The destination! Pearl farm became my home for about one week. Life in the middle of ocean, water water water and just a thin stretch of land, farm work - pearl farm work!!! And of course never ending talks about fishing :)
Ocean side
Pearl farm built inside the lagoon side, standing on poles on the shallow reef, thin bridge going over the water to the island. Remote place, just few fishing boats per day passing. Rare visitors - like me -
can come here and stay for free, if willing to get hands dirty with the farm
work! Work - diving for pearl baskets, shells cleaning, attaching shells to
baskets.
Pearl shells attached to basket
Day 1 decided to dive for baskets, like planned - free dive
down, pick the basket and towards the surface to hand it over to boat, no
problems. With second dive decided to follow the locals and take 2 baskets at a
time. Picked the 2 and towards the surface, mere 2 meters to go the lower
corner of basket got stuck in ropes, what a great moment. Air was running out,
so no time to go down to un-do the ropes. Only way to drop the baskets to the
bottom of the lagoon - would be rather nice black for the first day :) Luckily
one of the other divers noticed me doing fish talk and saved the baskets from
going to the bottom. Good introduction to the life in the middle of the ocean
:)
Thursday is the big day for Ahe, cargo ship is brining
ordered goods and fuel to the island, unloads it and goes on to other islands. All the households around the island will go to the tiny village to
pick up pre-ordered packages and also have the big night out.
The waters are full of sharks, smaller ones 1-2m. In farm
sharks loved to swim just under the bridge and also in the area where the pearl
baskets were hanging under water. And of course whenever going for harpoon
fishing, usually appearing right after catching a fish and making a circle just
below. For the second fish already closer. It is good to call it a day
when they are coming to snatch the caught fish.
The boats can enter the lagoon only through one place called the
Pass. The best for fishing and also the place with strongest current.
In the farm there was plenty of time to think about important things, like why on Earth the logo of Australian biggest salt brand has a boy who is running after a live chicken and pouring salt on it. One of the cruellest logo to have.
Männi searching for answer
Ahe island airport
5 pearls for memory
No comments:
Post a Comment