Tuesday 13 July Touring Bora Bora

We've been in Bora Bora for 4 days. It's a pretty island. The high rock centre is all that remains of the plug from volcano that formed it. Surrounding the island is a lagoon protected by a fringing reef . Unfortunately the weather is not what we expected. There's been a lot of cloud cover, rain showers most days and sometimes strong wind howling through. Apparently it's an El Nina year. El Nina means warmer seas and more rain. We'd like to have perfect clear blue skies everyday, but sometimes it's like Weston-Super-Mare on a Bank Holiday, just warmer.

The weather was clear today so we hauled our bikes ashore and set off to pedal around the island. Our friend Jack from Anthem joined the jolly peddlers for the 20 mile route. Although dry and the sun shining there was still a fair gust from the east that hit us as we went cycled around the northern headlands. However when we reached the southern end of the island we got the postcard wow! View of Bora Bora; glittering turquoise, cobalt, sapphire sea and white sand beaches. This is where the exclusive hotels are located with their over the water bungalows. We went into the Sofitel for Jack to get a drink and for me to use the toilet. I never pass the opportunity of a automatic flush at the touch of a button! The heads on the boat are manual pump.

Back on the road watered and drained we went lass than 100m to a small creperie and pizza place for lunch except there were no crepes a lunchtime and the ice cream the boys spotted on the menu hadn't been delivered by the supply ship this week. No problem, the pizza was delicious. Refuelled we were back in the main town 30 minutes later to fill our panniers with baguettes and cheese and then back to the Yacht Club.

It's great having the bikes. Everytime we use them we remark what a good buy and how much we enjoy them. They were a lucky find – cruisers in Grenada last July who didn't have room on their boat to store them and needed some extra cash.