flash flood warning for Maui…

…i started to like to wake up so early, enjoying the silence in the morning, a short walk around the park, having breakfast and make plans what todo. Todays list was very small, because i noticed my long backlog and i though about to prepare some posts to decrease it. Getting a mobile signal was very difficult so i wanted to prepare about 3 posts and upload them on the airport. But on the top of my todo list was to get back to Hana, up a small hill to a giant cross and search the Red Sand Beach.

It was already sunny with almost no clouds and i was happy about that, because in the last days the mountains where hidden in the clouds. The short hike up to hill was near nothing, so i decided to park at the Beach Park to make it a bit longer. It was still worth to do it and i got a great view over Hana. On the way back i crossed the village again and went down to the Red Sand Beach. But where is it? I was exactly at the place they described. Gone? Gone! Oh no, almost gone. A small strip of red sand was still there, maybe 10-15m width and half of it was covered (or protected) by large flat bushes/trees.  Okay, lets get back, passed an old rusty car engine block (hm..they dump a lot in the nature…) and stopped at a local Thaifood Restaurant to get my afternoon dinner, as a good base for my blog writing.

You have to know, that besides the touristy regions the small food stands/trucks or restaurants closes at about 5 pm. The waiter from this store, i know him, because a day before at the local general store, when i tried to buy my beer, i got some small talk with him and about which beer i should choose. Even the cashier lady joined the talk about which beer to buy and she told that her grandmother was German, born in Munich. What surprise 🙂 Finally the lady gave me an good hint which beer to buy.

The second small talk with the waiter from the Thaifood restaurant and the question if my choice was good, shorted the waiting time nicely. What a small village, i thought. I got my Paneng Curry with Ahi and went back to campground. My belly was now good stuffed with delicious food and tasty Coconut Porter, the best way to start the new blog post.

Moment! What was that? The sky went grey within 10 minutes and i felt the first raindrops. Okay, this happened very often in the last times, but it was usually gone as fast as it started. Within a minute these few raindrops where transformed in an heavy rain and i had to seek shelter in my tent and continued writing my blog post. The raindrops drummed agains my tent and i was lucky that on my last visit in the general store i bought some tent pegs and ropes to tie it down. (Tie your shit down! …an old burner wisdom). After about an hour i started to use some plates in my tent, to catch the water which dropped already through the fabric. It seemed that it wasn’t that rainproof anymore and i prayed that it might stop raining soon.

Almost done with preparing the first post, i thought it would be a good time to empty the now filled plates and head to the restrooms for emptying myself. When i opened the zipper i was astonished how heavy the rain really was. Some areas on the grass where already flooded with puddles and still increasing. At the restrooms i met Paul an Lulu again which just arrived by bike who looked really wet. After the rain had almost stopped, they moved their own tent and my tent a bit uphill because the puddles was already connected by an flow of water and some parts of our tents where in the way. We had luck because we checked before setting up our tents the possibility that we might get confronted by water. Sadly some neighbours didn’t do that and theirs tents where directly in the flow of water.

I hoped that my tent will dry during the pause of the rain and maybe pack it already, because i had to leave Hana tomorrow. A totally wet tent would be the worst to pack for a flight. In the meantime we went down to the beach and a softly rain started again as we went into the waves. Paul and me went into the waves and Lulu was a bit sacred about the waves and decided to stay more out. It was funny to see, tourists standing with umbrellas and rain ponchos on the beach and watching us in the waves. By the way, the rain itself was really warm an comfortable and we enjoyed it.

Blended by the fun, i forgot about my poorly secured tent on the new spot as the rain and wind got heavier. DOH! The tent was now flipped over and lying in the middle of a puddle. I was lucky that i already moved all my belongings into the car. It was already dark now and the decision about sleeping in the car or in the tent was now obsolete. Without getting my rest of my clothes wet, i ran almost naked to the car an move all items from the trunk to the front, so there would be an place for the totally wet tent. Totally wet tent….the worst case i thought happened but it wasn’t angry about that. It was more fun and an nice happening. I grabbed my tent and placed it in the trunk of my car. The car looked inside like it was flipped over, chaos total. Somehow i will get that stuff dry.

Another night in the car, okay, no worries. I turned on my matching music, Betoko – Raining Again (Original Mix) and felt lucky to sit in a dry and warm car, as the wind and rain got more worse. It was now raining cats and dogs! I turned on my favourite radio station 94.3 KDLX, Old School Radio and continued my writing for my blog. But what was that? In the middle of the song, it was cut off and instead there was an modem like sound playing. “FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR MAUI!…. ” Listen here… Flash Flood Warning

Now i was really happy to be in the car and tried to get some sleep. An insane loud unused sound with vibrating came out of my iPhone. It was in night AND mute mode, why it does this sound? Why does it wakes me up? An GSM emergency broadcast was pushed out on the network and caused that sound. Wow, there must be really hell outside. I was woke up later again by this GSM message at about 3am in the morning, but then slept well and dry till the morning.…(2014/12/22)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *