| Location: Ha'upu Bay, Koolau Moloka'i, Hawai'i |
| The approach to Ana'noio "Noddy Tern" Cave is deep blue water all the way to the back of the cave. The high ceiling cave and deep channel were battered out by eons of huge winter surf. Sometimes the surf spray reaches the 260 feet to the Kainoa's front yard, where this picture was taken.
Photo Copyright to Lloyd Lewis, Ph.D
On my first commercial trip down the coast, we landed in the cove, only to discover a soldier on a bare boat charter who tried climbing the cliff over the cave and fell, bouncing on sharp lava spikes all the way to sea level. We found him in the "papa" shelf, not much more than hamburger. After some fancy first aid and a portage in the kayak, we finally got the Coast Guard out to rescue the guy, who was in ICU for two weeks and the hospital for six months, but alive.
Ironically, a decade earlier I served on the Schofield Barracks Community Liaison Committee and wrote the advisement against climbing Hawai’i’s lava cliffs, still part of every soldier’s introduction to Hawai’i. I thought my deathless prose might be the ultimate culprit, but in the hospital he told me he got the booklet, but never read it.
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