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Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 17:23:14

Marquesa & Christmas Islands: 7 - Kiritimati, Kiribati

Friday, April 25, 2008 (Saturday, April 26 in Kiribati)

A weather front that the pilots had seen off Palmyra moved in today, bearing heavy rain squalls. If we had to have rain this was the best day, as we were in the car most of the time.

Our guide and two fisheries employees arrived at the hotel by truck to take us to Huff Dam, a protected area behind locked gates. We opted to follow in our rental car instead of the open truck. A maze of roads took us to an area of salt water lakes in the centre of the island, some tidal and some no longer connected the sea. Huff Dam was anticlimatic - it is about 40 feet wide and 6 feet high, designed to let seawater into an enclosed lagoon but the gate to close the channel no longer works. A fisheries employee threw food into the channel to attract three species of fish, none big.

We couldn't get a clear answer on the present use, but it seems it is part hatchery, part conservation area and part fish farm. Neither guide nor fisheries people had any idea of the names of fish or birds we were seeing. This is not a high point to visit!

We parted company with our escort vehicle at the road on which we returned after being lost the other day. This time we successfully completed our trip around the island, driving through the small town of Poland where tin or palm frond huts provide most housing, and on towards Paris where the priest who planted all the palm trees lived long ago. There is nothing left of Paris. It was cool and rainy, so after a drive of 156 km (97 mi) we returned to the hotel to nap & read instead of going swimming.

Our dinner companions in addition to Mark, the fellow who is clearing up the British scrap metal, are a couple of Australian guys who are here on a contact to upgrade systems in the land office.

Saturday, April 26, 2008 (Sunday, April 27 in Kiribati)

We met our guide in London this morning, then drove to the nearby dock where a large outrigger boat with covered, padded seating was waiting for us. William, a conservation officer, was on the boat to take us to Cook Island, near the entry channel to the lagoon. Going ashore on bird sanctuary islands without an official from the Wildlife Service is not permitted.

There were thousands of birds including frigate birds who circled looking for unguarded chicks to eat; red footed and masked boobies; red tailed tropic birds; ferry, noddy & sooty terns and many others.

We were sweating by the time we returned to our boat on the white sand beach, so we went snorkelling to explore the bay. Visibility was not terrific, but there were colourful coral formations and a lot of fish, including 3 species I hadn't seen before. We motored to other snorkelling sites inside the lagoon, but visibility was not great in any of them.

On the way to Motu Tapu Island we came across two groups with 5 manta rays in each. They didn't seem worried about us as they performed loops and rolls very near to the boat. Some were over 2 meters (6 ½ ft) across. On arrival at the island we were surrounded by thousands of birds as we circumnavigated the island on foot. The time of year is perfect, as there are still ample eggs, but also lots of chicks varying in age from newborn to 3 weeks.

A packed lunch was provided, the location was beautiful and it would have been perfect if I'd remembered to bring beer. We swam off the beach after lunch, then boated back to the London wharf.

At the hotel I watched two DVD movies loaned to me by Mark. One was on Britains rush to develop and test their first H-bomb and the aircraft to carry it, and the other was a detailed history of the establishment and development of the 2,900 man base on Kiritimati Island that supported the H-bomb test.

Sunday, April 27, 2008 (Monday, April 28 in Kiribati)

We drove to London early to go shopping for school supplies for our visits to primary, junior secondary and secondary schools. Should a visit to Christmas Island be in your future, bring school supplies with you! Very small notebooks cost 90 cents each, a pad of paper $1.80 and a pencil 30 cents. A package of 8 ½ X 11 blank paper is $18. In a place where a teacher makes around $200 per month, shipyard wages are under $2 per hour and unemployment is high, paying for school supplies must be a major problem for families with kids. Text books are provided by the school, but other supplies are not.

The spirit and enthusiasm of teachers in the schools is amazingly high, and students seem attentive and anxious to learn. The big smiles and greetings made us feel very welcome.

Holes in walls and ceilings were normal, and a fund raising drive is underway for pipes and a water tank to make 6 outdoor toilets donated by the Japanese functional in the junior secondary school. There are not enough desks or chairs for all students to sit - sometimes three share a desk. Some bring a bit of linoleum or a mat to avoid sitting direcly on the concrete floor.

Funds for maintenance must be raised by the teachers from local people, as there is no government buget for this. Computers donated to the Junior Secondary School by the Rotory Club have been in storage for two years, as there are no funds to install electrical wiring. Teachers and students all were bare footed. Most students eat lunches provided by the school for a dollar per plate, although mothers with large families can bring lunch to eat under a palm tree on the grounds.

The best equipped school on the island was St. Francis senior high school, funded by the Catholic Church and staffed by nuns. Religion is taught in both Catholic and Protestant schools. In the Protestant schools representatives of the 6 religious denominations on the island go to the same school on the same day each week, where they give children of their denomination religious instruction. All schools teach English, and many subjects are taught in English.

In the afternoon we went to the swimming lagoon. It has been our private beach - at no time did we see another person.

At the hotel it was time for drinks with the fishermen, dinner with the Aussies and Mark, then more drinks after dinner with the fishermen. All the other guests were fun to be with. Marilynn has been the only woman other than staff or on the night the group rescued from Palmyra were here.