Mangareva!

MFT: Hiking up the mountain all alone
LFP: Slipping down the mountain

Hallo, so today we finally got to go ashore to Mangareva. Because it is Sunday not too many places are open on shore, so the students were given a free day. I decided to hike around the island and try to find rivers and fluvial samples. Rachel came with me instead of attending the local mass service this morning. We tried following the guidebook which said the trail to the mountain was north of Rikkitea (the main town on Mangareva). So we started off walking north from the town and walked for about 3 miles until we realized that the guidebook was frankly wrong! We ended up retracing our steps completely and then heading WEST of the town to find the trail. We finally found it and decided to take the trail to the other mountain top (Mt. Motopo, instead of Mt. Duff).

It was VERY steep in parts but the final view was totally worth it! At first there was a decent trail (if steep and muddy) but then it petered out and we're left looking up at the bare mountain top trying to find a trail. So Rachel and I started bushwalking through slightly cutting grasses up a very steep slope until we finally made it to the ridge. Once we were on the ridge, there was a rough goats track that we could follow to the peak. The best part was that it was just the two of us! There was no one else around and very few goats (funny given the amount of goat poop we saw!). The view at the top was incomparable as we could see all around the island and take some gorgeous pictures (will try to post at some point soon). We had lunch on the summit and then hiked down (rather exciting).


We made it back into town in pretty good time and were able to find a small store next to the dock that sold ice cream! It’s amazing how good cold ice-cream tastes in the tropics especially after you’ve just hiked 10 miles up and down a mountain and are covered in sweat, mud, sunscreen and other things. We took the 1400 boat run back to the Seamans and got to enjoy a swim call with the crew (I was the lifeguard) and a nice saltwater deck shower (thank god for head&shoulder’s shampoo). Then I spent the afternoon reading Talisman Ring (a truly hilarious book) and responding to emails. No watch tonight (yea) so I get a full nights sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be climbing the other mountain again looking for more sediment samples (not too optimistic, but oh well — the hikes are so very lovely). 

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