Nighttime adventures

I met some other outdoorsy folks a while back during one of my free Japanese language classes.  We talked about birds, places to see animals, and decided we should all get together sometime for some natural Okinawa encounters.

We met up this evening for a night hike, hoping to run into the Ryukyu leaf turtle, some cave centipedes, and perhaps catch a glimpse of an owl or two.  Mother Nature had a few tricks up her sleeve, as our outing coincided with the heaviest downpour of rain I've experienced yet.  Highway 58 flooded outside of Camp Foster, and we spend more time looking through raindrops than through binoculars.  In the early part of the evening, the rain made for some romantic scenery.

As the evening wore on, we were tired of being wet and even more tired of not seeing anything.  The fauna of Okinawa had the sense to stay sheltered that we lacked.  It was a damp adventure, but I did get to see my first habu - a Hime Habu, to be precise.

We all avoided bites, but wondered why we didn't hear about more encounters with habu.  These little gulleys are everywhere in Okinawa, along most sidewalks and roadways.  I learned later that these hime habu are called "sleepy habu," because they are slow to react.  The story goes that if the first person in a line of hikers steps on the snake, the third person is the one who gets bitten.  We wrapped up our excursion not too long after seeing the snake, and hoped our next outing would have more agreeable weather.