Another rainy morning but the forecast was for clearing by 11am, making our planned trip to the Riri blue hole a possibility. We would get patches of sun and then it would fill right back in to complete cloud cover. I held out hope and around 11 we saw some blue sky and decided we were going no matter what. Roxy chose to sit this one out to paint, so just a guys trip up the river. It was a wet bash upwind to get to the river entrance but just like yesterday once in the river things mellowed out and it was nice and calm.
We came in just a few hours before low tide, so we had to be careful navigating, especially around a sand weir and through a lake-ish section. Exiting the lake we passed under a bridge where the current was ripping out, making it a very slow crawl up river. With our speed picking up after the constriction we kept going only to be flagged down by a villager. We headed his way to say hello and he let us know the cost was 1,000 vatu and we could pay him. We are low on cash, so Carl brought a $40 lure. He wasn’t interested. As Carl counted out the cash he looked at the lure and said it was very nice. We ended up with 1,650 vatu, and offered 1,000 plus the lure. Nope, he was having none of it. All our cash and the lure or turn around. Oh well, we handed it over and were on our way.
More twists and turns through gorgeous clear water led us to what looked like a local hangout/park/bbq area. A number of kids were swimming in the river while the parents were cooking up on the hillside over a big smokey fire. We waved, said hello, and kept moving. Just around the next bend was the Riri blue hole. This one was smaller that yesterday’s but the colors just as beautiful and as a bonus we again had the place to ourselves.
I started with the rope swing, this one was a bit of a challenge to hold the rope, swim to the sharp volcanic rock, climb up with one hand all while not losing the rope. Once on the platform I gave it a big jump and off I swung. It was fun but definitely lower than yesterday’s swing. That said, I probably did a dozen or more swings. I also tried the lower swing but it dropped into shallow water and wasn’t much fun. A swim around the lagoon, followed by a few more big swings before we chugged our way downstream in the dinghy.
No Comments