Simple instructions for the full experience.
1. Play these two videos at the same time.
2. Mute the first video so Sphongle doesn’t turn you into a hippie.
3. Put the volume from the second video on full blast.
4. Press play on both videos as simultaneously as possible.

Arriving to Marquesas Island of Fatu Hiva having just suffered some set backs with health was quite the experience. Amazing landscape and friendly people all around. People practicing for the annual dance festivals was quite intense experience. The landscape in Fatu Hiva was spectacular. Then again that was the case in every place.

Next up was Hiva Oa where I just jumped of from the first catamaran and changed to another one of the same manufacturer, just a one step bigger. Oh and the catamaran was missing it’s mast.

We motored to Tuamotus which is an island group consisting of tens of atolls. I always thought that atolls are small places where you can swim across the whole ring. Well it turned out that these atolls where huge and you couldn’t even see the other side. I saw my first world cup football match on an atoll called Ahé. Ghana – Paragua. Epic extra time and penalties!

The idea of stopping at different atolls was to search for waves to surf. We found some but my skills were gone or had never existed the way I though. The South African boys were killing it and I was just sitting on my board and trying to figure out how it all was suppose to work.

After a more than a week in Tuamotus we arrived to Tahiti. Oh man, it all looked so unreal. This crowded island with an actual city on it was something else. They even cleaned the phone booths in the morning. Big yachts and expensive everything was the norm. They even had a mac-store to change my blown up hard drive. My yearly e-reboot was over due. Some stuff was lost but not as much as a year ago in Mexico when unfriendly men mugged me.

Pretty soon after arriving to Tahiti it was my birthday, It also happened to be an epic wave day at the local pass and it’s reef break. I almost got a sweet wave but ended up getting hammered by the waves. Now I know what it feels to be scratching reef while moving high speed underwater and getting sandwiched by a board and big wave. Also it was the solar eclipse and football final so all and all it was a good day.

After so many months living on other peoples boats it was hard to let go of that easy feeling of not having to plan about tomorrow. I practiced independence on a 3 day hike on an island right next to Tahiti called Moorea. Beautiful island where I went walking for 3 days just with my tent and too much stuff.

First night I slept without a permission on someones forrest nearly getting lost there. Next night a beach guard invited me to his house because the beach was apparently dangerous place to sleep. Last night of that trip I slept on some river bank. All beautiful places.

After that I returned to the safety of the catamaran for couple of days to get rid of my flue and after that took all my belongings with me and decided to go somewhere. Trevor the South African baker & star observer recommended a beach break in Papara. It was suppose to have some sort of camping place somewhere. I took a bus, saw a river and a wave and jumped off. After 5 minutes of asking around I found a place called Taharuu Surf Lodge. Too easy.

I could put my tent on their lawn crowded by roosters and chickens. The place was cheap considering Tahiti and the owners where extremely polite. “No problem!” Every night I woke up to the sound of roosters at 1 a.m unless it was raining. During those rainy nights instead I just got soaked because my tent wasn’t really all that waterproof.

After almost a week of surfing I had gotten my confidence back and I could call my surfing surfing again. Sweet. Then it happened, I broke one of my fins on the rocks. Without any spare fins I decided to call it a surf. I went to Papeete to buy a plane ticket to New Zealand.

All this time I had some flyers out where I was trying to find a boat to New Zealand. Literally minutes after paying my flight I checked my email and saw an offer. I cancelled my flight and went to see the boat. I didn’t get convinced and called the airline again. The flight was back on. I got another offer but decided the ignore it.

All and all my hikes in French Polynesia were epic. Short and undemanding hikes which made up in the scenery. The last hike of 40km through Tahiti was by far my favorite. 3 nights sleeping in the rain and getting soaked by the constant rain was an incredible walk. The only tourists I saw where once a day coming with 4WD´s and looking at me and scratching their heads. Hiking in Tahiti and French Polynesia is quite rare. Then again when you look at the average tourists in these islands it’s no surprise.

Last morning was Sunday and there were no busses to be seen. I hitchhiked to the airport and hopped on an airplane.

So that is my Polynesia experience in a nut shell. I hope the photos will give some depth to these words.

French Polynesia in 100 photos or 5:27 minutes (No idea why the quality is so bad…)

What did I learn of all this? If you see a bird flying over you in the sea it does NOT automatically mean that land is close by.

I finally found an internet connection fast enough to upload some photos and a video of the skydiving experience.

(I didn’t choose the music or do the editing. Naturally I didn’t take the first 3 photos)

The hike up a volcano starts from the bottom.

Few more interesting facts about this island on Lake Nicaragua (Lake Cocibolca). It’s 276 square kilometers big, it’s got 35 000 people living on it and the 2 volcanos are 1610 meters (Conception) and 1394 meters (Maderas) high. The island hasn’t yet blossomed in the touristic sense. So here is the controversial phrase you’ve heard thousands of times: I recommend you to come here before it becomes really touristic and the prices and atmosphere changes significantly.

We woke up at 5:30 a.m to start climbing up, two Austrian girls, a swede and me. 2 liters of water, some moldy sandwiches and my camera equipment were backed ready the previous night.

The hike started of easy by walking through cafe plantations and passing through huge trees where you could see howler monkeys sleep. Of course our hikers made so much noise with their feet and mouths that many of the animals on the way heard us miles away and ran or climbed away.

Soon the clouds of the mountain surrounded us and it started raining. The wet micro climate of the volcano made it possible that the volcano had a beautiful cloud forrest with many different trees and plants. As the rain picked up the path got muddier and muddier. Little did we know how bad it would get on our way down.

Three and half hours later we had climbed over the highest point of the volcano and had reached the bottom of the crater. There was a gorgeous small lake and we decided to take swim. Nicely fresh water was perfect. The only problem was getting to deep water since the bottom of the lake was so muddy that I was almost up to waste in mud when there was only 10 inches of water. Still it was worth it and after the swim and light lunch other people started pouring into the crater. Luckily we had left early and were the first ones there and had the place for ourselves for the first hour. Noisy people aren’t really my cup of the tea.

On the way down the 20+ elephants on the trail had pretty much turned the whole trail in to a gigantic mudslide. It was slower to go down than to go up. Our swedish member of the crew had only flip-flops for hiking and those things were pretty much useless on mud and rocks. He ended up walking almost the whole mountain up and down barefoot. :)

Howler monkey

Half way down my left knee started hurting. The old battle injury had returned and I was limping down the volcano and only the crazy Swede was slower than me. Eventually we got down, ordered big plates of food for 4 dollars and congratulated ourselves for a great hike by saluting our beer glasses. Everyone was happy but quite tired. Little did we know that police, fire department and volunteers were searching for the barefooted crazy Swede who people thought was missing on the other volcano on the island. More about that on my previous post.

Volcano Concepcion

Some hikers got a bit muddy on the way down

Island dog

While leaving the city behind I was sitting on the back of a pick-up and took these photos.