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Bora Bora and Bali were the two real selling points for us of the itinerary when we first booked this little odyssey. As you know by now if you have suffered through our earlier ramblings, Bali definitely lived up to our hopes and expectations. Well we have to tell you Bora Bora went way beyond them. Seriously contemplated jumping ship and becoming a beach bum and bumette. Can you see Janey in that role? Grass skirt, flower behind the ear, swaying gently to the rhythm of the bongos, steady. Ian is still searching for his role. For 50 years or more do you mumble?
Anyway it is idyllic, just as the brochures say, beautiful beaches fringed with palms, clean white sand, crystal clear sea, gently shelving with small fish darting around. But to the detail. As we are sure you are all aware Bora Bora is part of the island chain which makes up French Polynesia. The island itself is about 6km by 4km and is very hilly. We arrived bright and early and Cap'n Bob expertly anchored us in this amazing lagoon which is, in fact, the crater of an extinct (we hope) volcano. We'll skip the geography lesson but it was pretty spectacular. Beyond the ring of islands around the lagoon is a fringe of coral reefs with a very narrow passage for vessels of this size.
P&O do not let us down and show their familiar indifference to those passengers who are not on organised tours. Having collected our raffle ticket for the tender ride to the delightful little quayside at Vaitape. We are then left to sit for best part of an hour whilst the P&O tour passengers are disembarked; finally an indistinct announcement signals management's willingness to cater for the needs of the independent minded travellers. But we will not let P&O's well established discrimination spoil the day.
Bora Bora is not your throbbing metropolis; get two or more of Oriana's lifeboats, sorry, tenders, alongside and the quay is in danger of getting congested, but therein lies its charm. On the quayside is the local transport, 4x4 trucks, converted lorries and a few minibuses. There is not a great variety of options open; one road skirts the island servicing the various beaches, a number of smaller boats will take you out to the fringing islands(motu) many of which have very swish resort developments, Hilton, Intercontinental, or out to sea for close ups of the reefs. But it is the beaches and the atmosphere that you have come for and you cannot fail to be impressed. We hop on to the back of a Landrover at 5$US each and head off to Matira beach, the only public beach on the island(many beaches are privately owned by hotels etc), 4km away. The roads are good, several people we found out subsequently, actually walked, but it was pretty hot, well up into the 30s, and we were happy to take the easy way. As we said earlier, the beach was fantastic and Janey frolicked to her hearts content in the warm and very salty water. Ian was all for building sand castles but sadly there were no takers. We had a walk round the headland, dodging the land crabs scuttling along the beach. - thankfully this was the extent of creepy crawlies here - where the Inter Continental hotel rooms stretched out into the sea on stilts, each with a thatched roof, its own steps and small landing stage into the sea - paradise. Hope they were air conditioned! Bet you can guess what photo we have as the wallpaper on our iPad!! We stayed at the beach for the morning, safe in the knowledge that there would be an afternoon shower and then caught the shuttle back to Vaitape. Our driver treated us to an animated dissertation as to why being Polynesian was much more important to him than the French association, how he would like to meet with M. Sarkozy to outline where he should hold any future nuclear tests. He seemed to think Paris would be the ideal location. He was certainly very proud of his culture and lifestyle, the fact that there were no guns and no crime on the island and the role of his many brothers in the economy of the island - policeman, bus driver to name a couple. When we got back to the quay some of the crew - the young lads who provide such a fantastic service for us - wanted a lift to the beach, and he halved the price of the shuttle for them - a nice touch, we thought.
Sure enough the rain came down, but it was warm rain! We strolled round the few shops, church and houses that were Vaitape, realising that prices were very high. The black pearl jewellery, for which the area is well known, was beautiful but extremely expensive, so our purchases were limited to stamps and postcards. The grandchildren have received a card from most ports of call - still the cards posted on ship at Southampton have not arrived!!
Oriana caused considerable interest amongst the locals - picture this huge ship at anchor 300m from the quay. School finished around 2pm and the youngsters were soon carrying their outrigger canoes aloft to the shore. Here they headed for the ship circling it, stepping out of their canoes onto the bulbous nose just under the water at the front of the ship (if I see an officer, I will accost him and ask for its technical name - don't you just love a man in a uniform??) - and using it as a diving board. As we set sail there were any number of 1 - 6 men outrigger canoes paddling furiously to keep pace; quite a sight as we threaded our way through the narrow channel between the reef. Another day in paradise - I feel a song coming on!!
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Clairey I'm thinking that the Southampton postcards have been on a world cruise too!!