Mid Mo 2

We dingied down to a different spot on the reef, further from the camp, that looked like we might be able to get to the ocean side. Avatar waits in the distance out in deeper, darker blue water.

The sand led us to an interesting coral path through the water.

It was like a sidewalk to the ocean!

The lagoon water ended here.

Looking back towards the lagoon.

Where the water ended we found a hill of large chunks of gray coral which are so hard to walk on. Our sandals have taken a beating from walking on these sharp chunks.

Over the gray hill, we find the ocean side of the atoll.

There were decent size waves breaking on the coral.

There are several layers to an atoll. The ocean level, the tide level (brown rocks), the sand layer and the gray coral chunk layer. Oh and don't forget the driftwood and sad plastic debris line at the highest tide line.

There were several short lengths of very large diameter polypropylene line. The blue one.

The white one.

The black one.

This is what happens to a plastic bottle that has been thrashed in the coral by the ocean.

Wind is still blowing from the ESE out there, but the ocean does not look too disturbed. And the coral is a lovely reddish color.

It is sad to see so much trashed washed up here.

I went to check out this crab, but it turned out to be just a molt of a crab, because he never moved.

Looking down into the tide pools at my shadow.

Mike grabs the camera to get s shot of me standing on that rock.

Waves crash on the coral, and you can see the curve of the atoll as the beach fades away in the distance.

We hiked back to our inlet where we left the dingy.

There were some very deep fissures in the coral. Not sure if it was from the island actually sinking as they say they do, or an earth quake? But each side of the line was totally different.

On the sidewalk going thru the middle lagoon, Mike notices something in the shallow water.

Several colorful clams! 

I thought these two shells were quite odd, standing on end. I did not see a snail in them, but there must have been one, how else could it stand up like that?!?

Selfie!

Between the two sections of coral, sticking up out of the water, we spotted the black tip of a black tip shark. Can you see it? (double click to enlarge)

Another amazing sunset at Makemo Atoll in the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia.

Mid Mo Anchorage

The only issue with diving the West pass was, that it put us on a lee shore when the East wind was blowing. And with that bombie so close to our keel and the wind blowing us toward shore, we decided to go back to the anchorage in the middle of Makemo atoll (Mid Mo). It is actually a very well protected spot from the SE winds because a reef sticks out from a sandy beach, protecting us from the fetch.

So we carefully dodged the bombies and sailed East.

On the way we saw several whales again. One surfaced right next to us and scared me, but I did not have my camera ready. We think there was a baby too, but they were too far to really know. 

On the way we passed this over-water bungalow fairly close, to see if it was a pearl farm or what. It looked kind of abandoned and was built right on top of a bombie.

But it was just inside the lagoon from the only pension (sort of a hotel) on the island. So who knows maybe it was the honeymoon suite?!

We anchored in plenty of time to catch the sunset. Seems each one is better than the last. Maybe I just feel thankful for another beautiful day! 

This place is gorgeous the next morning, with that amazing turquoise water!

The point has a lovely sandy beach. And it looks like someone may be there.

But when we went ashore, it was like we just missed them, or they will be back shortly, because lots of stuff was laying around.

This chicken decided to walk right onto the barbecue grill, but lucky for him it was not over a fire. ;-)

There were several structures low to the ground with blue tarps not over them. For copra drying we assume, or for several guys tents?!?

This was definitely a tent for sleeping in.

Our family in the village had told us this area is where the village had been many years ago. All we could find was this one building foundation.

Judging by how much the termites have eaten this fallen palm tree, I am guessing it was quite a long time ago!

There are so many lovely palms here. This one looked especially lovely.

And these in the light.

We spotted this cute hermit crab guy with his portable home.

We heard strange scratching noises under the corrugated tin roof left on the ground. When Mike picked it up, there were a huge pile of hermit crabs hiding out under it!! 

On the far side of the camp we found what looked to be a sand road heading into the heart of the atoll.

Except there were no human or car tracks on this road, only 100s of hermit crab tracks!

We find another one and Mike picks him up so you can see his size. Surprisingly he did not hide inside his shell.

At the end of the sand road, there was water.

We tried to continue on the rocks along the side, but the growth was too thick to continue. Looking back at where we had walked from, the water reflects the clouds and blue sky.

This guy is redder and a little bigger than the last one.

The sand detail was different depending on where we were. This is up the sand road.

This one is closer to the inner lagoon, with more sea shells and mini sand dollar like things. Really tiny ones too!

Miguel is dwarfed by this very tall coconut palm.

We walked back along the coral of the inner lagoon toward the beach where we left the dingy.

Interesting how this pile of debris landed in this perfect circle on the coral.

What a sunset tonight! Does anyone ever get tired of looking at that? I don't think so!

The next day we decided to snorkel the reef heading away from the sandy beach in front of us.

A fairly large Huma-huma-nupa-nupa-apuana, also known as a trigger fish, hovers by holes in the bottom. I was quite surprised when he disappeared down into one of them.

Now you can see what these bombies might look like from under the water. (shallow!!)

There are a few live corals growing here.

An interesting sand canyon in the coral reef.

A beautiful purple coral.

Do you notice anything missing from this reef???

These were some of the only fish we saw :-( Every day we saw fishermen coming through with nets thrown from their boats. With only a couple of exceptions, all the fish we saw here were less than 2 inches.

The purple of the coral is reflecting in the bottom of the water's surface.

A scallop?!? Maybe just his shell.

A colony of clams are growing in this coral.

One of those really scary bombies!!

This is a big chunk of coral that just fell off from where it was attached. Maybe because it grew too big and just got too heavy, or maybe because a wind swell broke it off.