12th November Fish and chips

Postman Pat?

We sailed to Floreana during the evening and arrived in the wee hours of the morning at Post Office Bay. First up was a wet landing and an easy walk on the island to visit the Post Box. This is a barrel that has been there since 1793??? It was set up when whaling boats frequented the area. The premise is that you drop off your letters, search through the post that’s there and take any that you can hand deliver. It’s still in operation today. The guides searched through the post and called out the addresses - surprisingly there was one for a place not far from us in Portugal and another close to Gill. One letter was addressed to Kim-il Jong on Pyongyang, North Korea – it’s been there a while!!

We got back in the boats and motored over to the next bay which has a dark story to tell. This is a story of love, lust, treachery and murder in the early 1930s. There is a book written by Dora Strauch and called Satan came to Eden and will soon be a film. Originally Friedrich Ritter and his lover Dora Strauch escaped their marriages to settle successfully on Black Beach, Floreana. Later another German family arrived (1933), the Wittmers and a strange group of German socialites arrived: Rolf Lorenz, Robert Phillipson and the notorious Baroness Eloise Von Wagner. By 1934, four of the seven disappeared or died unexpectedly. Part of the story involves setting up a hotel for the few visiting wealthy people who came out this way. This was to be located in this new bay. The location is stunning and the only built bit you can still see are the walls of the house that are made from lava rocks. We walked up the steps to a look out to enjoy the view a bit better and passed the navigational light for the island.

A King Angelfish

Tamsin and I then rushed back down as we had signed up for kayaking. Getting into the kayaks involved going from one panga to another and then into the kayak. Not easy for some of the less dexterous. Paddling around we managed to get quite close to sealions and the rocks. We went into a shallow cove where we told there were White Tipped Reef Sharks. We paddled over the top of two before turning around and heading back.

After lunch we had signed up for deep water snorkelling. Initially we were a bit concerned as it was quite rough. However, once in the water all concerns disappeared. The water was teeming with fish. I looked down into the depth and could only see shoals of fish down as far as I could see (50+ metres). This is one of the points that one of the colder deep sea currents comes up as it hits land and is very nutrient rich, hence the fish. We had to move across between two points as there was a Bull Sealion on patrol. Tamsin was taking lots of pictures and missed a Barracuda that swam below us. There was also an eel that we missed, but there was so much going on that it would be difficult not to miss something.

Stunning view over the kayaking lagoon

The last activity of the day was another walk with a wet landing. This was at Punta Cormorant where we walked very close to pregnant female sealions and looked at the sand as this contains “olivene” which is a semi precious stone and a result of the volcanic activity. No surprise that it is green in colour and gives the beach sand a slight green hue. The lake at this point contained a few Flamingos, not the amount we had wanted. The smell was something else and is a mixture bird poop, volcanic ash and vegetal decay.  The result is sulphurous as Steve found out when he stepped in it! The next cove over was a contrast as the sand is whiter. We watched as turtles lined up to come in when it’s darker to lay their eggs. You can see the tracks in the sand. Apparently they lay up to 600 eggs and spread these over up to 10 nests.

Dinner this evening included a portion of chips - yippee!!