I have learned sand collecting is a well-established activity.
It turns out there are collectors with samples from every continent, including
Antarctica, and there are groups of collectors that actively trade and even chat
online about sand. I think this is a bit extreme, but it you’re interested:
Evidently
there is something to learn from a sand collection too, although I feel this certainly takes all the fun out of collecting. Here is a
NY Times article on collecting:
SANDS OF TIME
I have
traveled to Hawaii several times over the years and have collected sand from such storied places like Waikiki, Hanauma Bay, Waimea Bay, Malaekahana Bay, Punalu'u, and
the Banzai Pipeline, but there’s always another beach somewhere! Here is a
listing of the beaches I collected from this last trip.
Oahu
Kaena Point
Oahu is
the most populated Hawaiian island, but we stayed way out in the country, in Waialua
town. It is pretty much the last town out in the northwest area of Oahu. From
there it was a short ride to the end of the road and then the trail to Kaena
Point, the jumping off place for spirits into the next world. The shore here is
mostly small coves and treacherous waves.
Maui
Maui
was a brand new world of opportunity for me. In all my travels to Hawaii I have
never visited the Valley Isle. It is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands
and has some of the nicest beaches in the state.
Ka’anapali Beach
We
stayed on the resort stretch of the Ka’anapali Coast and got a sample near
Black Rock, a lava formation that is a great place to snorkel.
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| Hana Bay Beach Park |
Hana Bay Beach Park
We
traveled to Hana on that treacherous road, not only to say we survived the
hundreds of turns and switchbacks, but to get sand at the Hana Beach Park, down the road from Wai’anapanapa State Park.
This was the first black sand beach we would see on our travels to Hawaii,
although they are everywhere on the Big Island. Visiting this silky smooth
beach area was a glimpse of old Hawaii. Sadly it was raining when we finally
arrived so did not really explore the area or the sleepy town of Hana.so it was
somewhat anticlimactic, although while there I did eat my first Loco Moco!
Little Beach
Makena
Beack Park is on the south coast of Maui. It is a beautiful scenic beach, but
can be a dicey place to swim. Often the waves are rolling and it’s a great
place to swim and boogie board, but every once in a while a rogue wave breaks
dangerously close to shore catching swimmers unawares and earning its dubious
nickname. Makena Beach is sectioned into two parts. The first is Big Beach. It
is very wide and over half a mile long and the locals call it “Breakneck”
Beach. If you swim here, or at Little Beach, located on the other side of a
lava rock formation, make sure you NEVER turn your back on the ocean.
To
reach Little Beach you have to climb over a lava rock formation. Make sure you
have two hands free in order to negotiate the steep climb. It is a somewhat
clothing optional beach. Mind the sea turtles if you’re swimming nude!
We
did a lot of exploring on Maui, but simply did not have enough time to explore the
entire island. This article is about the
top ten beaches of the island and has me hankering for a return trip.
Hawaii
The Big
Island is aptly named so it was not possible to see all of it in the time we
had. Instead we concentrated our exploring in the southern districts of Hilo,
Puna and Ka’u. Having been to the Kohala coast before, I was not concerned
about collecting samples from these white sand beaches and had already
collected sand from the beautiful black sand beach Punalu’u.
Papakolea
Beach
All the
beaches on the southern portion of the island are black except for the most
southern point of the United States, Papakolea Beach, or Green Sand Beach. It’s
a trek to get there, but worth the endeavor. Not only after a 2.5 mile hike the
water is refreshing, but to see one of just four green sand beaches in the
world is striking.
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| Papakolea, Green Sand Beach |
Kalapana
Kilauea
began its most recent eruption in the 1980’s and it eventually covered a number
of towns in the Puna district. According to the National Park Service’s
estimation this lava flow has added 500 acres to the island. I was last in
Kalapana in 1988 to see the lava slowly creeping across the town and roads. On
this recent trip we got to see the aftermath. The cooled black lava ends
abruptly at the ocean’s edge where it is slowly being pounded by the incessant
waves into “sand”. The lava cliffs here are about 10 feet high! The sand is the
newest I have ever collected.
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| Kilauea Iki Crater Trail |
Kilauea
Iki Crater Trail
If you travel
to the Big Island, be sure to visit the Volcano National Park. This fascinating
area has plenty of sights and activities during the day and the evening. There is hiking throughout the park, some trails are long and some, like the Thurston
Lava Tube are fairly short. One quite unique hike is called the Kilauea Iki
Crater Trail. A moderate, roughly 4 mile trek, it descends through a rain
forest and onto the cooled floor of a once molten lave lake which last erupted
in 1959. It takes roughly 2-3 hours and no, the soles of your shoes won’t melt,
but you can feel the heat blowing through some of the cracks. This otherworldly
experience merited a collection, albeit a thimble sized amount. I didn’t want
to anger Pele…
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| view of crater floor |
PELE'S WRATH?
I had heard that bad luck would come to anyone taking Pele's lava. She is the goddess of volcanoes and at best her demeanor can be capricious. At her worst she is quite volatile, and she doesn't like people taking what is hers. The threat of such ill fated fortune certainly danced through my head on my earlier visit to the Big Island in 1988. One morning I drove from my rented room in Hilo to Kalapana, which was slowly being consumed by lava. I took photos and watched locals do various things with the lava. Using a shovel they scooped up a glowing orange blog of molten rock and splat it against the pavement. They then forced a long metal pipe in one end and a mailbox on the other, and without melting either, fused them together. I managed to get a dollop that had quickly cooled to a shiny black with silvery highlights. I carried it back to the rental car with reverence. I intended to bring it home, but I absently left it behind. Secretly I was pleased, afraid of Pele's revenge.
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| Kalapana 1988 lava flow (c) greg dunaj |
In the past I've also heeded signs that say not to remove sand at various places in Hawaii and would be stealthy in my collecting, but truthfully unless and you pull up to the beach with a backhoe and dump truck no one will care. I foolishly sweated through the TSA checkpoint on the way home. I was afraid they would say I couldn't take the sand home, but they only checked to see if it was an explosive; black sand does look like gunpowder. I was relieved when the hulking Hawaiian native TSA agent did his chemical tests and said, "yep, that's sand," and cleared me to return to New Jersey with my collection intact.
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| Kalapana 2014 |
Mahalo for reading!
love Janet and greg
