Okilove: IE Trip

So, I have just transferred previous posts to this blog, and I am just going to start again.

Over Memorial Day weekend my friend, Cherry, set up a weekend camping trip to IE island, which is located about 6km NW from the Motobu Peninsula. In Japanese, it is called "Iejima".

Photo via Google Images.

It was about a 30 minute ferry ride from the Motobu Port to IE Port. We had never been on a ferry, so that was a new experience for our family. The weather on the way out there was slightly rainy, but still pretty enjoyable.

Here is our ferry.

Pretty sure they loved it.

Hubby and kids getting in the car while on the ferry.

So once we arrived we found the perfect camp site, and began setting up. I could pretty much build a house right where our camp was, and never leave. It was absolutely beautiful!

Our camp site.

View back towards Okinawa.

Another view of Okinawa.

Our beach.

On our second day we went on a little adventure to explore the island. Turns out this island is not built up, it's pretty much two resorts, the camp grounds, and farmland.

Every year the island has a Lily Festival in April. We didn't come for that, but we were able to see a few flowers that were still bloomed.

There was also a pretty cool cave, Nyatiya, that is located about 3.5 km west of Ie Port.

View looking down toward the cave.

Walking down toward the cave.

In the cave there was a "Chikara-ishi" stone. If infertile women lift the stone it is said that she shall have a baby.

Here is the mountain you could see from the ferry, Mount Gusuku, which is about 172 meters high. We didn't climb it this time, but maybe the next time we go.

Our last stop was the Wajii, which means "Spring" in the Okinawa dialect, the steep cliffs along with NW coast.

Absolutely breath taking view.

That day, three of us went SCUBA diving, and were able to see lots of beautiful fish and coral. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of the actual beach we went diving at, but I did take pictures under water. I won't post all of them here, but here are just a few. We also did a night dive just off our camp site, but my camera died at the end of our first dive. Maybe my dive buddy will post some soon so I can share those as well.

Nemo!

Well, hello there.

Pretty cool Nudie Branch

Pretty awesome coral.

The rest of the trip we pretty much stayed in the water. Lots of swimming and snorkeling. The kids loved every bit of it, in fact as soon as the woke up (with the sun) they were ready to head back to the water.