A few days ago we awoke to find the famous adventurers from the Austrian sailing yacht Nomad anchored next to us. They had spent the night fighting their way upwind and had arrived in Moorea at first light. Heidi and Wolf were soon yodelling greetings across the water and shortly thereafter they came across in the dinghy to tell us of their plan to scale the 899 meter high Mont Rotui above the anchorage. Of course we were going too!
Two mornings later, at five in the morning, there were six of us at the dinghy dock – the crew of Bella were also looking forward to an invigorating hill walk.
As soon as we turned off the road we realised why the guides describe the route as difficult. It follows the ridge and is a very thin path around and across the basalt mountain. Strenuous and requiring uninterrupted concentration. But when you stopped to look at the views, they were amazing! Mountains, bays, reefs and the Pacific!
We passed a “viewpoint” at about 400 meters and the path got thinner, rougher and slippier. At about 550 meters, after two and a half hours and about half way, we split in to a summit team of Bavarian and Austrian Alpinists and the “rest of the world team” who set off back down. Getting back down took just as long as the climb up and on the way Matthias’ boots began to fall apart. The sea air had obviously eaten the glue and, by the time we were back at the dinghy, the soles were only just attached to the shoes.
The “mountaineers” reported that, the path had continued to become more challenging and that they reached the summit after over four hours of climbing. But all three agreed that the views were worth the nine hour round trip.
Our track is at AllTrails.