I’m running out of superlatives to describe the beauty of this place. The hike started with a dinghy ride around the corner and a short way up a river. As it was low tide the water wasn’t deep enough so we had to get out and lug the dinghy a fair distance before the water deepened enough to motor to a quiet bank where we could tie off.
The little village here is set amongst lush vegetation and, as with all the living areas on these islands, meticulously kept. Towering above the village were steep cliffs of arid volcanic rock creating a total contrast to the green of the valley. The walk traversed this valley first along a vehicle dirt track and then, for most of the way, along a single track. As the sheer walls of the valley pressed in the cultivated fruit trees changes to dense, wild foliage. We came across some ancient ruins now totally abandoned as with all the others we’ve seen. All these old settlements appear to be away from the coast and up valleys – perhaps for protection as a result of the warlike tendencies of old. The path at times was clear and easy to follow. At other times it involved following cairns set amongst areas of mud and rock or flowing streams.
Eventually we reached the end of the trail where the sheer walls now (I think) a couple of thousand feet above us closed in around a pool we could swim in. There was no sign of the falls but at the end of the pool there was an area where huge rocks had fallen. There was a tight swim under and a climb over. Either way got us to another pool behind where we found the falls. As it has been dry for some time there was little water flowing from the towering heights above us. However, we could see the effect of what must be incredible flows of water. Around where the water fell the now tiny end of the valley was carved out and to one side a huge smooth spherical cave had been created by an immense flow of swirling water. It was quite moving to see the enormous effect of simple processes occurring over long periods of time. We have to remind ourselves that these islands are young and in perhaps a few more million years they’ll have been eroded and compressed down and end up looking like the Tuamotus we’ll be visiting soon.
Once we’d returned to the boat we ate lunch then motored around to Taoihae. On the way the genset overheated and shut down automatically reminding me I still had to find the missing impeller blade. We’d been motoring directly into wind and had just turned the corner so we threw up the head sail and used the wind in the bay and a little battery power to make the anchorage.
We were soon connected to the very iffy internet here and I was chasing the impeller blade in a hot engine. After removing a few hoses I found it wedged into the inlet of the heat exchanger (between raw water and coolant) where no doubt it was significantly impeding water flow. Having roasted my fingers and put the genset back together I was able to get on with the online things we needed to do. It was painfully slow taking many minutes to get pages up. As the evening wore on it got better but never that good.
As for today. We’ll provision here and sort out a final few things on the internet. We may leave this afternoon. If not we’ll definitely leave in the morning. We still haven’t completely decided which Tumatotu to make landfall but we have information and time as they are still 500nm away.
Looking back on our time in the Marquesas we could have easily stayed here another month or two. We had originally thought we’d have a lazy time here but we haven’t. We feel we’ve made the best of our time here and cannot think of anywhere we’ve been that we’d rather have skipped for a day off. Perhaps when we reach the Tuamotus we can slow down. But even there there are more places to go then we will ever have time for. Difficult choices. One thing I can say is that the wind forecast is beginning to look good. Boats who have headed there before us have had to motor nearly all the way. We would really prefer to sail particularly given the cost of fuel here. It’s almost as expensive as the Uk !!!!
