Bora Bora Part 1 - Driving around on "Le Truck"

Bora Bora is a much smaller island than Tahiti, with a central mountain and quite a small population of less than 10 000. The people live in a few small villages by the sea, sharing the beautiful shoreline and pristine beaches with a couple of luxury hotels that have been built to look like the traditional huts with steep thatched roofs. 

After our warm and friendly traditional greeting on shore by local musicians when we alighted from our tender boats, for my shore excursion I joined about 19 other people on ”Le Truck”. This was literally a truck with a kind of cabin installed at the back, in which there were plastic bucket seats and only partial windows - the open windows constituted our air conditioning. You can see a photo of this below. Anyhow, it rather reminded me of the amphibious vehicle in which I was driven around Lisbon and then on its river.

We set off following the beach road around the island, The views were just wonderful - this too is a coral island with different coloured waters. Some of the passengers spent their day here skin-diving amongst stingrays, sea turtles and other marine creatures in the crystal clear waters. How great would that be!

Most of the local people seemed to sell produce from in front of their own places. There were very few shops to be seen. Along the way at one place we stopped to see a very interesting demonstration of how they dyed their fabrics . We also were shown how to wrap a one of their rectangular cloths around you to make a beach robe, a more formal garment, and so forth. 

At another spot along the beach “Le Truck” was stopped and we were told to throw the fresh hibiscuses that were hanging inside our cabin out of the window onto the sand and watch what happens. Before we knew it, crabs came racing out of little mounds in the sand, grabbing the flowers and dragging them down into their holes. Within five minutes there was no sign of any flower. It was amazing!

The following photos show some of the sights we saw on this first half of our somewhat bumpy but fun journey. 

Our view of Bora Bora from the ship.

A view from across the upper deck.

On the pier after disembarking from the tender boat. Notice the colour of the water and our ship in the background. 

Our friendly greeting.

These two photos were of a fascinating tree at the pier. I noticed it when the 'dingle-dangles' tickled me on the back as I waited for our excursion to start. I was relieved to find it wasn't a spider! 

"Le Truck"!

At least the seats had cushions!

The village near the pier. Apparently most islanders here are Protestant. 

Along the roadway.

This is actually the grave of someone precious to this family. If the person was not well-loved they would be buried behind the house. If the person was despised, they would be buried on top of the mountain where no-one would ever look at them again. We were told this is an incentive to be a good and loving person.  

Some of the many lovely cloths made at this particular enterprise.

Wet white cloth is scrunched up then dipped into different pots of dye, one after the other, then unravelled.. 

Rubbery templates are placed over the wet cloth on a table. The cloth dries in the sun in about 20 minutes. When they are removed, the shapes are now on the cloth.

Outside the front of the enterprise. The hut was their 'sales hut'.

The amazing breadfruit that provides such a range of nutrients, and was carried by the Polynesians on their sea voyages. 

Part of one of the hotels. Apparently Marlon Brando used to own one of these huts. 

One of the beautiful beaches. The palm trees were laden with coconuts, so we were careful not to stand under them. 

The crabs at work taking the flowers down their holes.

Talk about a case of going, going, gone! The crabs then disappeared from view.