Friday on Ua Poa

I think an earlier blog had me visiting the Tech school and returning to the Pensione for its WiFi access - which I didnt get because noone
was there. So I lay down and rested some more. Suddenly I hear a car then Philip rushing in saying 'lets go. I have found a family to take us on a driving tour'. For the next 6 hrs after a pizza lunch at their house, we travelled many kms on the usual rough 4WD roads and saw heaps of things of interest. Some examples, the aqua blue bay with small sharks swimming around and very visible in the clear water from the cliff we stood on. The freshly opened coconut for each of us to drink the delightfully refreshing water. Try as I might there was too much for me to drink it all like the locals. Passed the airport with a very steep tarmac to slow the planes down quickly - reminded me of those internet compilations of the worlds most dangerous landing strips. With this one, there was the beach, a single lane gravel road, a 5ft fence and then the start of the tarmac. Copra drying on all sorts of surfaces. A girl in one of the two small villages we visited coming up to our car saying 'hello helen'. She had been in the class I had talked with that morning. Acacia trees overtaking the native vegetation. Quite dramatically terrible. (Remember the miner birds we are trying to keep out if tassie have overrun Hiva Oa but not the other Marquesan islands). Noel and Julienne's family all come from last village. Family long time ago installed huge christian cross on dramatic hill, to supplant earlier local pagan connections with that site. Sensational drive. Quite marvellous,