The plane journey to the Solomon's seemed to take forever, as did the check in with some people being hauled away to behind closed doors... strange. I had my Vanuatu feather and walking sticks put into agricultural quarantine. This was a bit of a concern until Wiji pointed out that I could just consider this a left luggage facility...it was probably a good thing really!
While I was delayed at customs Wiji had made friends with some UN people who offered to give us a lift to the domestic airport in the hope that we could get a connecting flight out, but on arrival we found that no one was flying due to the plane fuel gauge being broken...Mmm good to know! The UN guy kindly offered to take us back to the international airport and hooked us up with a sales guy, for tickets out the next day on a Twin Otter to Gizo! Wiji was beside himself at the thought of a small craft flight! But this did mean one night in Honiara, that we had hoped to avoid.
We headed out by taxi through Honiara...it all looked at bit ravaged and littered, to our chosen abode for the night the 'Quality Motel'. On arrival we were told that they only had one room left and this seemed very expensive, but on the whole all the accom was expensive that we had checked on, oh dear, so we took it, only to find that it probably ranked as number one on our list of hell holes to stay in (followed closely by Huehuetanango and the filthy walls). It was very run down, as expected after the recent tensions, not that we thought they had taken place in the room, but it could have done. Later we found out that it was the scene of a prostitution racket.
Getting out of the room immediately seemed like a really good idea, so we decided to go into town and find Stella in the tourist office. Wiji had phoned her while we were in Port Vila. She was very helpful and sent us on our way after booking some accom for us for Gizo. Our night in Honiara is best left forgotten. It was very noisy and bug ridden and we were really pleased to be getting up at 4am to go to the domestic airport. Sadly our taxi driver didn't arrive and some of the 'security' on site offered to drive us, first hoofing out all the sleeping men from the pick-up...Ewww, that was a pretty stinky trip, but we made it to a deserted airport in the middle of nowhere and really had to question our sanity! What where we doing there?
Time ticked on and we got bitten to death, but eventually others turned up at 6am and we had to assert our place in the queue and consequently managed to get on the flight! We were assured by other passengers that this did not mean that we were actually going to go to Gizo...the plane needed fuel and this required a lot more waiting around...
The Captain arrived and announced that all was well, we did have fuel and we could board. So all 16 of us squeezed on in and the co-pilot, from the cockpit, turned to us and shouted the safety instructions over the engine noise and off we went! It really did seem sooo small.
The Twin Otter, perfect for flying over the Solomon's!
It was really noisy and we could feel every turn.
Bye Honiara...
And hello the pretty islands of the Solomon's!
The New Georgia region of the Western Province is known for its turquoise lagoons, masses of tiny tropical islets, skull shrines and world class snorkelling sites, we were ready for it!
Our view of the 'old as the plane' captain in the cockpit.
On the first runway at Ramata (that looked nothing like a runway from the air), the aged Aussie pilot opened the cockpit door and shouted to the local on the ground 'cut those bushes down, all of them or I'll close the airstrip!' Oh yeah that was reassuring!
Ramata airport in the distance.
A view of the cockpit...
And the controls. Wiji spotted a sign that warned against acrobatic manoeuvres! Quality.
Flying in the Twin Otter was one of my favourite moments of the trip so far, seeing the island this way was totally stunning and a really thrilling experience!
Flying over what we later found out was the new Fatboy's resort, owned by a Swiss man, we didn't visit it.
We landed at Gizo airstrip and they refuelled the plane with a hand pump. Wiji was a bit concerned about his bag, but we soon found that they had put it in the nose cone!
Loading and unloading the post from the plane.
We wandered off to the awaiting taxi boat.
Wiji chatting away to a friendly local who had come back to visit his sick father. He told us that we really needed dark skin for this sun...he was sooo right.
From the jetty we watched the plane take off again bound for Honiara.
Our taxi only took us a short distance across the waster to Gizo. The airport was actually an island in itself! Stella had booked us into the Gelvinas Hotel, and we were glad of this because it was locally run, unlike the rather imposing Gizo Hotel next door and the room was sooo nice, especially after the not so 'Quality Hotel' (how wrong?)
We decided to check out the town, Gizo being the hub of the Solomon's...it was pretty quiet, but we found out that it was women's week and we purchased some fish and chips from a women on the street for breakfast. It turned out to be fried mackerel with big chunks of sweet potato...really lush. Then we did some serious chilling and sleeping to recover from the previous night. We then booked a snorkelling trip for the next day.
Late that evening we made it down to eat at PT 109, named after JFK's WW2 patrol boat that sank off Gizo, (we were later to discover that the Western Province is still littered with WW2 junk.) We arrived just in time to catch the sunset and chat to Terry, the Education Finance officer in charge of making sure that EU aid funds were being used properly in schools to buy equipment. It was extremely interesting chatting with him and we bumped into him a couple more times over the course of our stay. He had a massive afro and was chewing the local Betel nut, so his lips were stained red. He was large as life.
Brilliant cloud formations over the other islands that lead to me think of the Solomon's as the islands in the sky.
This is the cones shaped volcano Kolombangara, that rises 1770m and is apparently a two day hike to the top...not that we would ever attempt that!
It seemed to be rush hour on the water.
It was at PT109 that I got to try mud-crab cooked in sautéed ginger. It was a massive red crab that I partially had to break up with my hands...I did feel a little guilty, but hey! It was totally delicious and a real treat!
The next morning we were really excited about our snorkelling trip and were going out with a group of divers.
Kolombangara in the distance.
A very lumpy starfish, looking rather like it had been constructed 'Blue Peter' Stylieee with a few pairs of stuffed 'American tan' tights.
It was barely 9am and extremely hot in the breeze less sunshine. The clouds hovered over one of the volcano's.
The dive boat in the distance. Our first stop was at Kennedy Island, where JFK and 10 ship mates swam ashore after their PT109 patrol boat was sunk by the Japanese destroyer 'Amagiri' in 1943.
Lol. The island in the distance..its going to take a lot more practice to get a good shot of reef and island!
A crown of thorns starfish.
A clown or anemone fish.
'Stop looking at me!'
Lots more corals that we had never seen before.
That's deserted Kennedy Island.
A truly amazing hard coral.
The Fan clam embedded in the coral, this one was dead.
We pretty much chased these fish around, they were gorgeous with their yellow pouting lips.
Way deep!
Another anemone fish, they were a pleasure to see.
Snorkelling the drop off was totally stunning! The visibility here was better than anywhere else we had been so far on the trip. It was like floating from the height of a skyscraper and peering over. Sadly you can't truly capture this with our little camera.
But we tried, even so.
Wiji dove to new depths!
Some locals in a dug out with a sail went by.
Back on the boat and a last look at Kennedy Island before scooting off...
There were so many little island that we got a bit lost with the names from here on in...
This was our next site. Snorkelling the reef from left to right. Here it had a really strong current that whizzed us off it we didn't hug the reef...Wiji thought it was great fun, a bit 'Sedgemoor Splash', er, OK!
Looking goooood! Oh god Yeah! Lol!
Before long it was time for lunch and we stopped at another deserted island for our Solomon Island tinned fish of choice... 'Chilli Tuna'. Yes, really living the dream.
The sea and the sky floated together in a mesmerising way...
A thunderstorm building. The cloud formations was one of the many amazing things about the Solomon's.
We snorkelled the reef here, but the water in the shallows was super hot, it was almost too much in the burning heat of the sun. Factor 50 wasn't really enough for our fair skins!
Continuing our fascination with clams...they are such gems!
Christmas tree coral! No really!
The soft coral formations were incredible and varied.
More of Wiji's favourite tiny electric blue fish.
And some really big trumpet fish.
Then just as we were about to totally poach ourselves in the hot, hot shallows the boat picked us up for our next destination...
And took us to an even bigger drop off that was teeming with fish!..
And giant corals of all kinds...
Super lush clams...
Things that were totally mad...
Ooooh love you guy's!
Masses of fish!
Point to it! Its a clam!!
Having such a brilliant time!
And then back in the boat for home. All that factor 50 kids sun cream that was like PVA glue seemed to pay off, gorgeous boy isn't looking too crispy fried...
Only some areas remain white! LMAO.
The view from the Gelvinas Hotel to the market across the street, with our own balcony. It was here that we broke the house rules and drank our Rum...
The communal kitchen...
The beautiful parrot / parakeet that mimicked the sound of the water pump...we did feel sorry for you.
The main street in the busiest island of the Western Province, and on a Saturday morning too! It was here that I brought some fresh rambutan fruit from a lady and Wiji brought an ice pole...classic behaviour.
It was on Saturday that we decided we needed to check the boats for the next day to go to Munda, the guide book advised that we could travel everyday, by of course that was not the case. After much discussion about chartering a boat and availability, with Elizabeth at Gelvinas, (fuel was way too expensive) we realised that we would have to leave that afternoon or be stuck on Gizo for a couple more days. Lovely Elizabeth insisted that we take half the day's money back and just pay for the morning. We couldn't refuse without being rude (how kind?) After running to the dock Wiji met Terry again and he secured our place on the next taxi boat to Munda.
Leaving Gizo in a rush, but we couldn't do much more here...
The boat was open topped with a fibre glass hull and had planks for seats. It was totally full with passengers, baggage and kids. Our rucksack had to be wedged under tarp in the front of the boat. But hey, we were off and whizzing along! It was super flat and glassy...
Then it was a bit choppier...and then it really started to rain and we all reached for the thread bare yellow macs that were on the floor and it was heads down in the boat with children crying and time to hand on. The rain blocked out all visibility beyond 2ft! It was then that I chose to ask Wiji how long he thought the journey would be, lol...apparently about 3 hours...ha ha.
But the rain did clear and soon enough we were frying in our yellow macs and had to whip them off when the sun really came out again. We picked up some more people later in the trip and saw some evidence of logging on the journey. We also passed some large foreign fishing vessels both of which were having a heavy impact on the Solomon's no doubt. We rendezvous with another out-board motor boat who took some of the passengers off as we lulled together holding the edges of each others boats in the middle of sea. How did they know we would be there?
Then we arrived at Munda to a totally unexpected welcome by a party of Brits on the St Agnes deck, consisting of Dive Munda's Jen and Graham and the Marine biologists working on island conservation, Anthony and Gabe. We had some beers and even a slice of birthday cake with them before Joe came to pick us up for our transfer to his island, Lola and Zipolo Habu.
A pretty amazing journey!
1 comment:
Just wonderful. The snorkelling looked some of the best so far. We really liked the pictures of the clouds building too xx
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