Diving through schooling sharks and exploring Fakarava

Nickanddenisesailing
Wed 12 Jul 2017 18:13
15.56.190 S 145.53.119 W

Wow the time is just flying and I realised its now been nearly 10 days since our last update! So here is the latest from Sold the Farm....

So when I last left you we had just arrived in the south pass at Fakarava. It turns out that this place has now been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site - and for good reason. The pass its self is shallower and has a dog leg in it - which is a bit different to most of the other passes that we have been into. According to some scientists (filming for National Geographic etc) that have been working out here for the last 5 months - due to the geological nature of the pass it allows for weaker currents in the tides which mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sharks have been able to call this pass their home. This has created a 'pack mentality' in the sharks which isn't seen anywhere else in the world in these species.

What this means for us is that we enjoyed 4 days at the pass snorkeling it about 3/4 times a day and a day diving. After our experiences in Tanahea with the curious sharks it was amazing to see these calm, placid white tips, black tips and grey reef sharks (hammerheads are around as well but they mainly come in at night) just cruising around. It was an incredible experience to be diving at about 15-20m in amazing visibility, just drifting through a massive cloud of 3-6ft sharks. We managed to get some videos on my gopro so we will share them with you one day no doubt.

There is a dive shop, restaurant, hotel and a little village in the pass, and this along with the large number of boats made us feel like we had walked into a city after we had been so isolated. Luckily a couple of the boats were some of our really good friends. We had a great night where we bought over freshly beer battered, fried grouper (thanks to Nick) and the others brought chips and coleslaw as well as a whole lot of booze. The guitars came out and there was lots of music, singing and drunken fun.

After we said our goodbyes to the others we stayed on and enjoyed the skydive snorkels for a few more days before heading to a half way anchorage in the atoll. The atoll is one of the biggest in the Tuamotos and the town is at the northern end. At our half way spot there was a small yacht services set up with some wifi and the chance to visit a pearl farm. We enjoyed our pearl farm visit but had decided to push on to the town so we didn't stay long and moved up the next day.

We arrived in time to catch some live music from an American boat that we had met previously. In the Rotoarva grill we were welcomed in, given a table, ordered and sat and enjoyed the music for a whole 2 hours before either a drink or our burgers(that we were dying for) arrived. Thankfully the people were wonderful there and we didnt have much money anyway so the final bill was pretty reasonable - but man we were hungry and that burger tasted like perfection in the end!

Our original plan was that we wouldnt stay long in the town in Fakarava but the hunt for eggs and a water fill up was on and as it was the weekend we werent having much scucess. We decied to wait till monday so that we might be able to provision with a few more bits from the shops and get water. We had a lovely day where we hired bikes and rode out to the pass and we had another full day of boat jobs and a bit of snorkelling. After chatting to the yacht services people we also manged to make some contacts for aquaponics stuff - which was great. So on monday we managed to fill up with water, get eggs, enjoy the festivities put on for the cruiseship people (when asked if you are on a/the boat you just say yes.....) and squeeze in a last bit of wifi before getting ready to leave.

We are now in Toau - which isnt far from Fakarava. This will be our last atoll before we head for Tahiti. We are going to try and catch the last of the Heiva festival if we can. So we are now anchored up, totally alone - not another boat in sight, in another beautiful spot. Crystal clear water down to 12 m (Nick said he loved watching the anchor drop and set perfectly as we came in- what a treat to be able to see it all happen). The beach is white and littered with dead coral and there are a couple of small huts near by - we will go and say hello soon. Snorkel and exploring adventures on the cards again today- tough life.

Thinking a lot of my amazing Mum and Dad at this stage who are battling the wind and waves to get to the UK from Portugal. My beautiful beach ball bump sister Kirsten is due in 5 weeks and the count down in on.


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