Pitcairn Day 1

At last we have arrived at Pitcairn! I had been anticipating this moment for years now and this  is one of the reasons I chose to join the leg of the voyage. I read about the history of Pitcairn and had been wanting to visit it for some time now. I explored various ways of getting here until I found that this voyage stops at Pitcairn.

The waters around Pitcairn are treacherous with heavy waves and sharp rocks. There is one dock but it's far too small and dangerous for any ship to land there. So ships must anchor some distance off shore, and wait for a longboat from the island to come out to meet them. We had radioed ahead so they were expecting us, and the longboat came out to pick us up.

The crew of the longboat was led by a striking woman with a mix of Polynesian and Caucasian features.  She was lithe, limber, and barefoot.  She was in her 70s but she moved like a woman in her 30s. Though I had never seen her before I was pretty sure I knew who she was. When I had a chance to talk to her later, I confirmed it -- as I thought she was indeed Brenda Christian, a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789!

Brenda Christian, a descendant of Fletcher Christian

I agreed to be the cameraman for the day working with Grant, the ornithologist, as the official Darwin photographer Tom was busy with the other scientist. I helped Grant record scenes for a documentary he's working on. We had two missions for today:

• Photograph the petroglyphs.  This was of personal interest to me as well. These petroglyphs were made by early Polynesians around 1100 AD, long before Europeans discovered the island. The Polynesians lived there for some time, built stone temples and monuments (most of which were destroyed by the Europeans), and then abandoned the island for unknown reasons. It is also unknow where they went to, but one interesting theory is that this is the group that first went to Rapa Nui!

• Find and photograph the endangered bird species, the Pitcairn Reed Warbler.

We accomplished both missions. 

Use at your own risk!

Steep path at Downrope

To get to the petroglyphs we had to descend a treacherous path down a steep cliff called Downrope (because it once had a rope but the rope is no longer there). Brenda was our guide and she led the way, nimbly negotiating the cliff path (barefoot of course) with no difficulty at all. We followed behind going more slowly over the slippery rocks.

Flightless bird petroglyph

The petroglyphs were numerous, covering much of the cliff wall, and quite interesting. Some were recognizable objects like a man, a goat, etc.  Others were very cryptic and undecipherable. One petroglyph was clearly a large flightless bird, which would now be extinct. Grant mused that it could even possibly be a Moa. I think it's this bird:

After finishing at the petroglyphs, we split up and searched separately for the rare Reed Warbler. It was difficult to photograph, but I managed to capture a few photos of it.

Endangered species Pitcairn Reed Warbler

Reed Warbler eating a banana. It was
previously not known that they can eat fruit
 

Here is my best photo of the Reed Warbler: