Hiking Fatu Hiva

MFT: Hiking solo across the island

LFP: Having my day end!

Hallo, so I had a pretty awesome day! I got to hike across the island. But let me backtrack a bit. We anchored in Fatu Hiva in the early morning at the town of Hanavave in the Bay of Virgins. All of the Marquesa Islands are pretty impressive sights with their steep cliffs and dramatic scenery. However, I would argue that Fatu Hiva is the steepest of the Marquesa Islands that we visited. It’s a pretty small island, but man are their steep cliffs and mountains.

Anyways, we started the day by being ferried over to the only other town on the island, Omoa. We got to use a local boat for ferrying since using our dinghies with their small engines would have taken a while! The students all got to meet with the town mayor and talk for a bit, but I immediately went off and started collecting samples. Sadly, as soon as I started collecting samples I realized that my GPS handheld unit was missing…I was hoping it was left on the ship, but it seems like it got left in my last car rental in Tahuata. This is incredibly unfortunate but not completely devastating (just a pain). Luckily, I figured out how to use my camera to get GPS coordinates for a location! Boy was my new camera a GREAT buy. I mean first off I got a really nice sale on it from Amazon because I bought it Christmas eve. Second, it takes some pretty good pictures. The best part is that it is waterproof (to 45 ft) and shockproof. Basically this means that I can leave it in my pocket all day while doing some intense fieldwork and not worry about it getting drenched with salt or hit along things (also it takes fun panorama photos). Long story short — thank god for my camera.

So after collecting my first sample, I dropped it off at the docks because I didn’t want to carry it around (these samples weigh around 10 lbs!). Normally in these islands you can leave something on the ground and never worry about it being disturbed. I put it in my duffle (another amazing buy, thank you Ikea for a storable duffle that cleans easily) and then put tape on the duffle with my name and saying “Pour le bateau Robert Seamans en Hanavave” (French for the “Robert Seamans Boat in Hanavave”). I wanted to make sure that the students took the bag back with them on the ferry and drop it off at the boat. I then went to collect my second sample. The town was really cute and best thing ever, I found BRIE and bought some diorites and a baguette for lunch. However, when I got back to the dock to drop off my second sample, by duffle was gone (along with the sample inside). I was rather annoyed because I had now potentially lost a sample…but I held out hope that some well-meaning person had decided to deliver my sample (what can I say, the last thing I wanted to do was go collect more sand again). Anyways, the second time around I decided to NOT label my sample for any destination and just left my giant ziploc filled with sand on the dock. I made sure to triple check with various students about taking the sand with them in the afternoon. Then I set out for my hike!

According to all the guidebooks and the blurb in Fatu Hiva itself, there was a lovely hike between the two towns. It’s 17 km and pretty mountainous but supposedly a really nice hike and apparently only taking 3-4 hours (I had doubts about that part!). I had decided that I wanted to do the hike and use it to see if I could access any other valleys and their rivers along the way (plus I would finally get some exercise). It was funny, because even though every guidebook mentions this hike, anytime I asked people on Fatu Hiva about the road to Hanavave they all seemed horrified about me walking it! In fact as soon as I started walking up the mountain, a car drove out of its way (as in took a different road to come up to me) to give me a lift! So in the end, I missed out on hiking all 17 km. I got a lift for the first 2-3 km from a very nice guy. At the end of 30 minutes, however, I had truly maxed out all of my French. We had resorted to writing things down (French is much easier to read than understand orally). I then assured him that I was happy to hike the rest of the way and he started back down the mountain. The road was unpaved (hence why most people go by boat between the two towns) and not in great condition for a car, but pretty awesome for a walker. I only had three cars pass me the entire time (including my lift). It was a truly gorgeous hike! I mean it was steep initially and at the end but otherwise just a reasonable grade the whole way. I had great weather, overcast interspersed with sun but no rain. Gorgeous views of the island. I put my headphones on and sang as I walked by myself.

I walked for about 3.5 hours before I met up with some of the crew from the Seamans enjoying the view above Hanavave. They had been to the waterfall in Hanavave and then walked up the hill to see the view. We shared some of the cheese and bread and then descended into town together to get to the Magasin (local small food store) to get supplies before it closed. The way down was STEEP. I mean the Hanavave side of the road was paved for the initial steep part (last 3 km or so), but boy was it steep. My shins were killing me by the time we got down to the town. In town I bought a small ice cream cone and it was the best way to end the hike! In the evening, we joined back up with the students and had a huge meal on shore hosted by the local church. All in all it was a truly lovely day and pretty successful in terms of sampling. When I got back to the boat, I found BOTH samples from the morning had been delivered. As I hoped a local canoe had dropped off my sample in the morning. I’ll try to post a couple of pictures for the blog in a day or two. It’s just hard to do so because of limited internet access.