We had a very slow morning with a long chat and catch up with Luke and then with Phoebs. Rowan heard a dinghy and popped upstairs to find the crew from Scoops and Mintaka inviting us to join them for a walk to the top of the cliffs to a look out spot. What a rush to get up and gobble some breakfast. Luckily we have a much bigger engine on our dinghy, which can get us planing, so we caught them up just as we rounded the headland into a mangrove area. We waited for Hijacker to arrive, we should have given them a lift as they have a tiny little lightweight catamaran dinghy. We actually have the same one folded up somewhere in our forward locker, plus we have an electric motor, which we assume won’t work after sitting around for over two years!
It was a steep climb up, we were grateful it was a cloudy day. The Kiwis had all been here before so knew the way.
The start of the walk in the mangroves
Getting ready for the steep climb
Hard to see the perspective but this was a steep climb up
The farmer up at the top, who has sheep and cows grazing up there
The Tomb stone of a Scottish guy who lived here, Kenneth Allardyce (1881 – 1937).
I googled Kenneth to see what else I could find out about him. He joined his brother here in Fiji in 1898, ie when he was 17 years old and joined the civil service. During World War 1 he headed the Fiji Labour Corps and was awarded an MBE for his services. He retired in 1920 and became a coconut planter here. Cannibalism was still a thing here at the turn of the century, he must have seen a very different place. Tourism was only allowed here in the Lau group in 2011. No mention of him having any family. What a magnificent view he requested for his burial.
The view back to Bay of Islands where we are anchored
Amazing colour water
The crew on the hike
Circle around Hijacker and the red line where our mast should be, just out of sight
That is the cat Kindred Spirit who helped us with our jammed anchor chain
You can see the outer reef
Magnificent Butterfly
These were jewel like little beetles
After the look out from the tombstone, we headed over the top of the hill to see the view over the other side to Mbavatu. There are a couple of houses at the top built by two Australians which have stunning views over the bay. We then went down a very long wooden staircase to the bottom, finally climbing back over to where we had left the dinghies. It was a good long walk with plenty of climbing to get our heart rates up. That was enough for us for the rest of the day!
I have resorted to google maps and dropped a red pin to show you where PolePole is, in the deep Swimming Pool – official name but we think Crater is better!
The route of our walk today, Yellow cross is the tombstone look out. We couldn’t quite see PolePole where the red cross is. We started in the mangroves in a little cut between the two islands
We walked up to the top of the cliffs and looked over the edge to Mbavatu
Then walked down a huge set of wooden steps to the water’s edge of Mbavatu bay
Strange cloud shapes
The 271 steps we came down, built by the Australians to get to their boat
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