“A la Belle étoile” Under the stars
This is the name of the little paradise built by Bruno, an itinerant wanderer of the southern seas and a disciple of Moitessier (a French sailor who quit the first solo around the world race while in first place and went straight on to Tahiti). It took him 25 years to finish it. “If I surfed, I would have never built my house” he reveals when I asked him if he takes advantage of the wave we glimpsed on arrival at the lagoon. Thirty years ago, shortly after arriving on the island, Bruno decided to build his nest in the heart of the dense tropical jungle and to open it to the very rare travelers passing by.
For the last three decades, Bruno has given credence to the concept of sustainable development. “Sometimes I comb through my own trash” he tells us with a malicious grin, while putting Agnes, his 3 year-old daughter in the little basket that sits at the front of his ancient bike.
“I’ll remember throwing out a wire or a rope that could be useful to fix a solar panel, a generator or other piping. We recycle everything.” And soon he is off to the school, with his speargun slung at his side. “I’m picking up some fish at the supermarket for lunch!” he says with a burst of laughter. Tapeta, Bruno’s wife, is 30 years younger than him and has given him three beautiful children. 18-month-old Gracien, the youngest, wanders all over, we see him climbing steep steps leading to the local market, knife in hand! His older brother, later saved from drowning by Carine while he was swimming, climbs stark naked, twenty feet up to grab some coconuts. Sometimes, the islander’s fatalism, including Bruno’s, remind me of Africa. No one escapes one’s destiny and they all rely on their lucky star. For our part, we are less fatalist. When we search for waves hidden in inaccessible spots, we hope that the quality of our discovery will be proportionate to the difficulty to get there. It’s a superstition, we know it’s not true, however perseverance always wins and fortune favours the bold. That is why observing the reef’s round curve in front of Bruno’s on a small day, gives us a hint of the reward of hard work. It’s ard to be 100% sure, but the set-up is promising: easterly winds are offshore on this coast lined with coconut forests, growing on a rough carpet of coral reefs.
Perfectly exposed to south-west swells, the reef extends out to the pass where a strong current flows. The following evening when the first head-high set peels over 200 meters without a single drop of water out of place, the rigors of the journey disappear.
