Baboons and Huahine
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Tue 19 Aug 2008 22:55
|
Hi Folks,
Yesterday was the day of the great ride,we went
ashore and hired three bikes, these had gears the first we had found on any
island, on the last one they were fixed wheel with no breaks , only a back
peddle one which would have been disasters on this trip ..
We set off with our trusty lonely Planet guide
which has been a great help to us in French Polynesia, much more so than so
called Pilot and Guide books my favourite old hobby horse ...
Anyway it all went well, we estimated about
25 km around the island, it was nice and flat for the first half, more ancient
ruins, fish wears which we have not seen before but looked like a very effective
way of catching fish, this consisted of a series of zig zag rock walls between
the two isthmus, the fish having to navigate through with the tide, some of
these are dead ends, and that is very much the the case for the fish also
.
We then moved on to some great deserted bays
and beaches with the ubicuos empty hotel sat in a prominent beauty spot, our
theory is now that as well as being expensive, the cruise ships have slowly
chipped away at the expensive hotel market offering more islands to view along
with accommodation to match .
Another Landrover was discovered, this was
not the usual shinny brand new type but something much older , pics to follow
for 4WD conasurres to identify ...
After the bays we moved in land to the river
of the blue eyed eels, it looked like a dried up river bed, and I poo pooed the
whole thing and went off to the first of the steep inclines and began my "
Baboon btm " experience, Rob and Ruth persisted in exploring the river bed and
found the creatures , it was exactly as the book said ...
Mean while I had reached the crest of the
mountain, once there I rested and waited for the others to catch up, by this
stage a nice pile of ice cubes would have been heaven to sit on !
Once we had all reassembled on the top, took
lots of great panoramic shots of the two islands then went on the down hill rush
to the bridge that joins the larger to the smaller, once again great views as we
slowed to a meandering pace and cycled through the bays towards the
bridge, all along the bays houses dotted the shore line the ultimate shack
on the shore living cruso styli.
Once over the bridge,which we had not originally
intended to cross and hunger pangs knawing at our stomachs we followed a sign to
a small "Pension"or guest house this was
slightly further than we anticipated but was set in another wonderful village,
the Polynesians keep there houses and villages absolutely immaculate, this has
been the case through the whole of our travels in these islands and makes a
pleasant change from the rubbish piles of Central America villages that we encountered.
The cafe was situated under a palm covered open
sided hut,adorned with shells,flowers and local trinkets, we ordered our fries
as that was all that was on the menu, nice sauce with them though,another
reminder of Bastille day sat under the table, the look in his eyes was that
of a seasoned barbie dodger, he was defiantly a Wiley mutt no flies on him just
plenty of fleas ...
Then it was off back in the direction of Fare
where we had originated from, Rob and I took the off road route, Ruth took the
sensible option and went round the road .. we met at the junction then cycled
back to the town, bottoms aflame we got back to the boat, got our swimmers on
and plunged into the cool blue waters of the lagoon , ah bliss my bottom
cooled to its normal operating temperature ..
After a few G and Ts our cooled bums
anaesthised, Lyn served up a hot chilly con cairn , was this the devils work
!
In the final analyse of our mileage it turned out
to be 48km ! no wonder it was a behind buster ....
A tired Baboon bottomed crew !
|