…the next morning I awoke with the Golden Sun rising straight out at Sea. It was awesome. Again I felt so thankful for the blessings that had been bestowed upon me. I decided to walk back up the road in search of some fruit, leaving my bag and belongings at the beach. While negotiating one of the steeper stretches of the path my feet slipped out from under me on the loose gravel and I landed directly on my tailbone with a jarring thud. The fall stunned me.

I was very thankful to realize that I could still move my limbs freely, but the pain was heavy. It made walking difficult, but I would not be slowed down. I had a mission. Nothing could come between myself…and a fruit hunt. So off I hobbled out to the road.

I remember seeing wild guava growing by the roadside on my many trips back and forth the day before but as far as I could remember it would have been too long a walk. Considering I’d yet to see a car at such an early hour, hitchhiking wasn’t an option, so I searched the immediate area more thoroughly.

It wasn’t long before I spotted a papaya tree by the road with a nicely ripened fruit suspended from it. It hung way up high so I tried the tree shaking method and the fruit was immediately freed from its moorings and came zinging down at me. A perfect catch. What good fortune. I Loved Hawaii.

I ate the scrumptious tasting fruit immediately. Eating freshly picked fruit beneath the tree from which it came was an absolute thrill for me at this point in my life with which little could compare.

Pleased with the fruits of my labour, I returned to the beach to find that the one of the group from the night before who had also slept at Red Sand, had saved me half his coconut. Considering I’d just piled in the entire papaya, which really wasn’t that big by the way, I kind of felt a little guilty. I’d never eaten fresh coconut before and I found the taste to be rather appealing and unlike anything I’d previously indulged in.

After chatting for a while in this picturesque setting with the Sun quickly climbing into the sky and making the Seawater sparkle, I packed up my gear and headed for the highway again…

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