July 23rd 1982

posted in: Innocents Abroad | 0
Chris, Bernadette, Ingrid and Val at the camp-site

A wonderful relaxed night, then breakfast – bread, jam + coffee (marvellous.)  Chatted briefly with Felix, our next-door neighbour, + borrowed a Jimmy Cliff tape from him.  We then took the short walk to the point – a great place, huge grey lumps of volcanic rock all stacked up, a cool breeze to keep off the bugs, + patches of grass to lie on.  Every so often, a really big wave would come booming in against the rocks, + throw up a huge sheet of water into the air.  We sat there, naked, reading, writing, listening to music, + shortly thereafter Dave joined us – we’d told him where we were going.  To our surprise (+ delight) he’d brought a lunch of bread + cheese with him, so that was where we spent most of the day.  He left sometime in the afternoon to attend to some correspondence – he does a lot of that – + Val + I went down to the breakwater again for a swim.

Val keeping the sun off

When we returned, Bernadette was there, along with Ingrid, her daughter.  B is a Swiss cum Canadian, + has been travelling round the South Pacific for 3 months or so.  In fact, she immediately preceded us in our present camp-site – she’d shown Dave + he’d shown us.  She is very adventurous, has travelled much, + just returned from a trip to the other side of the island.  Ingrid is 5, + to my mind spoilt + precocious.  They too, hopefully, are going to Papeete on the copra boat.

Collected some wood, + then supper, a wonderfully filling concoction of various canned vegetables, + then a tin of pears. After that, we lay around the camp-fire, and sang.

Life certainly did feel good then. Beautiful surroundings, lovely weather, good food, great companions, and freedom.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.