12 Feb 2022
Today, I thought I’d do some shore diving- there a site up north nicknamed “Nudi Madness”, basically, a shallow site loaded with nudibranchs. Totally my type of dive! But the winds were still quite strong, and as I drove up the coast, I saw a lot of surf on the beaches. Not ideal shore diving conditions.
Since leaving the Kona area would mean driving up several thousand feet, and you really shouldn’t drive up a mountain for at least 12 hours, preferably 18 hours to be safe, after diving, my options were a bit limited. So I grabbed some delicious Kona coffee and breakfast and camped out on my lanai- editing pictures (I had taken around 700 at this point) and watching for birds:
Gold dust day gecko on my lanai:
Pigeon:
Mynah:
These guys sang constantly, but were always tucked away (when I had my camera out). The trees outside my room ended up being not-so-great for birdwatching- too many places to hide, it was really hard to focus, so I wandered around town with my big camera:
BANANAS!
Yellow-billed cardinal eating some ripe bananas:
another one!
Look at that little gecko face!
Finch:
Cattle egret in the median:
Views around town:
Farmer’s market:
And another trip to the gelato shop 🙂
and I tried some chicken tikka masala from Kamana Kitchen- AMAZING!!!
It felt strange to not have any plans, to not be doing *something*, but all and all, not a bad day.