I felt a strange but powerful connection to that place, like there was an unspoken mutual respect between us. We had been tested to our extreme and we had passed the test. The hills seemed to arch their backs and stretch their shoulders lifting their peaks to meet my gaze. I silently thanked the whole stretch of coast. When Leigh Anne turned to me her eyes were moist. She too was farewelling the place that was our home for a time.

We swigged straight from the bottle, our eyes glued to the huge orange sun that slowly sunk down to the horizon. We talked and talked, immensely happy and self-congratulatory at having made it here, through all the hikes, early mornings, hitches and storms.

The going was muddy and damp with a river crossing straight off the cuff. The mosquitos were out in full form and I think we were both thinking back to our morning when we were dry and warm on the beach. Instead, we were walking towards the world’s wettest spot…literally.

I lay awake hearing the slow roll of the ocean on the sand thinking that this will undoubtedly be, as it already has been so far, the adventure I’ve long awaited for. I didn’t know then how difficult this next chapter would be.

Last night, we had lit a bonfire on the bluff and watched as millions of stars emerged one by one until the sky was littered with them. It’s those moments in which I am unabashedly happy, simply stargazing to the soundtrack of the crackling fire and pounding surf.

I walked up to the ridge and the wind was knocked out of me. Before me lay the entire Kalalau valley, with towering jagged cliffs draped in dense jungle that plummeted down in deep creases of rock. The valley floor led to a beach with perfect waves rolling in and beyond it was the endless, intensely blue ocean stretching out into infinity. I was speechless. Overcome and moved. It was so insanely beautiful and the sheer scale and grandeur of it was so immense that the greatest fabulist could not have invented it.

We would see the canyon many times from many angles but it never ceased to take our breath away. This huge gaping wound in the earth was streaked with red cliffs and green scrub with waterfalls lacing the cliffs in the distance. The magnificent walls of the canyon stretched out into oblivion and everywhere you turned, massive rock structures jutted out like pinnacles. It took on the appearance of a painted backdrop, seeming impossible that it was right there in front of us.