Discovering Fakarava in the Tuamotus
Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Fri 26 May 2023 06:08
Having arrived in Fakarava and successfully navigating the North Pass to gain entry into the atoll, we anchored in 15m of water off the small and sleepy town of Rotoava and breathed a big happy sigh!
This is why we sail across the Pacific!!
What a wonderland!
White sandy beaches and friendly and welcoming locals. We came ashore to the dinghy-dock and turned right along the only street in town. There are a few restaurants, 3 supermarkets, a boulangerie, take-away pizza, 3 black pearl farms, a Yacht Services that does bike hire, laundry, canvas and sail work and a few small bespoke resorts like the Havaiki Lodge which is situated right on the waterfront with seats and tables set up in the shallow aqua water for you to enjoy lunch or cocktail! As long as you don’t mind sharing the shallow clear water with the black tipped sharks that casually swim by!
We first stopped for lunch at the Rotoava Grill and really enjoyed steak frites and cold beer! It was then that we first saw the size of the sharks swimming in the shallow water right in front of us! We walked along the road to further explore the town before heading back to Walkabout for a relax and early night.
After 11 hours sleep, we were up and raring to go! We brought our laundry in (sheets and towels), then visited the Havaiki Lodge who run a Black Pearl talk at 0900 on a M/W/F which was fantastic. You also have the opportunity of entering the oyster lottery which means you get to choose your own oyster and if there is a black pearl inside, you can keep it and have it made into jewellery if you fancy that. We both entered and hit the jack-pot so the boys are now sporting very lovely black pearl leather necklaces!
It was then off to hire some bikes and further explore the atoll. We ended up cycling 18 miles in total that day and we felt completely exhausted!
We came across the Hinan Pearl Farm where we met Gunter who owns the place. Gunter gave us lots of information on how to identify a good black pearl and how its quality is rated, all very interesting. There were some incredibly beautiful jewellery there and we purchased some earrings and a necklace for me which I will enjoy wearing to Jamie and Lauralie’s wedding on 10th June!
Before returning the bikes, we rode up to the lighthouse towards the North Pass which is a similar shape to the ancient pyramids! Though this one was made out of concrete and large stone ballast.
That night and the following day was spent relaxing on Walkabout, swimming off the back of the boat, cleaning the hull and general bodging.
Kaina Plongee took us diving to the reef outside the North Pass the following morning with Hannah and Sam from Zissou and Letitia from Mary Doll making 6 of us from the ARC Pacific. It was great fun to dive with friends.
The next day we had arranged a day trip to the South Pass for two dives plus a lunch stop on one of the deserted islands. It was about 1:15hrs by speed boat down to the South Pass and boy we were not disappointed! OMG!! I snorkelled in the morning with Letitia and Derek from Mary Doll and Dave and Lyndsey from Kumo while Tom and Andrew went diving through the pass.
The snorkelling was like nothing I have ever seen before, the fish, the sharks the colours and how clear was the water!! It was like swimming in an aquarium full of the most colourful fish on this planet with sharks lazily cruising by without a care in the world. It was so amazing, we did the same snorkel route 3 times before the dive boat came back to collect us and off to lunch we went.
Lunch was on a deserted section of the atoll and was like being on your very own island! We feasted on rice and chicken then the best blueberry cake we had ever tasted before wondering around and being amazed at where we were, pink sandy shallow pools surrounded by palm trees and the picture-post-card-views! It was unreal!
The afternoon was a dive to the Wall of Sharks! Oh how aptly named that was! We spent an hour underwater at about 21m and watched these amazing creatures that so many of us are scared of, simply swim by without taking any notice of us at all. We were also told by a chap who has over 200 dives under his belt that sharks usually (and its the word ‘usually' that worries me!) only ever attack anything if its 20% or a 5th of its size and as these sharks were no more that 3m in length, we were fine, apparently!
We saw black tipped, lemon, white tipped reef and greys sharks. Literally 100’s swimming in the South Pass like they were cruising along the seafront on Beach Road in Melbourne, Australia!
What a day and a highlight of our pacific crossing so far! The dive was incredible, and one I will never forget!
Since the dive we have been spending time with friends, enjoying sundowners watching stunning sunsets, enjoying delicious dinners with SideTrack, Solis and Che Figata.
Katharsis arrived a few days back and handed over some lovely slices of thick tuna they caught that day which we made Poisson Cru from that evening. Poisson Cru is similar to Ceviche which is raw fish marinated in lemon juice then mixed with coconut milk, sliced cucumber and tomatoes. We haven’t seen tomatoes or cucumbers for weeks now so we used pineapple and kiwi instead! YUM!
We have also spent time relaxing, catching up on jobs like winch maintenance and re-wiring both fridges direct to the house bank of batteries to see if we can identify any voltage issues. So far, our fridges have been working well, so a job to book in for when we arrive in Tahiti.
Today we headed to the SE corner of Fakarava. A 30 mile motor through the atoll (gives you some idea about how big this atoll actually is). Beautiful turquoise water and white sand beaches all the way - and dodging a few ‘Bommies’ (coral head just below the surface). Now anchored at Hirifa, a beautiful remote spot - nothing here but azure water, white sand and palm trees.