One of the best (or worst) things about our Least Visited Countries Tour is the sheer unpredictability of Pacific Island life – a level of unpredictability that necessitates a lot of itinerary changes.

On our 2017 trip to Kiribati we decided to leave the capital of Tarawa and visit a nearby island. Everything was fantastic (we even met the government) until our boat decided not to pick us up – like, at all.

The issue was eventually resolved, but it meant that for 2018 I decided to keep this particular day a bit more flexible. Our guide suggested that we go to Abatao village, as it was “closer”. By “closer” she meant that it was in Tarawa, and in reality it meant a lot of walking, hiking and even hitchhiking to get ourselves to a place more or less opposite the village.

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The sensible ones in our group jumped on an overcrowded boat to get to the village itself, whilst Alistair Riddell of Cuba fame decided to swim across the bay (he yet lives). We then got back to hiking…

As is usually the case with such things, the ends justified the means and we ended up with a local family who cooked us lunch whilst we chilled in beach huts by the sea.

Being genuine legend that I am, I went exploring with a local to procure some local moonshine made from coconut-tree sap (less disgusting than kava, in fairness).

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Lunch took about two hours to arrive, but we were presented with probably the best tuna sashimi I have ever had in my life (big words from me). We washed it down with our newfound moonshine.

Young Pioneer Tours are obviously about much more than chilling in the tropics, but our two days spent in Kiribati really give us the best of all worlds (it has a fascinating history), and a day in Abatao is really quite nice!

We even finished the night in the dodgiest bar in Tarawa, which is very YPT.

Come and join us this December if you too want to play with us in the Pacific Islands!