Our last day in the Marquesas Islands. Our visit to Oma, Fatu Hiva was originally supposed to be longer, but because it was moved to the last day, it got cut short so we can sail to the next stop. There were originally two instances of a 4-wheel drive tour of the island, but the afternoon one was cancelled due to needing to leave earlier in the day.

We were originally scheduled to visit Atuona on Hiva Oa, the final home and resting place of painter Paul Gauguin. But that changed a few days ago because of high winds. The trip brochure does mention that the Atuona stop can be canceled because of high winds. The bay the ship anchors in faces east, and when there are strong east winds and swell from the southeast the ship rolls at anchor.

The entire Marquesas Island archipelago is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The previous day was a sea day. I worked on the jigsaw puzzle and blog posts and relaxed. We attended a talk on the culture of the Marquesas islands. There are less than 10,000 people living on six islands. The others are uninhabited. They have maintained their language and their tattoos.

Arrive in Fakarava, an atoll in the Tuamotou Archipelago at 7am.

We had booked a snorkeling tour in the early afternoon, but all instances of that tour (there were morning tours as well) were canceled because of high winds.

Fakarava is a rectangular atoll with a way to get in on the north side. We anchored inside and tendered into the town of Rotoava. The atoll is a fairly narrow rim less than one mile wide that about 800 people live on.

Our backup plan is to walk around town. We got off around 8:30 and started walking north along the inside towards the lighthouse 3 km away which was visible from the ship.

Today is a sea day, we’ll arrive in Fakarava around 7am tomorrow morning. The ship is rolling and pitching some in the 4-6 ft waves. Our cabin is near the front of the boat so we feel both motions. Cabins more in the middle of the ship don’t feel the pitching motion as much.

Our day starts at 2am as we get up for our 3am car to the airport. We have uneventful flights to Denver, then San Francisco and to Papeete, Tahiti.

Today we have a couple extra tours booked, a trip to a private game reserve to attempt to see the last of the African Big Five animals that we haven’t seen, the rhino. Then we have a helicopter flight over the falls.

We get up very early and have breakfast before the sun comes up. We start with a two and half hour drive to the dirt airport near Khwai to fly back to Kasane. Then we take a bus to Victoria Falls and a tour of the Falls in the afternoon. Victoria Falls is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today is our last day of wildlife viewing in the Okavango Delta region.

Today we start early again for breakfast and then a game drive.