WWOOFing in Hawaii: Lion's Den

The Arch

Sus at the Arches just before leaving the farm

Greg plays Poseidon as the waves crash against the rocks

Greg at the Arches

After leaving Josanna's Garden Greg, myself, Aubray and Wendy dubbed our fleeing group the Exodus Crew (or the X Crew for short) because we were the last of the Exodus from the farm, leaving only one WWOOFer behind. Excited about our proactive decision to leave the farm but having nowhere to go, we gathered around a table at the local joint in Pahoa with about ten others who had all been "evicted" from the farm or left on their own accord. Within the first minutes of sitting down we received offers to stay with a few different friends while we figured out the next step. We decided to take up one offer to stay with our friend Lion on his undeveloped land.

The next day the four of us packed our many belongings and got a ride from a friend on the farm to Lion's place. He is living on 18 acres of jungle, just up the road from the farm, with the purpose of developing it for friends. We arrived and immediately got to work machete-ing spots for our tents in the cane grass. It's very satisfying work when you know that it will allow you to be able to set up shop for the night in your portable home. We also cleared a path to be able to walk to our tent sites. Lion was very hospitable and kept reiterating that we were doing so much for him by just being there and walking around and living on the land. The spot that Greg and I cleared for out tent was right near a tree that had fallen into another tree causing it to make very loud talking noises, so we named our campsite Talking Tree. We also named the area where Lion lived on his tent platform "Lion's Den" because it was just that. We stayed with Lion for three nights before deciding to move on to our friend House's house for the weekend. He has a place in Hawaiian Acres outside Kea'au, a real fixer-upper that has just about every pest infestation known. Still, we were comfortable. After leaving House's house the four us decided to rent a car for a week to travel around the island camping and seeing all the last sights before leaving the island. The car would also double as a great storage facility for all of our belongings, which we found to be very true! More to come about our week's adventure soon!