First one needs to find a jetty. Preferably one that for years has been the victim of tropical monsoons and squall driven tides.
Ensure that over the years the waves have deposited their many gifts, that the trees have sprinkled the area liberally with old leaves, that at least half a dozen coconuts lie abandoned on its shores and that the place is riddled with creepy crawly wild life as well as big scary crabs.
Next find a day when the usual chores of the day have been completed early and you have nothing else planned for at least the next 8 hours.
Peruse the area for new projects and spy said abandoned Jetty.
Decide that today is the day for a rebuild!
When the dogs and I made the decision to clean up the old jetty at the house we did not realise how much work was going to be involved or how much fun we would have doing it. Armed with my big leaf collecting bucket we began to fill it with the years of accumulated wood, leaves and other assorted sea deposited debris. The dogs found this to be truly stimulating, bring back to me wonderfully decomposing bits of flotsam that I was relocating to the bonfire pile.
Once cleared, we set about moving the collapsed stones to rebuild the supporting walls either side of the walk way. Ants by the millions had moved into the abandoned area building their huge warren of tunnels between the spreading roots and stones. Tiny ants that swarmed around, climbing up our legs and over our feet until soon the dogs and I were beaten back to the shore to await their departure!.
With the ants calmed and miraculously gone, our next mission was to fill all the spaces between the relocated large stones with smaller stones. I looked around for a supply of suitable smaller stones and was pleasantly rewarded from an unexpected source!
Tupars have destroyed the area around the bonfire, digging their craters as they build their homes and set up what looks like Tupar City at the far end of the garden. They have also thrown up mulitple piles of wonderful small stones and old dirty coral during their excavations and so it was to here that we turned in our hunt for a more solid base base.
We raked and gathered bucket after bucket of this dirty coral, filling in the Tupar holes as we went. I have not attempted to remove the Tupars from this area of the garden yet, mainly because it is so far away from the house and even Tupars need some where to live. Today however, during our mission to relocate their piles of house cleared garbage, I kept falling into their enormous holes and so battle commenced to level the area.
As stated in previous blogs, Tupars have the amazing strength to dig their way out so I have stopped feeling guilty every time I fill in a home!
With Tupar City area raked clear and our jetty runway looking more solid we began phase two.
Clean coral covering.
The beach outside the house has a shore line of fine coral and soft sand. Each day the sea washes a few more pieces of this richly coloured and diversely shaped phenomenon up onto my shore and each week I rake it all to the end of the beach to hide the excess under the low branches of the tree. I have been unsure of what to do with the growing pile but today it was exactly what we needed to provide our second layer of stability onto the walkway of the jetty.
Buckets were emptied into the wheel barrow, wheel barrows full of clean fine coral were trundled down the garden to the awaiting jetty where it was put back into buckets and carried down into position.
Wheel barrow access to the jetty would involve the removal of a huge tree with a root system that includes two foot walls and this is not a job one wishes to undertake at this time!
The sun was hot, the breeze was cool and as the dogs checked out my efforts we realised we were making headway!
Clean coral was laid over dirty coral and sand was laid over the clean coral as bit by bit we patched the old jetty back to its former glory.
Sand was relocated from the adjoining beach into our wonderful versatile bucket and again hand carried to position.
Crabs were evicted from their beach homes as the sand was dug and packed into the bucket, both of my fearsome companions ensuring their non return to the area as they chased them from one end of the beach to the other.
Twenty buckets of sand were laid over the four wheelbarrows of clean coral that lay on, I lost count of how many, buckets of Tupar dirty coral.
The whole thing was raked and stomped as we constructed our masterpiece.
The dogs checked it out leaving foot prints in what had been my wonderfully smooth surface. We stomped some more, we raked a final time and left the whole thing to settle while we all entered the sea for a well deserved rest and soak.
Tomorrow I will return to survey our handy work. The sea will have levelled the beach back to its smooth undulating shape, the sand taken will be replaced by the wonders of nature. The rains will wash and level the walkway and over time nature will remove all that I achieved today. But for now it looks wonderful.
For now the dogs and I can walk to the end in bare feet with soft loving sand beneath out toes. I am sure by morning there will be leaves scattered upon and Tupar holes in my wonderfully created masterpiece but for now as the sun sets in Moorea, I have a perfect Jetty.
Today was a good day and tomorrow will be even better!!
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