During the night, the clocks had gone back once again, in line with the GMT -10 time zone of French Polynesia. We were therefore wide-awake and up at 7.30am as usual this morning, with a feeling of excitement and anticipation, as once again we would be going ashore. This morning the Onward was due to drop anchor around nine o’clock, and we couldn’t wait to explore this gorgeous Pacific atoll.
But what exactly is an atoll? It is a ring-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets that encircles a lagoon, typically found in warm tropical oceans. Formed by coral growth around sinking volcanic islands, they represent a late stage of reef development. Most of the world’s atolls (over 440 of them) are in the Pacific.
Having listened to the fascinating talks by Dr. Rachel Cartwright, we knew that atolls were very, very old geologically. It was interesting in that Dr. Cartwright’s talks were focussed around the places we would be visiting this cruise, because she told us that Fakarava was around 40-60 million years old, Easter Island was around three million years old, and Pitcairn was a relative youngster at ‘only’ 0.45 and 0.93 million years old. Amazing! To think that homo sapiens, or modern humans, have only been on this planet about 300,000 years – we are complete newbies on Planet Earth! 🙂
As we were walking our nautical mile around the track on Deck 10, we could see as the Onward slowly made her way around a long, flat island covered in dense trees and shrubs and edged with a white sandy beach. We could see a distinctive tall pyramid structure, which Google told us was the former Topaka Lighthouse, built from limestone coral rock in 1957. Interesting!
After enjoying our breakfast in the Windows Café, where we had a table near the window so we could watch our progress outside, we returned to the top deck where we could watch the ship dropping anchor and lowering the liberty boats. As Fakarava is so tiny, there were no organised excursions today; we could all explore the island ourselves.
In order to let the queue for the liberty boat go down, we pottered around the ship for a while, sitting out on deck, wandering around, and spending a short time in The Den, where I caught up on this blog. Then we took the laptop back to 6030 and got ready to go ashore, taking with us the rucksack with our cagoules in, factor 30 suntan lotion (this was a hot tropical sun!) and other necessities. By now, we didn’t need a tender ticket, so we just made our way down to the pontoon at Deck 3 and boarded the boat straight away.
It was only a short ride across, and the sparkling, clear blue ocean was calm. We revelled in the feel of the warm breeze in our hair, and the incomparable fresh sea air. As the shore-side workers grabbed the ropes of the tender and made her fast, I stepped ashore and set foot on my 100th country visited. 🙂
So here we were in Fakarava, French Polynesia. We eagerly set off to explore. As we walked through the “cruise terminal” (a few canopied stalls) we stopped to admire the hand-crafted wooden Tikis, shell necklaces and other local souvenirs, but we didn’t see anything we wanted to buy.
We set off along the road, the whitewashed buildings almost hurting our eyes under the bright sunshine. To the right of us was the Pacific ocean, the crystal clear water lapping gently at the soft sand. We passed the ‘Mairie’ (town hall) as well as a single-storey, modern church.
We decided to find a beach with a bar and enjoy a freezing cold beer. There was no hurry, however, and we just strolled along gazing at the stunning scenery; the blue sky, turquoise water and pale sand – this was exactly what you would expect to see in a South Pacific island. I suddenly wished I had brought my swimsuit; the water looked so inviting. We just had to content ourselves with a ‘plodge’ (paddle) in the ocean instead.
With the sun warm on my back and the water lapping around my lower legs, I breathed in a huge lungful of sea air and felt so grateful to be alive and in a place like this. From what we had gleaned from home, the weather since we’d been away had been atrocious; cold and raining every day.
We moved into the shade of a nearby tree and sat on the low wall for a short while, looking out to sea, where we could see the Onward turning almost imperceptibly on her anchor. Then we brushed the sand off our feet the best that we could, before putting our sandals back on and continuing in our quest to find a beachside bar.
Soon we did indeed find a bar, or at least what would pass for a bar in Fakarava. It was actually an open-side area containing tables and chairs, underneath a shelter of corrugated metal and palm leaves. A small counter was off to one side, with a single beer pump selling the local brew ‘Hinano Tahiti’. We each ordered a cold pint, and paid with US dollars, which was commonly accepted here.
It was great sitting there. We had a perfect view of the ocean with the Onward in the near-distance, which forms the featured image for this blog entry. Once we’d finished our beers, we decided to have a slow stroll back.
Arriving back at the landing stage, a tender was already waiting, so we joined the short queue and boarded, ready for the exhilarating ride back to the ship.
Back on board, we dumped our stuff in 6030 and made a beeline for the Windows Caf̩ for some lunch, which we washed down with cold water and a glass of prosecco each. Then we enjoyed a half-hour power nap before heading to the Cabaret Lounge for a very interesting presentation from wildlife and bird expert Nigel Marven. The talk gave a fascinating insight into the making of wildlife documentaries, accompanied by clips from programmes featuring close-up filming of swans in flight Рit was excellent.
By the time the talk was finished, we noticed that the Onward was underway again, and we went up on deck to watch. Then we sought the shelter of the Poolside Bar, and enjoyed another couple of cold drinks; a beer in my case and a cocktail in Trevor’s; some blue concoction that obviously contained the orange-flavoured liqueur Blue Curaçao.
We had noticed, by now, that the weather (although still warm) had turned quite windy. This was a pity, because there was supposed to be an archery competition on at 3.30pm on the pool deck, and the announcement came over the PA that, because it was deemed too windy, it would be cancelled. We could see the easel containing the target set up, so Trevor and some others decided to have a go anyway, getting in some good shots on target. Just for the record, the arrows were actually tipped with suckers, not points! It was interesting that the small group of participants were mostly European (mainly Brits), but I suppose the longbow does play a major part in medieval British military history. 🙂
We just passed the rest of the afternoon pleasantly, until it was time to start getting ready for dinner. I got showered, shampooed and blow-dried my hair, and decided an orange maxi-dress with black silhouettes of palm trees was appropriate. Then we went up to the Windows Café again, where tonight’s international themed dishes were French. However, I wasn’t terribly hungry, so I just had a plate of fresh crisp salad vegetables accompanied by some cold cuts of meat and washed down with a glass of rosé wine.
The main show in the Cabaret Lounge tonight featured concert pianist Craig Dahn again, accompanied by the superb ship’s orchestra. Once again, it was an excellent performance, and we really enjoyed it. Craig’s hands flew over the keys; he really is a talented pianist.
We finished off the evening by going up to the Living Room, where the legend that is Leo Rossi was hosting a Classic Rock Listening Party. This was followed by resident band Musiq4Soul, so we had enjoyed a whole evening of fabulous music by the time we decided to turn in, around 11.30pm.
Going briefly out on deck before returning to 6030, we watched for a while as the Onward glided over the calm Pacific ocean under a dark and starry sky. The gusty winds of earlier on had dropped, and the night was warm and sultry.
Back in 6030, we got washed and into our ‘jamas and settled down for the evening after an excellent day. In the morning we were due to drop anchor off Mo’orea, and we looked forward to whatever tomorrow would bring.