TRAVEL WRITING COMPETITION 2022

Every year, the editors of National Geographic Traveller (UK) judge hundreds of entries in their search for the next big travel-writing talent. The competition asks for 500 words on an inspiring, authentic experience that conveys a strong sense of the destination and the local people. Here are 2022's prize-winning entry and runners-up

THE WINNER

THE BLUE LAGOON

IN A SECLUDED CORNER OF FRENCH POLYNESIA, RANGIROA OFFERS EXTRAVAGANT BEAUTY AND WILDLIFE.

WORDS: JAMES BREGMAN

“Limon! Limon!”

Captain Hiro’s cry isn’t an offer of refreshments. He’s excitedly alerting his passengers to something.

On his instruction, we’ve left the safety of the moored boat and are wading towards shore. The waist-deep water is calm, clear, bathtub-warm. The only obstacles are the sharks.

They dart about in their hundreds, weaving at torpedo speed around our nervous steps and butting the occasional ankle. Most are modest-sized reef dwellers, as skittish as they are kinetic. The lemon shark now joining them is twice the size and much less timid.

Navigating this welcome party feels a fair price for entry to a beauty spot whose inaccessibility keeps crowds mercifully away.

The Lagon Bleu is a lagoon within a lagoon, one geological quirk inside another. This secluded corner of Polynesia hides in the fringes of the much larger Rangiroa atoll, a remarkable location in itself — a narrow ring of fragmented land with an expanse of ocean in the middle. Its 120-mile perimeter traces the shape of an ancient fringing reef that once encircled a towering volcano. Millennia after its peaks sank into the Pacific, today’s Rangiroa sits just feet above sea level. Its 360-degree horizon and sleepy pace make for a distinct edge-of-the-earth vibe.

On the giant atoll’s western reach, where stretches of continuous land give way to a patchwork of motus — small coral sand islets — the fauna of the Blue Lagoon lives its quiet life.