During my recent trip in the Pacific, we were lucky enough to land in a coral atoll 2,300 miles west of Honolulu and 1,510 miles east of Guam. It has 12 miles of Coastline in the North Pacific Ocean. Where is this place?
Wake Island.
It felt like I was Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away, aside from having my friends around me. And having food. And water. And a bed to sleep on. And clothes. And my phone. And we did not have Wilson to accompany us. Ok, well, it's not like the movie but the place seems very serene and "untouched". No tourists to rub elbows with while sunbathing. No loud obnoxious sounds. It's you and the water. From the looks of it, it will be that way for a very long time. Access to the island is restricted. It almost felt like we rented an island for the day, with our big private jet that we flew in. Wow, we are a bunch of rockstars.
Walking around the island felt very relaxing. Even though I was wearing my Abercrombie leather sandals, that are not made for walking around the beach, which was the reason you bought it, did not matter. The amazing views and the clear blue water will soothe your mind. It felt like they laid the whole thing for us to explore. In 1935, Pan American Airways constructed a small village, we eagerly looked for it to see any remains of the place. For being that long of a time and all the typhoons that have passed by, we didn't see much. But, it was enough for us to get a grasp of how they have lived and probably partied, a lot, in this island.
Pathways was every uneasy for me. Both sides are filled with wild brushes and you certainly have no clue what lies beneath. Am I gonna get bit by a snake? As scary as it was to get bit by a venom infested snake, we kept walking. There was a weird tread marks on the sand. It looks like a bike track but we had to cross the lagoon, a bit impossible to cross with a BMX, even Cru or Bart Taylor from Rad could not cross this. (If you are unfamiliar with the movie Rad, then don't worry about it. You aren't rad enough, youtube some scenes, it's well worth it). Finally, we came to conclusion that it is snake tracks. Not a big fan. Later on the day it turned out it was hermit crabs, there was hundreds of them hanging out with the rest of their bros, chillin, by the shore.
Not a big fan of getting bit by a snake.
The culprit of the said track.
We only stayed in Wake for a total of 24 hours. It was well worth the fun and history received from the said place. It's one of the places that you would like to mark as "been there" but don't want to get stuck there. I miss the obnoxious sounds and rubbing elbows with the other tourists. Cellphone signal, 3G, facebook, and other things that you will find in a normal city. If you like the opposite of all that I mentioned then Wake Island is the spot for you. I know that this is not a destination that you can just normally purchase from your local travel agency and I actually admitted it to myself how lucky we were to stop by this historical island.
Next time you find yourself flying between Hawaii and Guam make sure to peek outside to catch a glimpse of this coral atoll called Wake Island.
One for the ladies... err, I mean my wife.
Hi, How did you manage to land on Wake island? was it an emergency landing or it was on an organised trip?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
It was an organized trip. We were hauling some fighters and they won't make it all the way if we pressed on. It was definitely a very rare happening.
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