Search for the Coconut Crab

Last Thursday morning, my friend Ben showed up at the house.  I was starting to feel pretty terrible at this point and was contemplating if I was going to squeeze in one more adventure before I crashed. Ben answered that question because he needed a picture with a Coconut Crab.  (His girlfriend wanted a picture, so we were up to the challenge.)  He asked me where I thought we should go, and after discussing some options we thought the easiest route would be to sneak in to the cultural center before it opens and take a picture of one in a cage. But, if that failed, we would be close to the Gun Beach cliff line and surely we could follow that for a while and spot one.

Upon our arrival, it appears that the cultural center was not only closed...it had been closed for quite some time. So, Gun Beach cliff line hike it was.  Of course, that means...pics with guns! (Big gun)

There are two ways around the cliff line--in the water or across the actual cliff.  The cliff is easier because it has a "no trespassing" path that I've been taking for years.  It is suppose to be for tourists, but....

Once we are on the other side of the cliff, we are now on FiFi beach (aka...beach where I was robbed some years back...taking my camera, and towel, and Ben's car keys URGH)

As we walked along the beach we looked high and low, far and wide for a sign of a coconut crab.

We looked VERY high (like on this cliff)


And even higher (like in this cliff line cave).

Perry & Ben in a cave

But the closest we ever got was this hermit crab.


We decided that we at least had the pictures to prove we went looking for a coconut crab and that was the important part.