punctuation and bad spelling if there is (probably will be)
anyways we approached our destination of fatuhiva early morning befor
the sun had woken and the island was a dense black silhouette on the
horizon, by the time we had got to the island and the anchorage the sun
was just about to show its face. We droped anchor and out came the
sunshine, oh how we thought only good things could come.
eddy started off our day with a small but oh so delicious breakfast
which was oats, peanut butter and syrup a good and healthy start for a
day that would require alot of energy.
our plan was to spend half the day on the island and leave for tahiti at
noon. so we made early tracks for land but because we have no tender the
only way to the island was a 500 meter swim to shore, the perfect early
morning exercise. so myself nick and eddy got everything we needed
wraped up in black bin bags and got ready for the swim. paul had decided
to stay on the boat and rest his fragile body :).
myself and eddy where the first in and started to make way for the
beauty that lay ahead of us when not even 20 meters from the boat, the
people anchored next to us had woken and seen us swimming for shore and
where nice enough to offer us a lift ( nick was the smart one, he didnt
get wet) the water was absolutaly amazing tho so we didnt really mind.
the two that gave us a lift were liz from the states and a local who's
name i shamfully can not remember but we where very grateful for the
lift.
the main mission for myself was to go and find the fresh water stream
that runs through the island to have a long awaited bath. ( have had
enough of salty showers ) but liz gave us directions to a old carving,
so we decided we would have a mission around and find it, the walk was
amazing and we all felt so blessed that we could
streach our legs and move around on land for a while. on the way to the
carving we walked through a small settlement of houses and a plantation
of banana trees, these where found all over the island along with palm
trees just scatterd all over the place. we noticed on the walk the palm
trees had wedges chopped out of the truck to create a ladder like effect
all the way to the top so something had to be done about this but will
go
more into that in a minute. after walking for about a mile we finaly got
to the carving, we all stood around it and smiled it was a drawing of
what looked to be a whale with three eyes but it also looked like it was
drawn by a 10 year old but anyways it was still a piece of island
history that we got to experience.
now i dont know if paul has said in the blog but eddy is ment to be
quite the climber ( going back to the ladder in the palm trees) we all
decided that we wouldnt mind a coconut for the next leg of our trip to
tahiti so we picked a tree and asked eddy to climeb it. the tree was
about 20meters from ground to first coconut and with no ropes but two
saftey guys on the ground ready to catch a falling body, eddy made his
way up the trunk its was like watching monkey man. although even with
his valeant attempt (15 meters) eddy was not able to get to the top and
grab us a coconut only because on the tree he had chosen to climb only
had
wedges cut 3/4 of the way up. we were most impressed with his effort
tho.
now after this long walk we decided that it was time to persue the
mission for the fresh water stream so we got back onto the main road and
followed it because we were told it connects up with the stream. the
locals made little pools all along the stream by building a small dam
wall using rock stacked ontop of each other which also added that extra
bit of paridise feel and beauty to the moment, there was a burst of
colour at every little wall from the flowers and leaves that were held
back. the first pool we got to was about 3meters by 3meters with a small
rapid like system running into it. so we decided to stop and get in,
what was to follow was a truly mind blowing sensation. the water
was cold but so refreshing, i think we had all forgoten what fresh water
felt like on our skin it truely does feel softer and much lighter on
your skin then salt water. we lay in this pool of tranquillity for about
5 minutes befor nick got the fright of his life and jump up onto his
feet and proceded to say "there was like a full on waterspider" as soon
as he said that i felt something nip my rib cage, turns out there was no
waterspider that wanted to eat us it was just fresh water shrimp that
thought we tasted quite delightful. so we spent the next 10 minutes
seeing how long we could withstand the pleasure and at the same time
torture of these fresh water shrimp tickeling and nipping us all over.
after all that and with chill bumps all over us we decided to get out
and go and explore abit more to see what else this unique and barely
touched island had to offer. we got back onto the main road and started
a our gentel strole past more banana plantations and other plantations
of different fruit, one called ?????? it is a fruit that everybody
should try at least once in there life time if you get the chance, it
looks like a grapefruit with the skin on but once opened up it looks
like a huge lime green orange, if you know what i mean :) the taste is a
mixture of grapefruit with a hint of marula is how i would describe it
with alittle bit of lime in there somewhere. We put one in the freezer
today and had it for lunch the perfect thing for a hot tropical day :)
anyways our walk along the main road continued for about anouther 20
meters and then we came to a bridge that crossed over the stream, not
much of a bridge the stream ran over it but beacuse of this it created a
curtain water fall into another pool this one being alot bigger and it
had a waterfall so as anyone would we stopped, jumped in and had abit
of a chill session and at the same time took a shower and washed our
hair in the waterfall. there was also a small cave eroded away from
under
the road so we were even able to sit behind the curtain of water.
this was where our walk stopped and our mission of exploring the island
began, as we got out the pool we looked up at the stream and saw the
natural wonder that lay ahead of us round smooth rocks of all sizes
pathing its way through the lushes green forestry of the island. we
knew what we had to do and started our trek up the stream, we spent the
rest of our time on the island doing this, we followed the stream for
about a mile taking hundreds of photos so we could have this memory for
ever and would be able to look back on it whenever we wanted. just befor
the sun was above us (around 11) we turned back and followed the stream
back, nick went his own way through the vegetation so eddy and i said we
would meet back up with him at the pool with the water fall. the walk
back down was fulled with comical errors by both myself and eddy falling
short afew time on slippery rocks. it was alot easier going up the
stream then coming back down.
once we got back to the pool nick wasnt there yet so eddy and i decided
to have another body cleans from the fresh water shrimp and one last
shower under the waterfall. nick finaly got back to us about 5 minutes
later and he too came and enjoyed one last fresh water experience.
finaly on our way back to the boat we found a small shop and decided to
get a few things like eggs and some chicken (good old meat). once we had
done this we made our way back to the jetty hoping our friends would be
there to give us a lift back, but it wasnt our lucky day. so this time
we did have to swim back which to be honest was abit shit knowing we had
to get into the salt water after just getting out of the fresh
water. eddy made the first move but unfortunatly came up abit short and
get afew small knocks. after seeing this nick and i decided to take the
safer entry and enter behind the breakiwater and swam round and
continued for the boat.
the rest paul explained in the blog he did yesterday, sorry its late but
i hope you all enjoyed the first hand story of our adventures on
fatuhiva because we sure did they are memories of the most beautiful
place
that i have ever been, and i dont think we will ever forget it :)
happy easter to all
steve
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