Vanuatu II

 The next morning at 7.15 I started my trek around the island.  I'd asked Anok if it were possible to walk around the island and he told me it could be done but I would need to leave early so I could walk at low tide. Much of the western edge of the island was beaches and easy to walk on but

 on the eastern side the beaches were few and far between and I had to clamber up and over these rocky headlands on about three or four occasions.  My shoes weren't the greatest for climbing over wet basalt boulders but I was determined to walk the island so when I came to each headland I assessed it for the best route and then made my way slowly up and around each one.  I was pleased with my problem solving abilities actually.  I was having my own little Vanuatu Survivor experience.

 Two of the villages are situated on the eastern side of the island and this one was idyllic. The houses were set amongst pandanus and palms on clean white sand.

 Of course one of the highlights was finding this banded sea snake on the sand amongst some boulders.  These are reasonably common but it was my first.  Actually no it was my second. I once found some kids on a beach in Bali who had caught one and had somehow manage to slide it inside a plastic soft drink container.

 People on islands such as this one actually experience climate change in a much more direct way than those of us in the West, who, by and large, still talk about it in more abstract terms.  The sea level had noticeably risen on this island and the times when they grow certain vegetables has changed.  Part of the sea off this island was protected in a marine park and a program was underway to 'plant' more corals that had been lost to bleaching.

 I returned to Efate and then on the next day I took this cruise on the yacht, Coongoola, to Moso Island, yet another of the islands just off Efate.  This was a great day and we visited a turtle hatchery before going around to the other side of the island

 where we disembarked the yacht and boated over to this stunning beach where we had a BBQ lunch. Two snorkelling trips were made from this beach.  They boated us about 10 minutes to a coral reef which was just absolutely stunning!  It was literally like floating over a coral garden.  The colours of the corals were stunning and were similar to the amazing corals off Pemuteran on the northern coast of Bali.  But not so many fish...still lots but not as many as Pemuteran.  This is the island where Survivor Vanuatu was filmed - all three or four versions: Americam, English and French versions.

 And now just a few random pics of Port Vila.  The first is part of the huge vegetable and fruit market in the centre of town that operates pretty much 24/7 six days a week.  The stalls are mainly staffed by women who come in from surrounding villages on the island to sell their surplus. They sleep under the tables at night.

 This is Bosco, the guide who took me and three others on an 'ecotour' of some villages.  He was excellent - very good communicator with a great sense of humour.  He carried his bush knife (machete) with him of course.

 I was surprised to learn that Chinese immigration had taken place over the past few decades.  The Chinese own and run many if not most of the retail shops in Port Vila and according to the local ni-Van people, they tend to keep to themselves and not integrate into the community.

The Secret Garden contained lots of local custom stories including this one...not much more to be said, really......

Vanuatu I

 My little trip to Vanuatu was meant to be a short relaxing holiday in tropical weather but alas I hadn't done enough research - August is the coolest time of year with max temps averaging around 24-25.  Which is still pleasant of course but I had been hoping for high 20s/low 30s.  This shot is taken on Pele Island, a small island off the northern tip of Efate, which is the island I holidayed on but I stayed on Pele for one night.  The weather over that weekend and the Monday was the best of the 6 days - warmer temperatures and mostly blue skies.  I'll come to Pele a bit later.

Getting to Vanuatu was somewhat problematic.  The captain made two attempts at landing but aborted both (due to low cloud and low levels of visibility) and then told us he would have to fly to Fiji and then sort things out from there. The flight time to Nadi airport was 90 minutes.  Customs guys came on board shortly after we landed and gave the cabin a good spraying and then we sat for three hours while the captain tried to negotiate with Port Vila airport to return to land.  We were told that Vila had a 6.00pm curfew and so special dispensation would be needed for us to land.  Eventually he gave us the bad news that not only could we not return to Port Vila but because of a lack of accommodation, we were not able to overnight in Fiji, meaning we would have to fly back to Brisbane, which was another four hour flight.

So after spending 11 hours in a plane we ended up back where we began.  We weren't a bunch of happy campers, I can tell you.  While Virgin did put us up at a 4.5 star hotel and gave us a meal voucher to spend at the hotel, by the time we got there (having endured waits to (i) get our luggage (ii) go through immigration (iii) get sorted at the airport in regards to the hotel (iv) drive back into Brisbane city to the hotel and (v) check in, it was well after 10pm, so all the cafes and restaurants at the hotel were closed and the room service menu was an 'after 10' menu, meaning I had a toasted sandwich and a beer.  The other thing that annoyed us was that we weren't given any complimentary anything on board the flight from Fiji to Brisbane....so if you wanted anything (such as a pie or a drink) you had to pay for it.  Not happy, Jan.

 Anyway, the 8.30am flight managed to land in Port Vila, even though the weather conditions looked remarkably similar to those of the day before, so many of us weren't convinced that we would actually land.  I stayed in a hotel called The Melanesian, which was very well located, being about a 5 minute stroll into the main street of Vila.  If I was to stay on Efate again, I would stay at a resort, I think, so I could more easily access beaches and the water.

 The main street of Port Vila still showed evidence of Cyclone Pam's ferocity with this building behind the original parliament house (the very small building with the mural) abandoned because of damage (it had been the location of the Department of Finance and Treasury).  Most of the buildings along the main drag were one, two or three storeys high.  The highest building was a hotel.  I felt very safe at all times.  the roads are incredibly pot holed though, as you can imagine, with the kind of weather that the town has to deal with.

 Without a car, you are pretty much dependent on commercial tour companies to take you to the attractions.  I did a couple of half day tours including this one to Mele Cascades - don't you think it looks a little like Gandalf the wizard from Harry Potter?

 The tour also took in the Secret Gardens, which was an interesting guided interpretive tour that is situated on a tropical plant nursery.  In addition to the many many interpretive signs, there are also a number of enclosures with local animal species including this Pacific boa, one of only two snakes on the island.  I'd kind of forgotten my island biogeography theory which tells you that oceanic islands formed out of coral atolls or volcanoes and far from larger land masses are going to be fairly low in terrestrial animal species.  So, yeah, not much in the way of land animals on the many Vanuatu islands.

 One of the highlights was to see this amazing fire show at a place called the Beach Bar, about 20 minutes out of town.  The group of fire workers performed to a range of contemporary western music, so it was good to see they weren't 'locked into' performing only so-called traditional forms of dance.  They were all in their late teens/early 20s and from local villages.

 As I said, I made it across to Pele Island where I spent one night and a couple of days. Getting there involved a taxi drive of about an hour to a small jetty and a 15 minute boat trip.  There's about 400 people who live on the island, across four villages and a few people have built some very low key 'bungalows' right on the beach.  I was the only white fella on the island during the time I was there.  It was fantastic.

 I spent much of the time reading and relaxing and eating the scrum my food that Anoch's wife, Joanna, prepared for me. I had a couple of unsuccessful attempts to snorkel but the water was just too choppy to be enjoyable.

 This is my little beach shack.  The toilet and shower were in a separate out house where I am standing to take this picture. No electricity of course but I had a little light by which I could continue reading.  But I literally fell asleep by about 8.30/9.00pm.

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 Some of the beach had the most beautiful pink tinge to it which was caused by pink quartz amongst the sand.  I'm looking out towards another island about 10 minutes north of my bungalow.

And a rather lovely sunset to end a rather perfect day.