we'd heard that the hienghene river is beautiful and decided to explore it on our paddleboards. of course the tides were ebbing in the morning and flooding after lunch, so it was going to be a workout. we set off late morning and were surprised by the speed we made with the wind behind us - best enjoy it as the return will be a hard slog.
we passed plantations with banana trees drooping just above our heads, their huge red flowers and green bunches such an image of the tropics. towering to the sky the mountainsides were covered with an array of greens, interspersed with incredible trees with bright orange flowers. herons flew low over the river, kingfishers dived and parakeets chattered overhead, it was really lovely and we paddled on for a couple of hours enjoying the new view round each meander. then there was a strident yowling - strange. si spotted the source first, but didn't change course - a small black kitten on a sandbar. next thing it had waded into the river and started swimming towards me - of course i was now paddling towards it. i scooped it up and carried it to the shore, a bedraggled bundle of fragile bones covered in grass seeds with round grey eyes and a wide pink mouth - we couldn't ignore it.
i set off to try and find a house or some people - there was nothing. returning to si we decided to take it with us. i put him on the board between my feet and off we went up the river again. he stayed still for a while, but complained constantly, probably because he was starving. then he walked to the front of the board - and before i knew what would happen he'd jumped over the front and disappeared beneath the nose. nightmare - i was running over the top of him, but i had to keep going, to stop or change course may have prolonged the disaster, forcing him right under the water for longer if i turned the wrong way. luckily he didn't get stuck in the fins and suddenly reappeared behind me, i turned the board, tried to scoop him out on the paddle blade as his nose was barely above the surface, the slippery surface was no good and the kitten fell in and went under again, i struggled to grab him and fell in too, meanwhile si was laughing as the scene unfolded, (though that's because he didn't know i'd run over the top of the kitten). eventually the kitten and i were back on my board - and we needed to re-think the plan. si's shorts had pockets, so we slipped the kitten in, he struggled for a while as we paddled onwards, then stopped trying to escape and was still. we got to our turning point and si wanted to swim, holding the kitten we discovered the reason for the stillness was he was freezing cold and shivering.
i cuddled and dried him off whilst si's shorts dried in the sun, then we lined the pocket with soft dry bamboo leaves, put the kitten back in and started the return trip down river, pc (pocket cat / paddle cat or petite chat) had his head out resting on a paw and dozed off as we battled the gusts that blasted up the river. happily, apart from the battle to get down one memorably slow stretch, the wind was not consistent and we made good progress back to the village and our dinghy.
arriving at roxi i opened a can of sardines, the kitten was utterly ravenous and tried to eat the spoon too.
i washed him to get rid of the salt from his earlier dunkings and fed him again, he was still hungry - and so thirsty. and so the evening passed - me cuddling, feeding, brushing and stroking pc and si talking about market day tomorrow and the number of extra people that would be in the village.
morning came and we had a happy fluffy kitten to offer. after a few "non's" we approached the right soft hearted man, he cooched pc behind the ears, smiled and said 'oui'. i handed him over - reluctantly.