Hiking the SW side of Easter Island

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WELL IT'S another beautiful morning here in Hangaroa. I'm in the south western side of town. Look at the amazing swell coming over. This morning I'm going to head around past the airport and there's a track that goes up the volcano I was standing at the top of yesterday overlooking the amazing crater. I did it by bus yesterday but today I'm going to walk up and see what the track's like. Being an island and given the culture of the Rapanui people, the best way to explore the island is by walking it. I've still got today and tomorrow on the island. I've now done every conceivable tour you can do here, so I'm travelling independently now, and exploring the island a bit more.

I'm now following the moderately sloping track up the mountain. You can see Hangaroa a fair distance behind now. This is a very well-worn track. I'm following the path that the islanders have been following for hundreds of years to get up to the top of the mountain.

Okay I've reached the saddle, just back down there. That's where the villagers used to come over the hill before following another track down to the wetlands below. I'm going to follow the rim of the crater up to near where we went yesterday somewhere out in that direction. From here I'll get some really good views of the lake below.

Okay 've just found some volcanic obsidian here with its nice shiny glass. That's silica that's been melted in the volcano. They did use the obsidian quite a lot for making tools here. So, I'm just continuing around the crater here. In the distance there I can see the museum I went to yesterday so it's actually not far to go now. When I get there, I'll be heading back down the mountain again. So, I'll see you back down there.

I'm now back at the bottom of the volcanic cone and have discovered another archaeological site. There's a cave near the bottom here which I'm just about to explore.

Okay I've reached the entrance to the cave and as you can see the sea is pretty rough coming in. I'm well above it. I'll turn around here. This is just a small cave, but you can see the outline of some of the drawings the Rapanui people have done. I think they are mostly of birds, but they are quite worn out now. They are probably hundreds of years old. This is a very exposed cave very close to the water so it's a totally different archaeological site here. There's obviously not too much exploring needed. This is another aspect of the Easter Islander people.

Well I'm just a little bit up the coast from the cave and as you can see it is very very rugged. It is mostly scoria getting eroded by the ocean. There's some very dramatic coastline right here.