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Today is our last day in French Polynesia…so we decided to make the most of it. First thing this morning Dale was up working on getting connected to the local high speed internet. Unfortunately he has to go to the Horizon lounge (top deck, front of ship) to get the connection, but we’d heard from some fellow cruisers, Bill and Karen, that the performance is much better than the ships’ internet. Dale, still trying to get his South American blog books uploaded, was optimistic. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the transfer still didn’t work…we think there may be a file size limit or something, so we’ll have to try again when we get to the next port 3 days from now. The Top 9 photos follow:
Click here for detailed Bora Bora Photo Gallery.
After a quick lunch we made our way to shore to try and find a jet ski operator who could take us on a tour of the lagoon. We had heard from some locals in Moorea that the best thing to do in Bora Bora is the lagoon…the island itself is beautiful, but there isn’t a lot to see or do on land. So with high hopes we get on the tender. As luck would have it, I overheard a fellow passenger in line say that he was independent. I noticed that he had on a dive shirt and was carrying his snorkel gear, so we decided to sit down next to him on the tender ride.
It turns out he (Gary) was planning to go on a boat ride that included snorkeling with sting rays and sharks! We ended up on a pretty large power boat with Gary and 2 other Oceania passengers, Anita & Keith as well as 3 local guys who were our guides.
First stop, sting rays. The water was about 4 feet deep and a very clear, light blue color. You could see the rays, which ranged in size from 2-3 feet across. Dale and Gary jumped right in, while I more cautiously entered the water. The rays were all around us – mostly because the guides had fish in their pockets – and in my opinion, a little to friendly! I petted one on the back and, after another one glided past my leg, decided to get back in the boat! The main guide, Joe, was a very fun young guy who grew up on the island and was VERY comfortable in the water. He was grabbing the rays by either side on “riding” them. It was fun and I’m happy to say that I touched one as well…just not quite as thoroughly as Joe! Dale and Gary were snorkeling around the rays and Dale got some underwater videos as well.
For the next stop we headed out of the protective reef that encircles most of Bora Bora to the deeper, darker blue waters. Here, is where the sharks are! In Moorea, I had a slight panic attack just thinking about sharks in the water, and now, I could see them swimming around the boat! And worst yet, Dale, Gary and the guides were all jumping in!! Needless to say, I did not “swim with the sharks”, but I did put my fingertips in the water so I can honestly say I have been “in the water with sharks”!
Dale, Gary and the guides had a great time, while I safely took pictures from the boat. The guides were chumming the sharks (throwing pieces of fish for them to eat) and this attracted a whole school of some sort of dark colored fish, some iridescent blue fish and 3 or 4 sea gulls! It was quite a scene. Dale told me that Joe, the young guide, swam down 30 feet or so and grabbed onto the dorsal fin of a 12 foot lemon shark and got a ride for a good 10 seconds all the while rubbing the sharks back! Crazy. Dale got some underwater video of this as well.
With everyone safely back on the boat, we made our way to our next stop at a beautiful coral garden. Here the snorkeling was safe (I told Joe that if even saw a shark his tip money was gone!). The water was perfectly clear, with lots of colorful fish, pretty coral and a lot of sea urchins. Dale even saw an octopus hiding in the reef!
Last but not least our guides took us to a small island (motu) beach where they served us refreshments including some coconut bread that the owners wife made and fresh fruit. It was an idyllic scene. We noticed an area just of the beach that was fenced in and went over to check it out. It turns out it was an enclosure and inside were some fish and a sea turtle! It was hard to see the turtle as he would just poke his head up for a few seconds, but when our guide find out we were interested in seeing it, he jumped in the water and went and got it! He swam it up to the beach and held it up for us to take pictures. Pretty cool.
On our ride back to the pier the guides, who had been talking, laughing and having a great time all day, played a ukulele type of guitar and sang songs for us. It was great to see them enjoying themselves so much…it made a fun excursion even better to have these very friendly guys laughing and singing.
Back on the ship we showered and went up to meet Gary and his wife Dawn at the Horizon bar for a cocktail. We had a great time reliving our day and later we all went to the main dining room and had a very fun dinner. We capped off the night back at the Horizon lounge where they had karaoke going on and under very little pressure from Dale, I got up and sang “Hotel California”. The best day of the trip so far! Check out the video clips!
We got a phone call today that we needed to evacuate our home back in Reno due to a fast moving brush fire. This fire has now taken off and is VERY serious. Our neighbors had to evacuate their homes and stay in hotels until the fire passes. We started making plans to fly home in case our home was involved in the fire…go home and clean up the mess and then fly back to meet the ship. What else could we do? The video on Fox about this fire didn’t help calm or fears! Watch it here:
Photography Comments:
Lighting is really important in photography. The best time to take pictures on trips like this are in the morning and in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, during our boat trip today it was mid-day. The lighting was very harsh so you don’t get the beautiful blue colors or, if you do, the sky is very white. Lots of backlighting situations where you need to use fill flash but that only works if you are close enough. When you are in a boat it isn’t easy to get up and walk around. Bora Bora is the kind of place where to get great shots you need to scout out the places you want to shoot and be there at the right time of day. There’s always next time! We hope.
The underwater shots weren’t easy given that there were sharks and sting rays around and I wasn’t that used to swimming with them. Not only that, I wanted to enjoy the experience while I was doing it rather than missing it while trying to get stills and videos. So, I got what I did while having a great time with the experience other than having to assure Margaret that I wasn’t going to get eaten by sharks! She was really quite concerned about that and maybe I would have if I had thought about it for a minute.
Trip Summary » Travel with Dale & Margaret - […] Bora Bora, French Polynesia […]