An electric bike tour of Mangareva

Continuing my series on the Gambier Islands, this time on wheels 🚴🏽‍♀️

One day while in the Gambier Islands we decided to hire electric bikes and try to do a circuit of the island. While it was a great idea, I feel like electric bikes are always too tall for me and I always end up falling off and with a really sore butt.

Here’s what I wrote about it:

Tour of the island day!

We wake up at 4:30am, make coffee and sandwiches with orange cheese and saucisson. The coffee goes in the insulated bottle, we take 1.5L of water, pack everything we need for the day and set off as the sun is rising, calm and blue with soft clouds in the sky.

We’ve hired electric bikes for a half day. To conserve battery we try to peddle them as much as possible. They’re heavy though, and not as comfortable as other bikes I’ve ridden.

We head towards the northern-most tip of the island first. It’s mostly flat with a few short hills. As we approach the tip, there’s a belvedere, so we dump the bikes in the scrub on the side of the road and do the short walk through piney forest. The tip looks out over blue water on both sides. In the distance, over an island, I can see a rain cloud. We eat some firi firi (coconut water doughnuts) and drink some coffee before continuing.

The road winds through forest, at times paved and at times dirt track. It goes up, which I don’t mind with the motor, and then down, which I find a bit freaky. Our brakes screech as I attempt to control my descent.

Pretty soon my crotch and my arse are hurting from the bike seat. I can’t quite figure out the position that will stop it from digging into me in all the wrong places.

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We curve around the top of the island, take a few more short stops to snack. It’s blazing sun now. We’re given some lychees by a very nice man who sees me pick one off the ground. He climbs the tree for us and shakes a bunch down with a stick. Despite the fact that it’s no longer lychee season, they’re fat and juicy.

We pick water apples (the yellow ones that taste like Christmas), mulberries, a few ripe bananas, some grapefruit as we see it on the side of the road. At a little beach we eat our sandwiches and finish our coffee. I’d like to find a place to dip, but there’s not many options on the other side of the island.

Martin’s bike gives up just at the base of the big hill that runs internally through the island and back to Rikitea. We walk both bikes under the hot sun with Kura-iti, our new doggy friend, keeping us company.

By the time we get back to the house, my butt is aching and I’m so ready to give these bikes back. Luckily we only took them for a half a day, so we dump them back to Poerava with relief and head to the beach for a dip and to wash off the sweat. I’m so stiff I’m waddling the whole way!

If you enjoyed reading about the Gambier Islands, check out two weeks in the Gambier Islands, hiking Mount Auorotini and Mount Mokoto, and hiking the 12 Apostles trail.

September/October free art download

It’s been a big month with family visiting and a weeklong trip to Makatea, and I didn’t manage to get my free month art download out for the month of September. I hope you’ll forgive me!

This month’s free download is a mixed media (watercolour and digital) of the empty shells of the local giant clams you find while snorkelling here (that I mentioned in my post snorkelling in the lagoon).

I found this one while out snorkelling and brought it back to the house to paint. While the live animal is incredible (psychedelic blues and purples), the empty shell was beautiful in a more subtle way, with patches of mauve and yellow.

If you’re a free subscriber (or not subscribed at all) and you’d like access to the download, consider supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get one free download per month along with the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping me make more art.