Sunday, July 28, 2019

Kahekili Highway In Reverse

Actually, the title of this post should be Kahekili Highway counter-clockwise, though there was a fair amount of reversing. For those of you unfamiliar with Maui, the Kahekili Highway is a fun little windy road that you might find yourself on, should you decide to take a "shortcut" from the Ritz to the Airport. Apparently, some of the rental car companies on the island tell you not to drive on it or your contract will be voided. As the road is completely paved (and beautifully smooth), I doubt you'll really void your contract. But if you drive over the edge and end up dead, I suppose it doesn't really matter. Anyway, proceed at your own risk. 

I've driven the road a dozen or so times in the clockwise direction. That way is pretty easy because 1) you're on the mountain side of the road for most of the turns and 2) most tourists drive clockwise so there isn't a lot of traffic coming at you. 

And now I know: counter-clockwise is much, much harder. For starters, if you get t-boned going around a turn, you're likely to get pushed over the edge. I only felt like that was going to happen once, but on review of the video, it didn't look at all close (I don't believe it made the final cut). And secondly, the worst stretch of road on the whole loop is a downhill when going counter-clockwise (which caused me to spend 3 minutes attempting to back up without driving off the edge [successful] or hitting the mountain [unsuccessful]. Skip ahead to 5:45 if you would like to see the one lane traffic jam. 

Also of interest (all times approximate): 
2 min: rocks on the road
4 min: Kahakuloa
5:20 min: Kahakuloa Church