We are at the immigration desk and the lady asks the purpose for our visit. We respond “tourism”. Undeterred she asks if we know anyone in the country. We respond in the negative and a seemingly disbelieving smile crosses her lips. “What do you want to see here?” I feel as though I am being quizzed in my final exams. If I fail with the answer do we get sent back? Boldly I responded there are Japanese relics here from WW2 and would like to do some snorkelling. I passed my exam and our passports are duly stamped. On a plane full of returning Kiribati from fruit picking work in NZ and Australia where the only other white people are aid workers we are novelty.
The third least visited country in the world was originally the British colony known as the Gilbert Islands. This collection of 32 atolls is now known as Kiribati, pronounced “Kiribas” as “ti” in the local language is pronounced as “s”. The population here is 100,000 almost all in the capitol, Tarawa but you wouldn’t pick it in this sleepy hollow, South Pacific town. The highest elevation here is 3 metres putting this nation at similar risk to rising sea levels.
This is a much larger chain of islands around a lagoon than Tuvalu. Most of them are linked by causeways allowing for easy albeit slow driving. The speed limit here is only 40km/h. Sadly there is a distinct rubbish problem here all around are impromptu mounds of largely plastic trash.
We hire a basic “tinnie” boat to take us to the outer islands. The plan was to include snorkelling. When we arrive at the snorkelling beach at North Tarawa there was a moderate swell and the batman deemed it unsafe but I am still not clear if it was for the boat to land or for us to snorkel. Nonetheless the island where we landed for lunch was pretty as the sand bar where we stayed for a long swim instead.
The afternoon was at a sand bar at South Tarawa ostensibly to snorkel again. This was a no event with absolutely nothing to see despite snorkelling a long distance out. Nonetheless it was a pleasant day overall.
