For those who don’t know Kiribati is an island in a series of islands the capital of which is Tuvalu in the pacific. There are many islands in the pacific that will disappear as sea levels rise but I first came across Kiribati in much happier days in the early nineteen nineties when researching for a book. The reason it stuck in my memory is simply that it is home to very rare exotic birds and such is their eagerness to maintain the natural life they limit the tourists to thirty at a time. Usually you have to be super rich to get anywhere where only thirty people are allowed – that or super secretive.
Of course sea travel isn’t cheap and the local airport can only take smaller jets so it is a fairly extraordinary holiday, but to me it seemed and still does, a lovely place to go. It is part of the reason I want to buy an ocean going yacht and learn to sail, because of the freedom to travel across the seas. Although a friend once told me they wouldn’t like a boat as they would see the boat as constrictive because it is so small. A lesson in how perceptions dictate what we see as freedom and what we see as restriction.
One day I intend to see some very exotic birds in the pacific.