In what is apparently not a rare turn of events, the plane had departed a full hour and a half before it was scheduled to leave. It was fortunate therefore that we were both so excited to get to the tiny island of Savo that we had checked in hours in advance and were therefore ready to go when the plane turned up.
Savo came to our attention after reading Paul Theroux's The Happy Isles of Oceania. His descriptions of the bizarre sounding megapode birds were enough to mark it as a definite item on our itinerary. We arranged to stay at the only accommodation on the island, the Sunset Hotel via the lovely Stella at the Solomon Islands Visitor Bureau. Transport had also been arranged for us in the booking, but we were a little concerned that we might have to hang around yet again at the barely there Honiara domestic terminal. Fortunately, no sooner had we grabbed out baggage than we were met by our driver Jim. On our return journey we found out he was actually called John. Sadly he didn't bother to correct me on any of the many occasions I chumily used his name.
After turfing out two unfortunate people from his pickup to ride outside and replacing them with our bags (as he thought it might rain!), we headed off toward the northwest corner of Guadalcanal to where we were due to hop on a boat for the 20 minute ride over to the island of Savo. On the way John-Jim stopped 'to have a quick smoke', which actually meant he was buying some betel nuts. For some reason he thought he needed to shield us from the truth, but on his return I grilled him about them and he seemed keen to tell us about how good they were. He told us that he regularly got through about 70 nuts a day, spending nearly 15 quid, and that they cured a whole host of ailments as well as being a nice buzz. Obviously I was keen to try them.
Once out of Honiara, Guadalcanal became much more beautiful, and generally seemed a lot more cared for. There wasn't nearly so much rubbish about once we had left the urban sprawl of the capital. After about an hour and a quarter of driving we arrived at our transport across the channel to Savo. Our bags and us were swiftly hoofed on board and off we went in one of the identikit tiny fibreglass boats used all over the Solomons.
Clairy snapped a piccy of the dock as we left Guadalcanal.
The pretty green hills of rural Guadalcanal.
The journey over was pretty rough once we had left the shelter of the dock and both of us had to really hang on as the boat bounced violently up and down on the swell. Soon though we started to notice the truly incredible sight of large shoals of flying fish gliding out of the water away from the boat and off into the distance. We were both so amazed by these that we soon forgot how sore our fingers and bums were. I thought that I had seen them before, but I really can't have as these were just so incredibly graceful, I totally would have remembered. They powered themselves right out of the water and glided in perfect aerodynamic flight sometimes as much as 50ft away from where they had exited the water. Not for the first time on our travels I thought, I've got to make a model of that...what a geek!
Upon arrival at the Sunset Hotel we were met on the beach and some lads lugged our bags out of the boat and up to our room.
Clairy and I were each handed a mahoosive fresh coconut with a lovely hibiscus flower poking out of it. Clairy was so chuffed she said this almost made up for still not having received any floral necklaces. Oh yeah, she looks pretty chuffed!
Whilst slurping down our coconuts we watched as one of the local lads pegged it up an absolutely vast coconut tree just next to us to collect some for the school group that was arriving the next day. He was very young, but had absolutely no fear at all. Once up there he quickly whipped all the dry coconuts up and after a quick warning shout sent a massive shower of them to the ground.
He managed to clamber up with a machete in one hand and a rope in the other, and after hacking off a massive bunch of fresh ones he carefully lowered them down on the rope.
Then he clambered back down with the machete still in his other hand. Nifty.
Nearly there!
A bit of a better perspective. Look at the size of that tree!
Clairy was fascinated by the orchids growing around the site.
As we were just finishing our coconuts the heavens opened with an almighty tropical downpour. We were very glad to have not been in the uncovered boat when this shower hit.
It soon blew over though and left a stunningly beautiful cloudscape behind.
The local kids seemed to spend most of their time splashing about in the sea.
After being shown our simple but thoroughly clean, slightly prison cell like room, we sat on the beach and settled down for what looked like being a great sunset. Oooooo...what lucky boogers we are.
I think these are probably our best Pacific sunset pictures so far!
Sorry for the repetition, but they all just looked so good we had to put them all up.
Later that evening after we had eaten our very tasty buffet dinner we chatted to Jacob, a thoroughly lovely ex Chief of Police in Honiara. He had a really interesting history and told us all about his life, work and family having grown up on the island of Savo, and also having been a senior figure of authority throughout the Solomon Islands recent tensions. He was now retired and was staying at the hotel as he had lent his boat to a friend who was interviewing local villagers with respect to their views on the rewriting of the countries constitution. It was a real privilege for us to hear about the recent history and potential future of a place we had enjoyed so much from someone so knowledgeable and deeply connected.
During our chats we were gradually interrupted more and more by the sight of these small crabs which appeared in greatly increasing numbers. Eventually they were all over the floor, and Jacob explained that just it was just at this time of year that they appeared. The situatution was exasperated by the fact that the hotel's main generator had seized the day before we arrived and they were using a tiny backup one instead. This meant the only light in the whole hotel that was on was the one right next to us and this was attracting the crabs in their hundreds.
When we eventually went to bed we found our room was also totally full of them and we had absolutely no chance of getting them out in the dark. We therefore crashed out to the sound of tiny tap dancing claws and fortunately were protected by our non-crab-tested mozzie net.
The next morning we had arranged to go early to the megapode bird fields. So early in fact (7am...god forbid!), that we were due to have our brekky when we came back (surely a dangerous situation).
The boat trip to the village with megapode fields was only about 10 minutes, but unfortunately upon being greeted by a village representative we were given some bad news. The megapodes had all been chased off by dogs, and there were none to be seen. I immediately fell into some despondence (possibly made worse by the lack of brekky).
The megapodes are a largeish black bird, a bit smaller than a chicken and have developed a unique incubation system on the island of Savo alone. Here they lay there eggs only in specific locations where the sand is close to geothermal activity. They dig holes that can be up to 1.3 metres deep and lay there eggs at the bottom, and then fill the holes in, so that the egg is kept perfectly warm by the volcanic sand. The islanders have taken advantage of this in order to harvest the eggs, and now (kind of) protect the fields, and get their kids to dig starter holes to encourage the birds to lay their eggs.
Here is the field.
Clairy thought I might cry at not being able to see any of the birds doing their thing, but fortunately the villager said he would at least show us how they dig them up.
Evidence! Megapode footprints.
Having failed to locate an egg on his first dig, I was becoming yet more despondent, and slightly concerned that the whole thing might be an elaborate hoax.
But then...lo and behold, he found one. The photo doesn't really show it, but this egg was over a metre down.
The eggs are enormous. They're about two and a half times the size of a chicken egg even though the bird is smaller than a chicken (painful).
As a small consolation the villager and our guide said we should be able to see one of the birds out in the bush behind the village.
Sadly...even after sending his kids off to scare the megapodes in our general direction (a tactic neither of us was particularly happy with), we only got the most fleeting of glimpses)...Boooooo. I was well miffed, but as Clairy pointed out later on, this is probably more to do with the insane luck we have had watching wildlife in so many other places.
On the way back to the boat, our guide pointed out the Sago palm, an absolutely vast palm, that is used as a starchy foodstuff in times of need in certain countries including PNG.
This pandanas palm is used to weave various objects including the kastom mats that Clairy was so taken with. The piccy shows where the leaves have been trimmed off.
When we arrived back at our hotel Clairy noticed that the boy who had come with us was clutching the megapode egg of the day in his sweaty little palm. She quickly asked our guide if she could have a photo with it too. The boy didn't seem to understand and looked rather horrified that Clairy might have been pinching his egg, but was all smiles once it was returned after the piccy.
After lunch we headed off on the boat to have a look at the dolphin breeding area on the south coast of the island.
As soon as we reached the right spot our driver slowed the boat right down an we spotted a whole pile of them jumping out of the water and generally looking like they were having a damn good time.
They didn't seem to like the noise of the boat too much though and quickly all dived under and were nowhere to be seen for about a minute.
They then popped up right next to the boat. Clairy snapped these piccies whilst standing and trying not to fall out of the boat.
Oh hi down there!
They quickly disappeared again and we drove round and round in circles for some time spotting them in the distance, then watching them sneakily swim back down before we could reach them.
Eventually I managed to get a couple of pics of them not too far away. Our driver said that due to the strong current and the large swell of the day they tended to stick together and not come too close to the boat. On a good day apparently they are quite happy to frolick all around it.
It was still great to see them though, and the pictures don't really show it, but there were probably 30 or more of them swimming about in the pod.
Clair got some stunning pics of the dense green rainforest that makes up most of Savo's interior on the way back. It's just so green.
And then we arrived back at the hotel.
After a chat with our friend Jacob from the night before (seated below), I went for a swim. Jacob for some reason found this extremely funny.
A useful brush in the tree fern outdoor shower.
We soon realised that our afternoon village tour seemed to have been forgotten about, as our tour guide had buggered off to spend the day with a group of Australian school girls that had turned up on a day trip. Bloody cheek. Clairy wasn't prepared to let this stand however, and asked if there was anyone else who might be able to take us. Earlier in the day we had met another guest called Tania, a very nice Australian-American who had recently left America to live in Oz and was working in Honiara for a couple of weeks. Tania fancied a look at some local village life, so when Clairy returned with Noel, our new tour guide, we all set off together.
We soon passed through lots of tiny villages similar to the one we had visited that morning to not see the megapodes. There were lots of friendly people about who all greeted us cheerfully.
Noel pointed out the copra ovens where coconut meat is dried before being sent to Honiara to be sold. This is the main source of income on Savo, and after being shown this we spotted them all over the place.
Clairy snapped this piccy of the cut-nuts that she had tried in Vanuatu still hanging from this tree.
A local church.
Noel informed us these guys were busy building shelter for a huge feast that was due to happen soon as a new chief was being inaugurated.
Possibly the biggest banyan tree yet! Thanks Tania for the piccy.
On the way we noticed Noel chewing on the betel nut, and sensing this might be a good opportunity I asked if I could try one with his assistance. Here he is showing the inside that you get at by ripping off the husk with your teeth (quite a lot trickier than you might imagine).
This piccy is pretty good example of just how dry the nut is to start off with. Clairy initially put half in her mouth but promptly took it out comparing the effect to chewing on a mouthful of sloe berries. I persisted however. There had to be a good reason for so many Solomon Islanders to be hooked on the stuff.
Once you've chewed the nut up nicely you have to dip what they call a mustard bean in some lime powder (they used to use crushed up coral, but lime is cheaper and achieves the same thing) and chomp that up with the betel nut. The locals found me partaking pretty funny as you can see.
I kept dipping my bean and chewing up more of it until Noel said that was probably enough. At this point Clairy made me open my slightly rancid mouth and show off the nut's handywork. It makes your mouth go bright red! Most islanders don't seem to dribble all over themselves when doing it like I did, but they do continually spit the red juice out to remove the dry taste leaving some pretty hideous stains all over the place. Chewing the nut is generally banned in places where foreigners are likely to be because of this.
The physical effect was surprisingly pokey. My heart started to race and as you can see I was even more sweaty than usual. The nut is used to keep people going throughout the day, and I could see why. It did give me a fair burst of energy, but it didn't last more than about 20 minutes. I needed another nut! Sadly there weren't available (probably best for my tragically addictive personality).
Our village walk took as along the beach where there were lots of kids playing. Some people had beach shacks where they stayed if they were going out fishing at night.
The black sand beach stretched on for miles.
Copra (coconut meat) left out to dry.
Clairy took this shot of me and Noel as we crossed an old school playing field. Noel informed us that the school had been abandoned as it was too much effort to keep the vegetation in the field down.
Lovely bamboo woven walls on the leaf houses.
Coconut walk of death. The huge palms always seem to lean over the walkways.
There were some gorgeous gardens around some of the houses.
After walking for almost an hour an a half we asked how long it would take to carry on all the way round the island. Noel said it would be another 6-9 hours depending on our pace...so we decided to head back the way we had come.
Clairy spotted this gorgeous little fella in the undergrowth while vainly trying to get another look at a megapode. We have no idea what he is.
Noel also showed us the fascinating 'tell-tale' plant which we had to get a vid of. It's only 8 seconds long so its definitely worth a watch. Apparently these were introduced by the Americans in WW2 so they could tell if an enemy had used the path in the last few minutes. Even the slightest brush sets them off.
We really enjoyed our village walk and it gave us a great insight into the chilled out life of people on the island.
Late that evening we had some interesting chats and enjoyed our lovely last meal at the sunset hotel.
The next morning we headed back to Guadalcanal and Honiara for our flight to Fiji. All the staff waved us off. We had a thoroughly pleasant stay on Savo.
No comments:
Post a Comment