I’ve Walked and I’ve Crawled on Six Crooked Highways*

Foreword: When Gregg and his chum Barry go on one of their long walks, be it through Epping Forest, part of the London Loop or along the Thames Path they often take “detours” – Christine and Lesley (Barry’s wife) refer to these “detours” as getting lost – of course G&B do not have this phrase in their vocabulary because one really can’t “get lost” in Epping Forest, on the London Loop or along the Thames Path because they’re all part of that great metropolis, London. Rapa Nui is different...
On Tuesday we decided to go for a long walk along the coast to see more ahu and Moai and visit a lava tube (cave). There is a winding and very dusty track which often deviates away from the coast so your intrepid explorers decided to take a “detour” and walk nearer the shore line (we think you know where this leading); these” detours” frequently meant clambering over lava flows, through bushes or past patches of thistles. Each time the detour led nowhere so we had to find our back to the winding and dusty track and each time the winding and dusty track deviated away from the cliff edge (the word shore by now seems inappropriate) we decide to take another “detour”. However (sigh of relief) we did eventually get there. The cave (or lava tube) is about 50m long and was used as a shelter in ancient times. The entrance is a very narrow hole in the ground which has some steps cut into the rock. At the far end the cave has two openings on the cliff face which look out on to the sea and two small islands.
Christine thought she would go in first to see if tall G with bad knees would be able to manage (such devotion). She got inside, it was total darkness she could feel that the entrance immediately narrowed and was unsure of where to go so came back out.

We were about to admit defeat when a red 4x4 came along the winding and dusty track and a delightful family of five clambered down – on seeing no other vehicle they were amazed that we had walked there. They were from “the other Chile” as Rapa Nuians call it and spoke far better English than we did Spanish – rather flatteringly they said we spoke correct English as opposed to American English – so we communicated in Spanglish. We explained about the entrance and without a flashlight (torch) it would be very difficult. There was one in the 4x4 so one of the boys led the way, followed by his sister and younger brother and their father. After what seemed like an age the youngest son returned and indicated that it wasn’t too difficult to get into the larger part of the cave where it was light. So his mother went, Chris followed, Gregg followed – he hit his head cracked his knees and immediately decided to re-emerge, so the younger son (aged about 12) became a perfect gentleman and escorted Chris through the cave. Gregg built some of his ‘sculptures’ while they were gone and got to see the photographs on their return.


We bade farewell to the delightful family who drove off along the winding and dusty highway. One of the reasons for writing about this family is to indicate that we have come across some absolutely delightful people on this trip – our paths will probably never cross again but we shall always remember them. If they ever stumble across this blog – hi to you all including Tarron, the young backpacker from Australia; China, our Rapa Nuian guide; Monique and André from Montreal, whose trip to Machu Pichu got cancelled so came to Rapa Nui instead; the two women from Colchester who rode from Argentina to Chile on horseback over the Andes; the couple from California who knew the place where we got married and everyone else who is helping to make this trip so great, especially those from Australia, Canada and the USA we hope to keep in touch with and see again (including the Red Queen) . Thanks also to the blog followers and your comments – greatly appreciated.
Ah yes, back to this story; we decided to return to town along the winding and dusty path and avoid detours. Suddenly we became experts on the road to the cave and were asked how to get there and how far – once again Spanglish triumphed. So four hours after leaving we got back to Hanga Roa, very hot and very dirty (that track was so dusty). On a B&G walk this would have been rewarded with fish’n’chips and a pint or two of real ale – we had to make do with Patas Karita (fried potatoes with a cheese, chilli and green onion salsa and prawns)** and a can of Escuda (Chilean beer) but the view was better than anything in Epping Forest, on the London Loop or along the Thames Path.

* A line from ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ a song written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
Indeed hard rain does fall frequently on Rapa Nui – torrential rain which can arrive without warning, last for about ten minutes and five minutes later the sun is shining again.
**Almost impossible to be vegetarian on Rapa Nui as there is a lot of fish and seafood (well, there’s a lot of ocean round about) but the salads are OK and last night’s pizza was excellent, and the ice cream is some of the best we’ve had outside of Italy (just wish they’d at least put the flavours in Spanish – our Polynesian (Rapa Nui dialect) is none existent). SOTP PRESS: We went for a walk in the other direction from Hanga Roa and found the island’s vegetarian restaurant.

SORRY - Internet connection so slow on Tahiti, we cannot upload photographs.