Fakarava

French Polynesia - Posted On

Nine days in Fakarava. That wasn’t much but still it was intense!

There is a scuba dive center on the atoll, Te Ava Nui. It’s quite the specialty here. Local tourism is based on it anyway.

Quite sensible to the idea of a world tour on a bike, Jean Christophe offers me a very good deal. To say the truth I could barely think about diving here otherwise… prices are so high in French Polynesia! Compared to South America, we are in a complete another world. But I have to make it, scuba diving used to be another passion in the previous time.

Our monitor Jean Charles takes the group to a first dive in a coral spot in the lagoon. Welcome to Pacific water, I see some sharks around, so close sometimes…

For a second dive, we go to the Garuae Pass, the same we have crossed with the boat. That time we find a good entering current.

The boat drops us in the exterior of the pass and we dive 30m deep at once.

This is a marvel! Fifty or maybe hundred sharks stand around us, slowly swimming against the current. Curious, they come by but are never aggressive.

The second part is even funnier: playing Superman right above the coral, carried over by the current for a couple of hundred meters without paddling much. So many fishes, so many corals, so much of a great experience!

Hard negotiation with Fred allows me two days free for walking along the atoll. There’s not much to do on board but he is scared with potential sudden wind coming and destroying his boat… complete nonsense! Weather forecast is excellent, and what could I do if this happens anyway?

Backpack ready for two days alone, I lead my way down the wildest part of the atoll.

I meet there a strange house with Jean Pierre and Genevieve, a local couple living there, away from the village, living happy. They invite me for diner and to fish with a spear gun in the middle of the night with JP.

We use a small boat behind us carrying a car battery linked to a powerful waterproof projector. We catch more than 20 fishes of every color in less than two hours!!! Swimming there with an unknown fisherman in the middle of the wildest spot on earth at night is quite a powerful experience…

Morning, we have raw fish Polynesian way, and all sorts of fishes and special local meals while their children are visiting.

Walking back under the sun destroys the couple of fishes I was carrying back to the boat… Shame on me, but I really could not eat them all when they ordered me to take them with me.

We are now leaving the atoll, saying goodbye to everyone of the nice people we met there, the boat is full of fruits, simply offered, just because they wanted to be nice with us…

The route is made for Tahiti, the mythic island.