Exploring Angaur

On Saturday morning, Phil took a tour of a few of the state government buildings and did a survey of their energy consumption for his job. Meanwhile, I stayed at the house and sat on the porch reading my book. It's a tough life to sit on the deck listening to the waves roll in enjoying a fine morning.

Around mid-morning, a few members of the Navy Civil Action Team arrived. As part of their community outreach they travel to the different states to show movies. Chris, Tom, and Bob came down on the CAT boat along with Kristen, the epidemiologist at the hospital. Phil had met them at the dock and offered to let them stay with us. They were impressed with the house and happy to set up their gear and get settled. They had brought bikes with them and headed off to explore Angaur. Alanna stopped by and offered to take Phil and I and Carolyn on a bike tour later in the afternoon, so we had some time to just relax. I returned to my spot on the porch and settled into my book. Phil borrowed Alanna's hammock and fell asleep while Alanna went down to the beach.

By mid-afternoon the CAT guys were back and Jirka had arrived. He had come down to Angaur with a patient of his and they were going out fishing and he invited a few of the CAT guys along. Phil, Carolyn, and I borrowed the CAT bikes and set off with Alanna to bike around the island. We started south and the nice flat road scattered with beaches. The trees are amazing old craggy trees that create a wonderful canopy to ride underneath. We stopped briefly at one of the beaches to take in the view before pedaling on.

Along the eastside we arrived at the beach house of the former court counsel that was featured in National Geographic. A friend of theirs was staying there for an extended visit, so we didn't poke around too much, but we went out on a nearby jut of cliff and watched the waves crash against the limestone. From there we could see the house's shower, which is concealed from view from the house, but completely open to a view from the water. An open air shower without any curtain would raise privacy concerns just about everywhere else, but this place is so isolated privacy is not an problem. It certainly is a shower with a view.

Pedaling onward we reached the old Japanese airstrip. Apparently, the President just approved a large rehabilitation project for the airstrip to make it available to receive commercial jets. We were at the end of the airstrip where the waves crashed against the cliffs and Peleliu is visible seven miles in the distance. We could also see the clouds moving in and knew a storm was approaching.

The rain started as we got back on the bikes, but we were not going to let a little rain disrupt our trip. Alanna took us into the interior of the island where I had not visited the last time I had biked around Angaur. We biked through the jungle road up and down hills until we reached an overlook. The Germans and Japanese had mined this portion of the island for phosphate and their large holes have now been filled in with saltwater creating marine ponds. From our overlook we could see a few of the ponds surrounding by lush jungle in a light rain. It looked very picturesque, but the ponds are no place to go swimming because they are a favorite spot for crocodiles.

After returning to the main road we stopped at another site I had missed on my previous trip, the old lighthouse. We left our bikes by the road and climbed up a short trail past a water tank. Up another short flight of stone stairs was the concrete ruin of the old lighthouse. We climbed up the old stairs and then up a metal later to reach the roof. From the top we had a wonderful view of a large portion of the island. We could see the village below and the beaches of the southern part of the island. The rain had stopped and the clouds parted just a fraction to make a little bit of the sunset visible. It was a beautiful spot and a great way to conclude the bike ride.

A short ride from the lighthouse brought us back to the village and we saw the fishermen returning at the dock. We returned to the beach house and after getting cleaned and changing into dry clothes we walked over to meet the CAT guys at the community center to watch the movie. We met Jirka who had brought along barracuda sashimi that they had just caught. The movie for the evening was Spider-man 3 and there was a good turnout of kids who enjoyed the movie. After the movie, we returned to beach house and broke out the cards again. We played for a little while, but the long day had tired everyone out and we soon went to bed.