Current Location: Rotoava, Fakarava Atoll, Tuomotus Archipelago, French Polynesia
Dateline: November, 2011
Greetings, Iorana, et Bonjour to all our families, friends, and cyber travellers. We continue here at Fakarava, taking advantage of the internet whilst we have access to it. We have mostly been the lucky recipients of sunny dry weather during our time here, although as I write this on Sunday 13/11/2011 we have had intermittent light rain for the past 8 hours. The Tuomotus are a very dry chain of islands, every house and place of business has a large water tank to harvest whatever rain they can catch via the roof and gutters, so it would be very bad form to complain of wet weather.
As mentioned earlier, the Tuomotus are the site for many black pearl farms. We have not as yet seen any of the farms, however we have seen the produce from same on the two atolls we have visited. A brief walk around town with eyes open revealed some of the local industry.
Most families here have at least one boat, not necessarily large, and frequently at least one out rigger canoe. There are also many 4WD, although with the very flat landscape here, I’m not entirely sure they are necessary…many people get about town via bicycle which seems a far more sensible option, or motor scooter. Some boats are stored right at the water’s edge with a simple lift mechanism. The boat pictured below was actually located at Anse Amyot over at Toau.
Boatshed and hand operated boat lift, Anse Amyot, Toau Atoll
Whilst examining a large shell, a frightened gecko popped out onto the table. Preliminary investigation indicated that the Tuomotus do not have any endemic animals, so we guessed that this little fellow probably hitched a ride in a box of provisions
Gecko, Anse Amyot, probably arrived by boat
There was a large shady tree at the waterfront, under which was a long table and chairs. On the table were some black lipped pearl oyster shells and an assortment of dud black pearls
Black lipped pearl oyster shell and some dud samples (they're not all priceless jewels!)
Back at Fakarava, we have mentioned that the Tuomotus are comprised of atolls which surround a lagoon. On one side are the protected waters of the lagoon (where we are currently located), and on the other is the pounding Pacific Ocean. At Rotoava, the land is perhaps 400m wide from ocean shore to lagoon shore. There are rock pools either side. On the ocean side I had a brief wander and noticed what I initially thought was some rusted re-bar in the shallow protected over hang of rock…then I noticed that it was moving independent of the current….cool! My guess is that these creatures are some sort of nudibranch sea slug on a diet.
Is it rebar?
No, it's a critter of some sort
The main street on Fakarava runs along the lagoon side. This sign has been carved from mother of pearl oyster shell
Something house, Fakarava
We currently access the internet by taking our charged computers ashore, sitting under a coconut palm opposite the post office, and picking up the wi-fi signal there (the signal is not strong enough to reach us out at the boat). Here’s Moe at the Internet Coconut Palm
Moe at the Internet Coconut Palm
There are coconut palms everywhere here. This is the first place that we have seen some of them with a metal band around the trunk. We had previously noticed that some of the wind fall coconuts had a sizeable hole chewed out of them and wondered who/what was responsible. The metal bands suggested that it wasn’t pigs or goats
If you look closely, you'll notice that the trunks each have a metal band
Windfall coconut with hole chewed through husk down to the flesh
We noticed burrowing holes, anywhere from 10cm/4” to 15cm/6” in diameter. Walking back in the late afternoon I saw a large crab disappear down into a burrow. A little while later, a smaller crab, its carapace say 8cm/3” diameter, emerged from a nearby hole. We suspect these are the coco culprits.
Land crab emerging from its burrow, about to go head off in search of coconuts
There were several of the familiar coconut drying sheds for the copra industry. There were also coconuts on the half shell, stacked one on top of the other so that they looked like a stone wall fence. I went over for a closer look and confirmed the mildly rancid coconut aroma. Quite a few houses used this method, indeed there were more stacked rows of coconuts than drying sheds.
Coconuts on the half shell, stacked stone wall style, drying, prior to flesh removal.
A little further beyond the banded coconut palms were some matting/mesh flattened cylindrical bags used at the pearl farms. These mesh ‘tubes’ were about 30cm/12” wide, and 1.5m/4 ½’ long.
Pearl farm paraphernalia
Out the front of a small simple building was a table with bits of coral, shells, and more pearls. The following 2 photos were taken overhead. The sound track has to be this.
Coral and pearl landscaping
Found objects: Ships anchor, corals, pearls, shells
If you need further convincing that this was an authentic pearl sorting station, have a look at this pearl shell midden…you know, you could make a lot of buttons from these shells
Pearl shell midden, Rotoava, Fakarava Atoll
One final pearl picture before moving on: beyond town there are many pearl farms out in the lagoon. Some have show rooms. We have read that only the best quality pearls are available for sale – the duds don’t make it beyond the lagoon. So what do you do with the duds? One option, shown above was in the landscaping. We also saw some pot plants with pearls on the surface. One farm has its road side sign partially in pearls:
Road side sign, partially made from black pearls
There are quite a few buildings like this one, over the water at the end of a short dock.
Well, one more pearl related photo: the pearl farm part of the lagoon:
The location of the pearl farms, Fakarava lagoon
Continuing along the road there were many hardy looking plants. Here’s one that’s currently in flower:
Local plant currently in flower. The individual flowers are quite small 3mm/1/4”, however the entire 'head' is nearly 30cm/12”.
When the flowers are done, the resulting fruit berries are produced:
After the flowers come the berries
The other side of the road was lined with alternating hibiscus, oleander and other pretty shrubs
One of the flowering shrubs lining the road
Oleander flower
Here in French Polynesia, a town or village of any size has a boulangerie (bakery) which principally bakes baguettes (very long and very crusty bread rolls. Rotoava’s boulangerie opens at 6am, and by 7am some mornings they are sold out. It is a hive of activity between 6am and 7am. It is daylight by 5am, although the sun is not quite up. However, in the tropics, the time between dawn and full sun is quite short,similarly between dusk and dark. Walking in the early morning or late afternoon is fairly short, however it does afford the opportunity, albeit brief, to appreciate the perfumes from the many flowers that grow here. During most of the day, the sun is fearsomely hot. Roatoava also has its resident population of free range chickens. Some mornings, before the wind kicks up, the lagoon is glassy smooth.
The remora fish that appear to have taken up residence under our keel, typically (though not always) appear , briefly, whenever something disturbs the water next to the boat.
Remy Remora viewed from above with its brush-o-matic-like attachment plate/modified fin
Head shot of Remy Remora, looking shark-like from this aspect (the brown glob is an egg shell)
The arrival of a supply ship is typically a major event, although having said that, the ship that arrived this past week looked to be quite empty of goods (perhaps it was just picking up the trash?)
The Cobia arrives at Fakarava
Fakarava lagoon, early morning: Where is the horizon?
Chicken of the sea
Vine, which will eventually engulf this tree
Vine, after it has engulfed a tree...neither the tree nor the vine look to have profited from the experience
Flower from another tree
The nut produced from the previous tree's flower
I think this is a type of cycad tree, but it is a guess only
Captain Cook encountered cycad trees during one of his voyages….apparently the crew man who tasted it became horribly sick…the flesh and seeds need to be soaked prior to eating to remove the neurotoxin contained in them The fruit is about the size of a small pineapple.
Hmmmn, which direction is the prevailing wind?
We hired ‘Wheelman’ bikes for a day to explore the island beyond Rotoava. As mentioned earlier, the sun is baking hot after 8am, which was when we picked up the bikes.
'Wheelmen wide bikes': Moe, after a day in the saddle
Margaret pointing out the name of the bike: wheelwomen wide bikes too
We’ll be here for a little while longer before passing out so to speak (via the south pass). Thanks for stopping by.
Pearl et le Chevalier
