September 13, 2013
There was still another group of motus we wanted to explore, about mile behind our boat. We headed over, and as we went in amongst them it became apparent there were a lot more of these islets than we thought. Weaving through them, we rounded a corner to find an interesting bay, a hidden world.
We decided to continue on, figuring we’d see something familiar eventually and find our way back to the boat. We proceeded to weave our way through the labyrinth of islets, finding little open areas, then weaving our way through more islets to find other open areas and hidden beaches. Would it ever be possible to take our boat into one of these areas? Probably not, but it was fun to fantasize about trying. Below some of the scenes from our dinghy ride.
We finally ended up by a beach with a small shed, wondering who it might belong to. Rich finally realized that we had ended up in our first anchorage in Fulaga, the one near the village. No way, I thought, but as we got closer I realized he was right. I felt like we’d gone down Alice’s rabbit hole and ended up in a completely unexpected place. The good news is we knew we could make our way back to the boat from here; not that we were worried about getting lost forever, but it was getting to be time to see something familiar.
It was a long ride back to our boat, but it was worth it for this fascinating and beautiful dinghy ride. We finished our adventure by enjoying a swim after we got back.
Time was moving on and our supplies were starting to run low. We knew we needed to leave soon, and somehow taking this afternoon ride through the motus made us feel ready, like we’d really seen Fulaga. We decided to take the next weather window when it presented it self. Below, a gallery from our ride. Click to enlarge and scroll. -Cyndi
