Biking Angaur

Saturday morning I awoke to the dulcet sounds of the ocean just beyond the door. My morning adventure was a bike ride by myself around Angaur. I turned south following the road that circumnavigated the island. The road was cement in the village, but shortly after our house it became a dirt road. I didn't see a single car outside the village and it made for an excellent bike trail. Even better, the big, old, tall trees had grown to form a canopy shading the road from the hot sun. I was in no hurry, so I biked at a slow pace taking in the atmosphere. The road was usually about fifty yards or so from the beach with forest in between, but usually the water was visible. There are no houses on the main road once outside of the village. Only 186 people live Angaur and they are centered in the village. There were frequent paths from the road to the beach and I turned down many of them and stopped to watch the ocean and take pictures. The beaches of Angaur are very different from those in the rock islands. Because Angaur is in the open ocean, the beaches are very rocky and similar to the types of beaches you would find back in the states. The rock island beaches are protected by the reef and are pristine fine sandy beaches with no rocks, the idyllic island beach. It was interesting comparing the differences as I walked the Angaur beaches. I continued biking around the southern tip and began heading north.

On my ride one of the things I hoped to see was monkeys. Angaur is the only island in Palau with monkeys, which are not indigenous to Palau. The Germans brought a pair of macaque monkeys around 1900 when they mined Angaur for phosphate. It is debated whether the macaques were brought as pets or as canaries for the mines. Regardless, they have thrived in the forests of Angaur. Palau considers them to be pests and has strictly quarantined them to Angaur. They are in the process of removing invasive species and want to remove the macaques from Angaur. While they are still there, I wanted to see monkeys in the wild. For the first third of my ride I did not see any and I was starting to get concerned I would not see any. As I got to the southeast portion of the island, I first saw a brief glimpse of a monkey high in a tree. Then I saw one right near the road and stopped and looked into the forest. There I saw at least a half dozen crawling and jumping around the trees acting like, well, monkeys. I watched for a while and then continued along. During the weekend I often saw monkeys on the road, a few crossed the road right in front of me as I rode the bike.

I continued up the east coast exploring some of the trails. Along one, I found the house built by a former court counsel. She and her husband liked Angaur so much they negotiated with the locals and leased a tract of land on the shoreline and built a beach house. It was featured in a National Geographic article that many people back home has seen. They got their friends to come help and they built the house themselves. It is a fabulous location perched on a rocky ledge overlooking the ocean. Previous court counsels have gotten to stay at the house, but the locals have discouraged that now so we would rent from them instead. Their beach house is great and I see why they built it even if they only get back a couple times a year.

Biking further north I reached a memorial to the Army division that liberated Angaur from the Japanese. The marines invaded Peleliu and the Army invaded Angaur. The Japanese only had a small force in Angaur and the Army quickly liberated it before reinforcing the Marines on Peleliu. Near the monument is the beach where they came ashore. On the beach are long iron tracks from the shore into the water. The tracks are remnants of the phosphate mining operations, but now all that is left are the rusted remains. Inland, the Germans and Japanese dug massive holes for mining that are now filled with water creating lakes. Continuing biking, I reached the northeast end of the Angaur airstrip. Like Peleliu, the Japanese built an airfield that now can be used in case of emergency. The end of the runway is a cliff overlooking a cove with crashing waves. With Peleliu off in the distance, it was a beautiful spot for a break to watch the waves crash against the rocks.

Biking on, I reached a terrain very different from the flat southern part of the island. It was hilly with vast mounds of jagged limestone topped by trees. The road was above sea level and beaches were fewer and the coastline was rockier. I arrived at the large white statue of the Virgin Mary perched on the north end of the island overlooking the ocean. It is visible from the ocean and we had seen it on the ride in. Continuing on I entered the village and explored a little bit before arriving back at the beach house around noon.

For lunch I grilled spareribs and chicken that LB had brought. The only problem was that she had brought twice as much as was needed and it took a while to grill all that meat. We all brought way too much stuff, including food. After lunch, we all piled into the car Christy had rented from our friend at the Banyan Tree. We all drove to the Virgin Mary Statue where they dropped Dave and I off. We had heard there was good fishing off the rocks at the statue, so Dave and I climbed out to the edge. It wasn't steep, but the limestone had created some sharp edges and we had to navigate carefully. At the edge, we began casting at a beautifully scenic spot with waves rolling in and splashing up through the holes in the limestone. The first spot proved fruitless, but at the second spot I hooked a fish. I caught a small bluefin trevally and got him up and on the rocks. I held him up for Dave to see, enjoyed the moment, and released it back into the ocean. We didn't have any more nibbles and decided to call it quits. We climbed back to the road and walked a ways down to the beach to join the rest of the group. We went for a swim and it was a different experience because there was waves and surf, unlike the usually calm waters of the rock islands. On the beach, Christy, Noah, and Angie caught a land crab that Angie and Christy later cooked and ate once we returned to the house.

After the refreshing sunset swim, we returned to the house to find our dinner waiting. Tonight, the mechas had prepared a seafood feast of crab legs, stuffed crab shells, sashimi, and fried rice. The crab was fantastic and a real treat. After dinner, Christy, Angie, Dave, and I went to the Banyan Tree and played pool. Dave and I played a few games and it was pretty even between us. Christy and Angie sang karaoke. With all of us tired, we made it an early night and returned back to the house to get some sleep.