Fanning Island
Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of Kiribati. The land area is 33.73 square kilometres (13.02 square miles), and the population in 2015 was 2,315.
By any measure, Fanning Island is one of the most remote places on earth, an isolated speck in the vast South Pacific well over 1,000 miles south of Hawaii and more than 500 miles north of Tahiti. Fanning is part of the Republic of Kiribati (formerly the Gilberts), and its capital, Tarawa, lies far to the west, more than 2,000 miles away, with nothing but open water in between. The 1,200 residents of Fanning (or it might be 1,600 or maybe 2,000; it keeps changing and no one has made an accurate count) exist amicably in the dreamy, time-honored fashion of South Pacific paradises. No indoor plumbing, no electricity besides 2 generators
A handsome, brown-skinned people, they are polite, gentle and shy. They live in grass shacks, or, more accurately, shacks of coconut fronds and pandanus leaves. The traditional dress, for men and women, is a sarong. They live off the land and the sea: fish, coconuts, taro, pumpkin and papaya. They have no telephones, no running water, no electricity (and by extension, no computers, no television, no video games, no movies).
The only way to get here is by ship. Or when you think you can swim 800 miles, you can try to leave from Hawaii. Possible but not recommendable….I guess.
If you could run around the island, you would run 40 miles but there aer several openings in the atoll which makes it impossible to do this.
I did half a marathon and that’s as far as I could run till I reached a big opening where the currant is too strong. I did some water crossings but those were only knee-deep openings in the atoll. The people are great, all 1000 of them.
There is no option to dock in Fanning island and that’s why we drop anchor outside of the atoll. From there, we take the ship’s tenders to bring people ashore. I was on the first tender as I wanted to assess the pier situation. Look at this, as soon as we set course to the island, we got escort by a group of dolphins…
But, we made the decision that the state of the pier was good enough. Granted, it is not a super good looking AC-climatized pier but, you need to keep in mind that you are in another world when travelling to these parts of the world. These areas are primitive and you should be open minded when travelling here. Once we gave the go-ahead, the community of Fanning island came to welcome us.
The inhabitants of Fanning Island are very warm and welcoming and their original clothing very interesting
The people on Fanning Island live from two things: fish and coconuts. Don’t ask how it works since there is no fresh water facilities on the island but somehow they are able to grow coconuts with saltwater.
As we like to treat guests with local stuff, we ordered 800 coconuts
There is a small road that covers part of the island.
Of course, visiting such an amazing place, I went for a half marathon run with one of my colleagues. Part of the run went over the dirt road, but also over beach and crossings through water
If you like my posts, please subscribe. Thank you very much.
Bert van Mackelenbergh 