July 2002

Hello everyone,

The appearance of the Gambier's mountains have changed quite a bit since my first visit, twenty-five years ago : at that time, the mountains were only covered in tall grass, hard to cross, that gave the islands an arid and dried-out aspect. But a few years before, to grow again a tree cover on the islands, a french law had been brought to light : it gave ownership to tracts of land to anyone who had occupied the place peacefully for thirty years, without any other possible owner presenting revendications; to simplify land-owning problems, which can be very complicated in Polynesia, where a piece of land is often claimed by fifty owners at the same time, the idea of "peaceful occupation" has been extended to the fact of planting trees... and that's how families whose grandfather has planted, thirty years ago, two dozen palm trees or a hundred Fiji pines, are now able to divide between themselves large pieces of land. And that's why, the trees having grown, the mountain sides are almost fully covered with tall trees, Falcata, Fiji Pines or Aito (Ironwood) trees. There is not a large variety of tree species, but it is more varied than the huge areas of once cultivated land in Europe that have now been given away to very sad forests of black pine trees.

My stay in the Gambier has been almost perfect : the archipelago has one drawback : it is located at the limit of the tropical zone, and from June to September, the temperatures are a little too low to my taste. Cold fronts march in one after the other, and one sometimes thinks of Brittany, Cornwall or Maine...

But as soon as the sun comes back, how wonderful the Gambier are, with their unique cocktail of mountains and lowy-lying islets, barely sticking out of the sea, these "motu" that are the only component of the Tuamotu atolls I am presently sailing to : For the next few weeks, mountains will only be a remembrance ; barrier reefs, low islets planted with palm trees and pandanus will be the horizon's only ornament.

Let me tell you, however, that the day before I left, Banana Split has been used for carrying cattle ! A friend of mine, who owns an islet inhabited by seven goats, wanted to bring them a he-goat that had been captured on another island. And that's how a splendid he-goat - well endowed by nature - has crossed the lagoon from Taravai to Rikitea on the deck of Banana Split... it has remained quite peaceful, bleating inquiringly only when the catamaran whoud be lifted by a wave.

Now the he-goat has been landed on the islet of Mekiro... what I didn't tell you, is that in memory of the animal's crossing on my boat, its owner has called it... Antoine ! And that explains why from now on, Antoine reigns over seven beautiful goats, pretty and horned, and on a breathtaking view of the lagoon of Akamaru.

Next time, I will tell you about the Tuamotu.