Kim and Jen's dive trip to the Solomon Islands
22/12/03 - 7/1/04Mini-index:
Mini-index:
We arrived at Brisbane airport, did the immigration thing and waited for boarding time for the Honiara flight. About 10 minutes before scheduled boarding time, the local airport gate staff began paging Could the Solomon Air crew please report to the departure gate. They left off the last bit that usually goes ... your plane is about to depart.
As we were waiting, there was an older chap next to us telling his friend a story - he had been living in the Solomons for 35 years and 6 months ago was going ashore on an island "in the north" when a bunch of youths accosted him and him over the head with an empty dinghy fuel tank. His trip to Brisbane was for the associated skull repairs. He was also saying how the locals wanted to buy a broken down landrover off him, but didn't want to pay the $1000 (Solomon $) price (about AUD$200) he wanted. So they stole the landrover and hid it in the jungle and were demanding $1000 to tell him where they hid it.
This started us wondering what kind of place are were going to?!
Anyway, perhaps the air crew got delayed doing their duty-free shopping, but they eventually arrived and we took off without incident about 30 minutes late.
We arrived at Honiara and, as expected, it was stinking hot and humid. Henderson Airport (as the Honiara international terminal is known) was fairly basic and run down by world international airport standards. The Australian army presence is largely based here - a large green army tent city sits by the side of the runway along with various army aircraft and vehicles. The army people get 3 days off in a month, but have to wear uniform (yes, long pants and shirts and boots) the whole time, which must be unbearable in the heat. And they aren't allowed off the base and there's no drinking. Its a tough job but someone's gotta do it, and I'm glad it's them and not me. The army people (and NZ police) oversee the immigration and customs procedures for both incoming and outgoing passengers.
Customs was the normal long queue, standing in what amounted to a tin shed with woefully inadequate ceiling fans. The speed with which we got through customs was as you would expect - "Island time" was in full swing.
We caught a taxi into Honiara - just as well taxis take Australian dollars as the money exchange place at the airport was closed and you can't buy Solomon dollars outside the Solomons. As it turned out we didn't have the right change in Oz dollars so changed some money when we got to the hotel. We carefully arranged to have the taxi come back at 7am the next morning since we would be flying out to Munda at 8am.
It was mid-afternoon so took a short walk from the hotel to downtown Honiara. Its a horrible place, very third-world looking, dirty and run-down. Or maybe we just didn't find the nice part. It was quite busy and there were lots of people around - but we were the only tourists stood out like a sore thumb. We quickly returned to the hotel and retired to the pool.
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The view from our "hillside" hotel room in Honiara |
The dinner menu at the King Solomon Hotel restaurant was very uninspiring. I didn't think that after traveling all this way we would have fish'n'chips, a steak and vegies, or spag bol. Luckily they had grilled kingfish which was presumably fairly fresh - it was OK.
After dinner, the hotel reception thoughtfully passed on a message to us - Solomon Air had called to say that our flight to Munda, scheduled for 8am the next morning, had been canceled. And thats all the message contained. Other useful information like when the next flight would leave and if we might be on it was conspicuous by its absence.
After a sleepless night (too hot to sleep - the aircon, while functional, sounded too much like a jet engine to sleep with), we tried calling Solomon Air to find out about our new flights. Each phone call we attempted produced a different result - no connection at all, engaged, nobody would answer, we'd get put through and put on hold and it would disconnect. After 4 calls where we actually got through and spoke to someone (before getting put on hold and disconnected) we had established that there would be a flight at 3pm in the afternoon. At this point we realized we needed help from someone with local knowledge (and local patience) and asked the hotel reception to sort it out for us. Even they had trouble, but an hour later they came up with the goods - we were on the afternoon flight, and it was leaving at 4.20pm. Hurrah! Solomons Telekom is right up there with Solomon Air.
We bummed around at the hotel before catching the hotel shuttle to the (domestic) airport. Checked in our bags, which were weighed and the weight noted in a book. Then they weighed us and our hand luggage as well, and noted it down. We waited around for an hour or so while nothing much happened. We did learn why the morning flight was canceled - the rumour circulating was that their other plane had broken down. Their fleet consists of two 15-seater twin otter planes.
In the waiting area down the back, there was a coffin on a rug on the floor, complete with flowers and we assume, an occupant. They eventually moved all our luggage out next to the plane and put some of it on, but we noticed that the luggage holds looked kinda full. Then the head Solomon Air dude came around to each of the passengers in turn and had a chat. The plane was overloaded by 300kg, so he was politely asking whether anyone could either fly tomorrow (Christmas Day? Yeah, right, there's no way there would be a flight) or leave their luggage behind for a day. We politely but firmly declined both options. They did persuade two locals to go the next day, but they wouldn't have weighed 300kg in total. Thankfully the person in the wooden box by now had been taken away and put on another plane.
Anyway, about half an hour late, we all piled onto the plane and took off. The flights to the Western Province from Honiara are all island-hoppers, stopping off at any place that people want to get off at that has an airstrip. Our flight first landed at Seghe, on a grass runway. It was originally a coral runway built during WW2, but it is mostly grass now. One person got off, and two big burly locals got on with luggage! We wondered whether we would clear the mangroves at the end of the runway on takeoff - we did, just.
Next stop was Ramata Island - another grass runway. Apparently planes don't land too often at Ramata, the entire town was out in force to see the plane. Probably about a hundred excited half-naked jet-black children jumping around everywhere, plus all the parents. The local baggage handler took Jen's pack out by mistake and started disappearing off into the forest with it, but I jumped off the plane and got it back.
We took off again and about 2 hours after leaving Honiara we arrived at Munda. The runway here is actually sealed but has potholes and puddles so it was rather a bumpy landing. We were met here by Brian, our dive guide. We collected our bags, heaved them from the airport "terminal" to the boat, about 300m walk across town, met Gerald, our boat driver who was waiting, and headed off for Lola Island. By this time, it was about 7pm and getting dark. Lola is in the Vonavona Lagoon, so the water is quite shallow, with lots of reefs, coral outcrops and small islands. Nearing Lola you need to be looking for channel markers (a.k.a. sticks poking out of the water stuck into the coral bommie you don't want to run into), and other coral outcrops. This is a considerably easier task during daylight hours, but we made it and got to Lola just after sunset on Christmas eve.
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| Lola Island and nearby dive sites |
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| Vonavona Lagoon looking west. Lola Island is on the left hand side near the horizon. |
Lola Island is in the Vonavona lagoon, and is about 600m long and a little narrower, and takes about an hour to walk around. Only a very small part of the northern end is cleared, the rest is tropical jungle. The resort consists of a bar/restaurant, a small jetty and 13 bungalows. The bungalow are all-wooden constructions on stilts with thatch roofs and walls. No windows as such, just panels that drop down to cover the window holes if it is windy. The walls only extend upwards to "modesty height". Our bungalow (#1, nearest the bar) was the 2-person variety - one bedroom with mozzie net, a small kitchen area and a verandah. No running water, just a bucket with water from the rainwater tank across the way. Our bathroom was a block a short distance away, but the larger bungalows had their own bathrooms.
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| Bungalow #1 | View from bungalow verandah |
Had dinner and retired early. At about 3am I started feeling terrible and spent the next 6 hours vomiting. Jen joined in briefly at 8am. Bad case of island belly. Still not sure what it was, maybe the water? Not much choice but to drink it really - the only water available is rainwater, and you can't really live on coke, fanta and beer for two weeks.
The cave dive (Shark Cave) starts by walking about 20m into the jungle on Ndokendoke Island, about an hours boat ride from Lola. Against a limestone wall is a hole in the ground about 3m wide full of water. You gear up and swim straight down into the tunnel for 15m, then swim slowly downwards to 35m, then slowly up to 20m where it opens out into a large cavern. At the end of the cavern is a gap which opens out onto the sea and the coral wall on the other side of the island. You finish the dive by going along the coral wall. There is very little growing in the cave and it's quite silty, but the view as you swim into the cavern and the deep blue light of the ocean outside filters in, is beautiful!
The wreck dive we did was the Kasi Maru, a WW2 Japanese cargo ship which was sunk in a bay near Noro, about 20 minutes by boat from Lola. (Noro is now a very industrial town whose major industry is a tuna canning factory. The views and odor are pretty much what you would expect). The ship arrived at night and went into a small bay north of Noro where it was covered up, hoping to dock in the morning. The locals found it and told the Americans who promptly sent a torpedo into it. It now lies in 15m of water, close to the shore. The top of the funnel is only about a metre below the surface and the two masts stick out of the water at 45 degrees - not a difficult wreck to locate! It has lots of coral growth on it, especially on the upper deck - actually a very good snorkeling wreck!
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| The wreck of the Kasi Maru |
On the last day of diving as I hopped into the water, the high-pressure hose on my regulator split - that was the end of diving for me. At least it happened on the last day on the surface, and not inside the cave while 35 metres down.
The resort also has a resident white cockatoo called Louie. Just like a smallish sulphur-crested cockatoo but with blue skin around his eyes. He came from PNG when he was 6 months old, is very tame, talks to anything that moves (even the chooks) and loves having his neck scratched. He also sometimes goes a bit crazy when he is let out of his cage for too long, as Jen found out on our second last day when Louie bit her ear. Given this was her second bad traumatic white cockatoo experience, I think the chances of getting one for a pet are fairly slim.
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| Louie the cockatoo | |
After an eventful two weeks, it was time to return home. After the standard weigh-in, and the usual hour late plane departure from Munda, it was a direct flight to Honiara and a couple of hours wait for the international flight which amazingly, left on time. We spent a night in Brisbane at an airport hotel (who had no record of our booking, despite us having rung them and confirmed it two weeks earlier!), and then back into chilly Canberra the next morning.
- KMS 4/2/04