Bora Bora, Safari Ride

This morning, we called up Te’a Hui (who took us to church) and asked if he could take us for a Safari 4×4 ride. Yes, he was available so he picked us up to tour the island. The first time we started up the mountain, there was a horrible sound that came from one of the rear wheels…the four wheel drive was broken. He drove us to his friends’ house and we waited for another vehicle to arrive. As we waited, two pick ups arrived that were full of palm fronds. People appeared from all over and the men unloaded the vehicles while the women sat down and started weaving them to be used for the type of palm roofs that are seen all over the island (including our overwater bungalow). The second vehicle arrived and we left to go on some very muddy back roads and up to some great vistas that overlooked the motu’s (outer islands).This little boy was the son of a lady that was weaving. He didn’t speak a word of English, but when I took a photograph and showed it to him on the back of my camera, he got a huge grin on his face. We were bouncing so much as we drove through the mud that I couldn’t hold the camera still, so sorry for the blur. The trail reminded me of where we used to drive when I was little and my parents lived in Ethiopia. There were times the “road” looked just like this…or even worse!Te’a Hui parked the vehicle at the local carwash (a stream that went over the road) and washed the clay/mud off the wheels, so Bob climbed out to help him.As we finished driving the perimeter of the island, Te’a Hui stopped at a tree on the side of the road to pick some leaves. He then rolled them up and then tied them in a ball with the stem. Bob and I looked at each other with a puzzled looked not knowing what they were for. Te’a Hui said, “For the crabs”. A couple minutes later, he stopped and tossed some out the window to the ground. All of a sudden, large crabs started coming out of holes in the ground and each one tried to get the tied leave and take it down it’s whole. As the leaves were too big, they would get stuck, so another crab would come and start tugging the leaf, then running it to their hole. It was funny to watch.