Field Work!



MFT: Best data acquisition yet :)
LFP: Leaving the puppies behind!

Hallo, so yesterday I had my best day of data acquisition yet in French Polynesia! I got a whole day’s worth of data and even better some of it looked interesting! We rented a car (with a driver) and drove down Rangiroa Atoll crossing about 20 different motu and hoa (the small channels separating motu). Since most of the road was just gravel we had really good GPR data and GPS data (finally!). We had to keep reattaching the GPR wheel as that kept coming off, but other than that trifling detail things went swimmingly. To top off the day? We found 3 pre dug TRENCHES down to the water table (wohoo). Given how much coral rubble makes up these islands, digging trenches 1-3 meters deep can take an easy 2-3 hours, so finding some pre dug saves us so much time and energy. 

We had a lovely lunch break at a roulette, where lynn got a big hamburger and fries (such good fries). I ate my packed lunch (staying on the catamaran is so very civilized). We figured since we will shortly be leaving the inhabited motu (with ice cream and cold drinks) that we should enjoy the creature comforts while able! Anyways, it was a full day but overall very productive and fun (pretty much everything behaved, except the GPR wheel and the trimble GPS in the afternoon). We amused the locals with our GPR and driving around but thats expected. Plus it was a great way to see lots of motu!


The evening saw us back on the boat (after a cool down swim/cleaning of clothing off the boat) where we were treated to a lovely meal including a baked cake (talk about spoiled!). Oh yea - during the day, our driver brought her very pregnant dauschund. When we stopped for lunch we met the rest of the dogs! Apparently Rangiroa in particular is considered a “dog atoll”. Everyone seems to have at least 3 dogs (mostly in pretty good health). One of our driver’s dog had just had 6 puppies. All very adorable and still pretty young. I practically had to tear Lynn away from the pups. She kept asking if we could take one home (Letitia was very happy to give us a pup as she has too many). I said customs would be incredibly difficult — not to mention deworming, shots, ect.! Still they were very adorable and happy pups, but god knows how big they would get!

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