Belvédère, visit of Rotui factory and round the island drive

It was a hot night. Very warm. I don't think the thermostat went below 30 degrees. Even with all the tent doors open, there wasn't a wisp of air.

Birds made noise all night in the trees just below us. And our camping neighbor snores like a truck.  In other words, we didn't sleep very well. We get up around 5.30 a.m., the weather's better outside anyway.

Second camping lesson. Before pitching the tent, we look at the guano on the ground. The birds crapped all over the tent during the night. We wipe it off before it dries.

Alexis had spotted a bakery nearby, which opens early. We set off, arriving to find it closed... It's definitely not a good start to the day. We go back, and next to the tobacconist's, a snack bar is open for breakfast. The coffee is surprisingly good.

Back at the campsite, we have time to wake up at the beach. The water is refreshing at this early hour. The other campers are just getting up.

We decide not to hike the 3 coconut trees as planned. We're not fishing this morning. There's a ferry at the beginning of the afternoon, so we try to take that one and finish the tour of the island by scooter. We pack up our gear and set off.

It was a good idea. We started by going up to the belvedere to check out the view. The scooter had a hard time getting up there. 50cc with the two of us on it was borderline. At one point I thought we were going to have to finish on foot.

On the way back down, we stopped at a crêperie in Cook Bay, which was good and made a nice change from our meals of the last 2 weeks. Looking at the map, we spotted that it was possible to visit the Rotui fruit juice factory and the adjoining distillery. Why not, it's on the way.

I really enjoyed it. It's a short tour, but well done, with explanatory panels in French and English. It ends with a free tasting in the factory store of rhum arrangé, liqueur de fruit and fruit juice. It's really fun! And delicious! I buy a pomelo juice, which I've never seen before. We'll drink it for breakfast tomorrow morning.

I recommend this little stop which takes 30/40min but is very instructive. Rotui is the predominant brand of fruit juice in Polynesia. And it's very high quality. It's basically a cooperative of pineapple growers. 80% of Moorea's production is used by the factory. And this variety, the Tahiti queen, is not produced in large enough quantities to be exported. It is consumed almost entirely locally. It's true that pineapple is very sweet here. You have to try it.

It's getting close to ferry time, and we don't have much road left. We stop at a viewpoint above the Sofitel hotel. There's a beautiful panorama of the lagoon. Then Alexis had spotted a roulotte that did nothing but desserts: La macaroulotte (he knows me well 😊) As the name suggests, specializing in macaroons. We had one of each, I recommend the mango-passion, caramel and soursop. That and a homemade lemonade (unsweetened!). A very pleasant little break right next to the ferry terminal.