We had visited Akamaru a few months ago, prior to the quarantine. We really enjoyed this little island and had wanted to come back to see if we could get in closer to the shallows on the opposite side of Ile Mekiro. The small Ile Mekiro sits just in front of Akamaru and has no livable space, a teeny tiny beach, and a beautiful white cross at the top of the hill. Visit this post to learn about our first visit.
The water is incredibly shallow in this area so we had to time our entrance perfectly. We needed it to be high tide during peak sunshine. For weeks high tide fell early morning and late night which was not conducive for seeing coral heads threatening to introduce themselves to the bottom of our boat. On this return trip we had our friends on HooDoo following us – no pressure!
Anchoring in the Shallows
After entering the small channel , we found our way to our previous anchor spot which was 1.4 meters deep. We eye balled our path and forged ahead in a very slow forward motion. We passed by three coral heads and made a hard right in a space that barely fit our wide boat. From there we had to make a best guess at where we could go without touching the sea floor or a coral head. We successfully made it to the abandoned raft, circled in front of it (avoiding the long line floating off its bow) and on into the inner lagoon near Remy’s house boat. Nothing like a little stress to get your blood pumping.
The red line marks our approximate track. The blue “X” is where we anchored last time. The arrow points to the other side of Ile Mekiro where we anchored.
We ended up dropping the hook in 1.3 meters of sand (we draw about 1.2 meters). Somewhere in the middle of low tide Matt saw .9 meters under the boat. Not sure how that happened we did not feel the seabed dance with Sugar Shack
Hiking Ile Mekiro
Ile Mekiro is a small island with a fun hike to the top (following goat trails). We forged our own path and took some great photos of the bay. The top photo shows the cross we hiked too and the bottom two are drone shots Matt took of Missy and I resting at the cross.
This drone shot shows all the amazing coral on the northern side of Ile Mekiro making inaccessible.
Missy and I hanging out by the cross as Matt flew the drone
Snorkel on the Westside of Ile Mekiro
While we were at the top of Ile Mekiro we saw a beautiful spot to snorkel. It looks like a ton of coral which was bound to be beautiful. We took the dinghy around the island and jumped in. A black tip and white tip shark hung out with us while we snorkeled.
The coral was incredibly healthy. I wish I could explain all of the varieties of coral but all I can clearly say is that there were a lot of staghorn and table corals. The thing that was fascinating was seeing the staghorn grow in between the tables giving a nice depth to the floor.
Hike Along the Ridge
We took HooDoo to the Eastern tip of Akamaru to hike along the ridge. We had heard that we could collect lemons and pomplemouse by the beach as a bonus. The arrow in the lower left is the beach where we left the dinghy. The arrow in the upper right is the rock ledge we hiked to.
We landed the dinghy at a beautiful beach with a small shack. It had soft sand and lots of trees. Behind the shack were several fruit trees ripe for the picking.
It was a moderate hike straight up over rocks on a goat path.
Absolutely beautiful views from the top. The water is just stunning.
Of course, Matt had to do his jumping stunt near the edge.
And we end the post with a sunset on fire!
