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Motu Excursion

Posted on January 23, 2009 by: Traveler

Closest City: Rotoava, Fakarava
State:
Country: French Polynesia

Tetamanu Village on the island of Fakarava was the second stop on a 23-day tour of seven islands in French Polynesia for Danielle and I. We only stayed at this location for three days, but we managed to pack a lot in from snorkeling, scuba diving to just island lounging. Our proprietors, Sane’ and Annabelle, ran a tight shop wearing many hats of responsibilities… the most important of which was to create a memorable experience for their paying guests (some of which would travel halfway around the world). The Lonely Planet guide, “Tahiti & French Polynesia”, we used to plan this adventure (and how we even found this location) described Tetamanu as follows, “Lovers of complete escape will find happiness in this idyllic setting- it’s difficult to imagine a more remote location.” As I said in my write-up for Tetamanu Village, this description fit EXACTLY what we were looking for in one of our island escapes. On our second morning after a scuba dive in Tumakohua Pass, Sane’ whisked Danielle and I (along with a nice French family who were also guests at Tetamanu) to a deserted motu about 15-20 minutes away from the one we were staying on. He dropped us all off with the promise to return in three hours. After Sane’ left and the motor from his boat (Hemoana) filtered from the distance, only the sound of the lapping lagoon against the tiny motu and screeching island birds could be heard. Tetamanu Village was a place to escape from it all… but this motu just a short trip away was absolute seclusion. In no time, Danielle and I began exploring the motu to the left and the French family began to explore the motu to the right.

A little island geography lesson is in order in case this is the first you are reading about our stay on Tahiti and Her Islands. See, Fakarava, just like the island of Rangiroa (our first stop) are both part of the Tuamotu Archipelago. This Archipelago is one of five island groups encompassing what is known as French Polynesia. The other four island groups are; the Society Island Group (Tahiti, Bora Bora etc.), The Australs Island Group (Rurutu, Raivavae etc.), The Gambier Archipelago (Mangareva, Temoe etc.) and The Marquesas (Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa etc.). That is where “Survivor; Marquesas”, was filmed… and without going on a tangent, Mark Burnett is a friggin genius to come up with the idea of marketing castaways as a T.V. show. Anyway, the Tuamotu Islands are ancient volcanoes that have collapsed and then filled with water creating a lagoon. The ancient crater rim of the collapsed volcanoes (now coral atolls) remained as the only exposed land mass. These exposed land masses are called motus in French Polynesia (possibly as “cays” elsewhere). The exposed motus of Fakarava are rectangular in shape and form a lagoon that is 60 kilometers long by 25 kilometers wide. The surface area of Fakarava’s lagoon is 1121 square miles, making it the second largest lagoon of the Tuamotu Archipelago (only Rangiroa’s lagoon is larger at 1640 square kilometers). You literally cannot see across to the other side of the island (the fact that the highest point is about 10 feet above sea level is a moot point). Fakarava has two deep-water passes, Garuae Pass in the north and Tumakohua Pass in the south. During the tidal exchange, the water of Fakarava’s lagoon mixes with the ocean water rushing into and out of these two passes. Garuae Pass, at 800 meters across and nearly 130 feet deep, is Fakarava’s largest pass and near most of the island’s settlement. A long motu stretches from the east side of Garuae Pass and makes an uninterrupted reef stretching for 40 kilometers along the eastern edge of the island. The western edge of Fakarava, in contrast, only has a few scattered motus. And in complete contrast to the behemoth Garuae Pass in the north, Tumakohua Pass in the south only has one settlement nearby; Tetamanu Village.

Sane’ picked a motu that was far enough away from Tetamanu Village that we all would not be able to see or hear much else but our surroundings. He did not drop us off at the edge of deep Tumakohua Pass and therefore, we could traverse across from motu to motu. Shallow channels, called hoa, separated the motus where we now were. There was a long, pink sandbar stretching across this hoa. Danielle found seashells of different sizes. I was looking for a picture where a coconut palm tree has basically grown sideways and then up to the sky but is now over-the-water. I could see one off in the distance and soon, we were walking across the sandbar in an attempt to get across this wide hoa.

The sky to our left (at most spots over the lagoon) was sunny with huge white cumulonimbus clouds. To the right (out over the Pacific Ocean) was drab and gray and blowing right toward us. No big deal, I thought. First off, we could use a little relief from this sweltering humidity. Secondly, thunderstorms on the Tuamotu Islands are brief (but violent) and with no island topography holding the storm cell back, it is swept overhead and gone after 20 minutes. The Society Islands, in contrast, have such varied relief that weather patterns slam into their mountainsides (figuratively speaking) and then dump rain all day, every day.

Surprisingly, the stormy looking clouds simply blew over our heads as we continued to cross the hoa. It must have been high tide because at one point the water reached up to my shoulders. I thought there was a shallow path to shimmy on across to the next motu (now, only 20 feet away). With my Nikon F100 (all these pictures are scanned Velvia slides) raised high overhead I took one more step… and felt nothing below me. I thought my camera was going in the drink. Luckily for me, Danielle was videotaping the attempted crossing, so it will live forever on YouTube. At Danielle’s advice, we finally made it across and I found my picture of the over-water-palms. I photographed similar palms on other islands but none as picturesque as on this secluded motu.

Danielle and I had fun just lounging in the shallows and kicking up our feet. We slowly migrated back to the pick-up point and met the French family whose daughters had a blast snorkeling. The father asked if we saw the skeleton around the corner from where we had originally got dropped off. Huh? Sure enough, there were human remains around the corner (a former guest of Tetamanu Village?) I bet the last thing this guy heard from Sane’ was, “I’ll see you in three hours”… Oh boy! Is that the motor of Hemoana I hear? True to his word, Sane’ picked us up. A few more pictures and our amazing, but brief, adventure had ended. (After returning to Tetamanu Village, I never did inquire whom the bones belonged to).

There may only be a couple times in our lives when we can truly escape the hustle and bustle of a hectic life. Our three days at Tetamanu Village were an escape from reality in and of itself, but for those three short hours we were dropped off on a deserted motu, Danielle and I felt the solitude of being island castaways.

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