All Things Bright and Beautiful Under Water

We had glorious snorkeling on the outside drop-off of the reef. From Barry: We tied up the dinghy on the lee side of a small island and swam around the island and over the reef to the outside. The coral kept getting better and better the farther we got to the outside of the reef. However, the incoming current and swells made the swimming more challenging. There were a few beautiful clams, including a giant and an all-black one. The water was very clear, providing outstanding visibility. On the outside, the reef just disappeared from sight, going straight down. There were a great many different species of hard corals and a little bit of soft coral. There were a great many fish on the edge of the reef. A considerable number were over 2 feet long. One of the drawbacks of New Caledonia is that there is a lot of ciguatera toxin in the reef fishes. Therefore we have not been fishing here, and the fishing would be awesome. The neat thing about the ciguatera here is that nobody else is fishing for reef fishes, so there are huge numbers of fish to see. The quantity of fish is as good as "The Aquarium" reef just inside the eastern pass of Rangiroa atoll, where we were last year. Toward the end of our snorkeling, it was easy returning to our dinghy. We just swam in, letting the surge from the swells push us along relatively effortlessly over the reef. Between the snorkeling and dinghy rides, this area has been the highlight of New Caledonia. Beautiful. Full of life. Sheltered water. Mild wind.

We found a mixed flock of about 30 Pacific Golden Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones resting on a rock/islet near Sunrise. Our dinner time dinghy ride was beautiful scenery of coral caves, bridges, coves and mushroom-shaped rocks. For sure, Baie de Gadji is Osprey City! We have great Osprey photos and, also, videos of the sharksuckers feasting on pieces of croissants being thrown into the water.

A food speciality on the Ile des Pins is land snail. It has a pretty shell about 4 or 5 inches long. I bought them "already prepared" in the shell because that sounded like a new taste treat that we could handle. After cooking we discovered that the whole entire snail was still in there with antenna, lungs, guts, everything. We hope the fish enjoyed the escargot . Ditto the national dish, bougna. When it was served to us it was prepared with black pepper which both of us detest. The only other food news is that, because it was my birthday yesterday, I put sparkling purple sprinkles on my potato salad.

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