Huahine

So managed to get hold of one of the few bikes they have on board. Seems to be all about who you know as to whether a bike will be yours…

I was given a heads up by the other nurse that there was a nice short bike ride round the island of Huahine. Sounded perfect. I had a bit of time spare in the port and was all geared up for a nice quick spin round the island. Obviously I prepared with no map, no directions of any kind along with absolutely no idea how long a ‘short’ bike ride actually is.

I packed a bottle of water and off I went…

As you can see it again wasn’t the sunniest day to start but it improved…

As did the views…

Can’t deny that it was a super duper start to the day. Barely another person in sight. Just a road and a view all the way.

However, this lack of people accompanied by my lack of map or distance did begin to play on my mind a bit.

Now I knew that I was on an island. Its basic common sense that if you carry on cycling round the edge, you will eventually end up back where you started.

Common sense obviously.

I did pass a couple of crew on my way round. Also on bikes. They were cycling the other way. Which did make me wander… Did they leave much earlier than me? Had they been cycling for several hours? Am I ever going to make it round the island before the ship leaves?

After about 1.5 hours of cycling, I found my photo stops became less frequent as the thought of a previous wrong turn earlier in the journey, which I hadn’t consciously noticed, became a stronger feeling inside my head.

I was in the middle of French Polynesia, with not a soul in sight. 1 litre of water would only last me so long… I needed civilisation… and then…

Saved!

Phew!

The relief was incredible!

Turns out when I arrived back on the ship, the other 2 crew that passed me had also been worried about the distance and turned back instead, concerned about missing the ship. When I showed them the record of my journey that I recorded on my fit bit…

… Seems that Paul had managed about 95% of the way round before he had decided to turn back! At least he got a few more miles in…

Anyhow… Noticed this chap sitting near me on the tender boat back to the ship…

I couldn’t help wandering if he’d grown his moustache to match his wind stopper on his video camera… Or purchased the wind stopper to match his moustache…

I’ll let you ponder that one as I did…