“Yeah, we lose three or four every year,” said the bloke handing me the keys to my rental Harley in Ka’anapali, on Maui. “Cars, not bikes.”
这popularMAUI驾驶地图快乐地支持。它令人钦佩地说：“谨慎”，“这里有一条狭窄的路，悬挂悬崖，没有护栏。不适合胆小的人。开车自负。”这毛伊岛的驾驶杂志just says “One Lane Road. Local Traffic Only.”
这y’re all talking about the same road: the so-called Kahekili Highway, which runs across the top of west Maui. Well, when I say “runs”… “staggers” might be a better description.
With such a build-up there was no way I was going to miss that one!
道路的质量……各不相同。
夏威夷，尤其是相对未开发的毛伊岛，提供了令人赞叹的简单导航。无论您走到哪里，基本上都有两条道路（在瓦胡岛的喧嚣中除外）：在岛上和整个岛上。In this case I just headed north from my hotel in Lahaina (the only alternative is heading south), passed the resorts of Ka’anapali and soon found myself in the much more low-key Napili, where I stopped for a coffee in a small shopping centre surrounded by locals rather than tourists. I filled the Harley’s tank, ready for the service-less Kahekili Highway.
“Nothing up there, man,” the rental bloke had said. “Except a few churches. Could be handy in case you want to pray.”
If it isn’t one thing, it is another.
I passed the lush greenery of Kapalua golf course and the beautifully clear water of Honokohau Bay. Climatology, reasonably enough, is the study of climates and any climatologist would find Maui endlessly fascinating. The island has more microclimates than I’ve had electrical problems on Italian motorcycles. Some stretches along the Lahaina side of the island look as if they get no precipitation at all, while just across the Pu’ui Kukui volcano, five miles away, the ‘Iao Valley receives 400 inches of rain a year. On this ride alone I passed just about every conceivable microclimate from dry, scrubby thornbush to overpoweringly fecund rainforest.
You don’t see many other bikes along here.
But I wasn’t expecting to be reminded of Norway on the ride around a South Pacific island, yet I kept seeing small, carefully piled-up stones by the roadside. In Norway, the story goes that the trolls like this and consider it a mark of respect. It’s slightly different in Maui.
“您看到的石头沿着道路堆积了”MAUI驾驶地图, “are done by visitors who believe there is some significance. There is none.”
哦，那好吧。
这main danger along this stretch of the road, apart from dropping the bike when you try to park on top of a pile of stones, is the universal world-wide tendency of tourists to forget that there are other people on the road and pull out, stop or do U-turns without looking or warning. This is a particular problem here because many of them are driving Jeeps and feeling both invincible and holiday-spirited because of that. The rest of the traffic ceases to exist for these people – presumably until they’re center-punched by a rental Hog, ridden by an Australian journalist maddened by their carelessness.
Can you see the road winding its way along the sides of the cliffs? There is a bit of guard rail here.
最终，在Pohelua湾附近，我把游客抛在后面。This is where the road begins to deteriorate, and where the rental companies have told them to turn around because their insurance runs out… and it will cost them (or possibly their estate) a fortune to have their soft-top jeep recovered from where it’s lying, upside-down and crushed among the unforgiving black volcanic crags.
Believe the sign, and remember that the locals will not care.
实际上，即使在最糟糕的情况下，这条路也不是特别糟糕的。它的流量相对较少，这有助于它所获得的流量相对较少，非常了解这一切。不久之后，道路通往一条车道，但是当地人将其视为一条高速公路，并在世界上没有照顾的情况下在山腰上高高的发夹围绕着紧绷的发夹。我想，这已经足够现实了，看到它们通常是在骑摩托车时自己的旧吉普车。我被强行想起了毛伊饮酒俱乐部的座右铭（成立于1959年）：“你不后悔你不记得的东西。”
If you do decide to ride the Kahekili Highway, do it clockwise like me. That way you are on the high side of the road, not on the side overhanging the abyss without the guard rail.
An additional danger is that you keep being seduced by the scenery. The views along the coast are marvelous and it’s constantly tempting to let your eyes and then, inevitably, the bike, drift over to the left… until, aaarrgh!… there’s one of those bloody Jeeps with what looks suspiciously like dried motorcyclists’ blood on the rusty bumper… Not really. But do be careful.
这deep fried menu at the caravan cafe.
At Kahakuloa there’s a caravan parked on the clifftop offering very reasonably priced typical plate lunches – probably mainly for the locals. The view of Kahakuloa Head from the back of the caravan is seriously impressive but watch it! Unlike our dear old nanny state Australia, the Americans don’t seem to worry much about putting up barriers or fences, and it’s a long way down.
然而，这条道路上最恐怖的部分并不在悬崖上方。它有一个很长的伸展，它在内陆运行，在良性的围场和磨砂膏上方。不幸的是，这是最绝对是单车道的地方，每个第二个角落似乎都是盲人。这不会减慢当地人的速度，因此最好将您放慢速度，最好是最好的。
最终，您走向Waihe’e，并且在成为Wailuku的一条郊区街道之前，这条路既改进又扩大。回到普通。Mahalo。
(Photos The Bear)
