Beginning the climb with Chris and Rani from Ladybug

The occasional respite from going vertical was traversing through the jungle

You get sort of a feeling for the steepness is you look at the trail on the right and follow it down toward the houses down below over to the left

A quick rest. We actually did the 700 plus meter climb in a little over three hours which boggles my mind. But there wasn't much hiking, it was mostly just up.

Made it (Fun,even though we were in the clouds and mostly didn't have a view)

We were rewarded with a brief view-this one lastly about ten seconds.

The only problem with getting to the top is we still had to come down. Here's Ann about to drop over the edge of one sectionHey that was fun. Let's not do that again!

We climbed to the peak on the left hand side.

Way, way. above. Today we climbed the peaks above Bora Bora. Probably the steepest “hike” I’ve ever done. Actually it was a cross between a hike and a climb. There were some fixed ropes along the route it was so steep-there was some technical climbing involved- so also brought along our own rope and very glad we did. (Mt. Otemanu – 727 meters high).

We dinghied over and met Chris and Rani from Ladybug at 8AM in front of where they were moored-about a ten minute ride from our mooring at Bora Bora Yacht Club. Then a 15 minute walk down the road to town and once in town a left turn, past some houses/huts where folks live and soon we were in the jungle and going up. An up and up. When we didn’t have fixed ropes, we were using roots growing out of the trail to steady ourselves for the climb. It was amazingly steep. Looking at it from the ground, even after having done it I can’t see a route. The mountain just rises straight up from town to twin peaks about ½ mile apart at the top. We summited at 1130 and were greated with a view of…the clouds. Yep, we were solidly in the clouds we had gone so high. It was clear and beautiful on the ground and solid white on the top. But the clouds cleared momentarily for some quick shots down at the reefs below so we got a few pictures as well as shots of us on the summit. There’s a flag, so we can prove we’ve been there. And since Ann had carried the hand held radio in her back pack we took the time to announce our accomplishment to a few of our friends. Unfortunately several that we called were away from the boat but surprisingly, Orcinius – who was just leaving Maupiti (an island 25 miles away) heard us loud and clear!

The route up with scary at times, the route back down bordered on harrowing since it started raining and got very, very slippery. This is where we fixed our rope to help us down the worst parts. Chris is very agile and light so he would clean the rope after we all went down.

Once back on solid ground we stopped in a couple stores for supplies. I was in the marine store when one of the clerks asked me how I got so muddy? I told him we had climbed the mountain. He was incredulous. “With a guide of course?” said he. “No, ourselves” was our reply. Turned out he had never done it but had heard how difficult it was/is. One of the other clerks had climbed it and he was suspicious. “There is a flag on top…” he started. “Yes, with the words, ‘Bora Bora’ on the top and bottom”, I replied. “Ahhhh”, he beamed as then he knew we had joined the club and weren’t just claiming to have climbed and not made it.

So, that was our day. We’re exhausted, our feet hurt but our souls are happy. We had dinner at Bora Bora YC after watching the sunset from our favorite perch on the deck looking across the lagoon to the reef and sunset beyond.

Another day, another adventure.

Tomorrow we will probably leave here and start our next leg to Palmerston island, some 500 miles and maybe as many days further west. We’ll see though. The weather is changing right now and we might be just as happy to sit here for a while longer. Not a bad place in which to have to hang out.