July 14^th and we had moved up to the town anchorage on Huahine, to find out where the action was.

There were quite a few yachts anchored, among them Bora with our friends Ingy and Burt. We dinghied ashore and took a stroll around the town.

 Most things were closed, but there was a nice little bar/ restaurant open on the shore.

We took a stroll along the beach first, everyone was taking advantage of the national holiday and the sea was full of families, swimming, sunbathing and eating (yes I meant the sea, they had tables and chairs in the sea!!!) See Beaujolais in the background of the next photo?

There are lots of stray dogs in French Polynesia and it is not unusual to see a bitch who has obviously had pups, but you never see any pups.

 I noticed a dog trotting over the road with a solitary pup tagging along behind.

 When I tried to get closer she growled at me, so I think she had probably lost some of her pups to be so defensive.

After a short while we settled into the bar for an afternoon drink.

 There was a very elegant, older, lady sitting there by herself. She definitely had eyes for Roger and even went to the trouble of applying more red lipstick!!! We nick named her Lola. She was celebrating the holiday with a bottle (or three) of red wine.

After going back to Beaujolais to get changed we returned to the bar for sundowners, Lola was still there with her red wine.

We heard there was a Polynesian Fete a couple of km’s up the road, so Roger & Bert arranged a lift for us with the barman, for all 9 of us.

It was more than a couple of Km’s and I for one was glad that we hadn’t had to walk it.

There was a huge marquee and a fair of sorts. We paid our 200 Xpf’s to get in and that included a meal, consisting of a pork stew (70% fat and 30% pork), chicken, rice and the ubiquitous Poison Cru, all washed down with either water or coke.

There was a live band, who were actually pretty good. We enjoyed watching the locals dancing. No matter what age they all do the same dance, which is really nice when you think about it, nobody laughs at granddad in Polynesia, because he dances the same as the grandkids!! Burt got up and danced with Ingy and Roger and I had a dance too.

But apart from that we were a little disappointed that there was no traditional dancing (hula style) but the party would go on to the small hours and we left early.

As soon as we left it started to rain and we had no lift back to town. So while we were sheltering Roger went onto the road and flagged down a truck. I rushed out and in French, hitched a ride, I think the guy was a little surprised when 9 of us piled in the back. But he very graciously took us back to the dinghy dock.

The next day we decided to set sail for Raiatea instead of hanging around.