Yesterday Shigeo and I started together to hike the middle part of the mountain ridge of Mangareva.

The starting point of the trail was a bit hidden, but when I asked, we got the entrance shown. It looks like private property for the first 50 m.

Then the first about 30 m were a bit steep. Shigeo was afraid it’s all the way like this. But it’s all a hike and not a climbing tour.

When we reached the ridge, we meet a group of local people. They confirmed we are on the right way.

It was again and up down path on the narrow ridge of the caldera. Like last hike on the ridge, there were magnificent views down on the lagoon.

The descent was easy. A well prepared trail brought us to the street along the western shore.

As a little truck came, I confirmed that we are on the right way back to Rikitea on the other mountain side.

As always, it was interesting to see the houses and properties on both sides of the gravel road.

Whenever there were people sitting outside their houses, a friendly “bon jour” was exchanged.

At one place we met a group of children, the oldest girl 11 the 2 others and the boy younger.

They asked carefully if we speak English. And then, “Do you know an English prayer?” I was a bit surprised. We had some very simple conversations in French and English. Also names where exchanged. All of them have long Polynesian names, but at home other names are used. The older girls had about 3 – 4 shorter names used by the family. As one of the names sounded like “hana”, we explained that this means in Japanese “flower”, which the girl liked a lot. Then the older girl made a heart symbol with her hands and asked what “le coeur” is in Japanese. When we used the Japanese equivalent “kokoro”, all of them bursted out laughing. They pointed to the boy and we understood what it means in their language. After a selfie we continued our walk.

Then the little truck, we asked for confirmation of our way, came from behind, stopped and offered us ride in the loading area. It was a nice ride. Comfortable for our legs but bumpy for our bums.

When they needed to take another road, we kept walking for a bit more until the next car came. A lady in an SUV, the standard car on Mangareva beside trucks, gave us a ride to the other side and dropped us at the tiny port where our tender was docked

A nice day!