Return from Paradise!

The adventure is over and the many experiences are now etched deeply in my memory.

As a young boy in New Brunswick we played 'shinny' (pick-up pond hockey) on Lily Lake near our home. After playing all day and trudging back to the house, skates hooked to the hockey stick and hung over the left shoulder, shins bruised and bleeding, I could not wait to find a quiet spot, snuggle into a warm chair, and plunge back into a current book. Of course there was no Television to distract me, and definitely no devices to thumb dance on. My little T.V. screen was my own very active imagination.

Among many of my favourite books were Robinson Crusoe and the triptych about the HMS Bounty. The story of the mutiny itself, the voyage of Captain Bligh in the over-crowded long-boat, and Pitcairn Island, the final destination of Christian and his few followers. Never in my wildest dreams did I dare think that someday I would actually visit those wonderful places, swim in the same clear warm water, and enjoy a cool breeze under a palm tree just as those early British sailors had done many years ago.

The Population of Pitcairn Coming Alongside

Our adventure these past three weeks accomplished that miracle. We began in the port of Valparaiso, Chili and ended up on Tahiti in Papeete in French Polynesia. It was like visiting old friends from my youth. It was easy for me to picture Robinson Crusoe sitting in his little cave, or Captain Bligh navigating the long-boat through those same vast waters. I had hoped to get ashore at Pitcairn Island but I also knew it was a difficult island to approach because of the volcanic shoreline and large swells. Unfortunately, we could not land, so fifty, of the fifty-five inhabitants, came out in their ancient long-boat and joined us aboard Marina. What a wonderful day.

What I discovered was that the literary memories I have carried with me since the 1940's did not quite match the reality of what I saw and experienced. The Pacific Ocean is twice the size of the Atlantic Ocean and contains double the volume of water. Physically, most of the atolls and luminous turquoise and jade-green lagoons are just as they were in 1789.  They were even more beautiful than my young imagination created some seventy years ago. But experiencing them physically is vastly different from  those pictures inscribed in my young imagination.

Was I disappointed? Absolutely not! Was I surprised? Certainly. The first shock came when we visited Robinson Crusoe Island. Instead of hot sun, emerald water lapping on pristine sand under waving palm trees, we encountered a somewhat bleak and black volcanic rock, mud and cold damp caves. The caves just above the village appeared to have been man made and used as part of a fort at one time. Granted, it was an overcast day, cool weather and definitely not some place I would like to spend time. I don't envy Mr. Friday!

Bora Bora - Note the Narrow Entrance

But as we moved closer to the equator the weather improved and by the time we came upon our first atoll it was overpoweringly beautiful.  Indeed, the small salt water swimming pool on the ship became too hot to enter! Although the beaches met all the criteria of my early imagination, we had to travel some distance to find one that was safe from the jagged rocks and cascading surf.

Visiting French Polynesia was never high on my 'Bucket List' as I classified it as an impossible dream. However, in retrospect I can now write it in and check it off. It is a very special place in the world and seemingly far from the many major problems confronting the rest of planet earth.

But like so  many other trips, this one also proved the old proverb: "There is no place like home". This octogenarian was glad to get back home, even if I was enriched by a wonderful and exciting journey into a part of the world some might still describe as paradise.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week