Tarawa Shuttle

This is the Bairiki-Betio shuttle on Tarawa. I am at the left, with my mother and sister. They have since cut a great channel through the reef, and put a road bridge across it, which (arguably) led to the sinking of Bikeman island. When this photo was taken, about 1968, Land Rovers would race across the Bairiki-Betio reef at low tide. One Land Rover took too great a chance, and was swallowed by the tide. We saw it from the shuttle. OBSERVATION: My mother's memory of this photo was, "Diesel fumes."