Solomon Islands - 2016

We flew from Port Vila, Vanuatu to Honiara via Fly Solomon; the A320 aircraft was completely full, primarily students returning from Fiji. We were greeted by crowds of well wishing families at Honiara International Airport. Honiara is the kind of city that makes you wonder why you made all the effort to get there. It is a little scruffy and feels more like a sprawling provincial town than a capital city. We stayed more upmarket than usual because it was just one night in the capital, at the King Solomon Hotel, and got the idea that every bar in the Solomon's could be a Tiki Bar. We noticed a few guests covering themselves in insect repellent and learned that there was a dengue outbreak in town. Sheila had already been bitten by mosquitoes in the taxi ride into town, but in the end, neither of us caught any mosquito borne diseases. We spent most of our first morning waiting in bank lines to exchange US dollars into Solomon dollars (because there are no ATMs in Marovo Lagoon, and credit cards are not accepted at the family run eco-resorts). Later, we discovered, that we could have saved ourselves time and money by going to the Pacific Casino Hotel which offered quick and better rates than we got from the two banks.

We flew, late afternoon, to Seghe in the Western Province. Yes, our Twin Otter flight was late, and the premier of the province was on the same flight, but the most importantly, we were welcomed by our host Benjamin who whisked us by boat to our new home, the Matikuri Lodge. We then met Jilly (Benjamin's wife) and Aussie Lawrence, a sort of local godfather (in a good way), who happened to visiting at the same time as ourselves.

Benjamin and Jilly had organized the Seghe World Rural Women's Day events (3 days of activities) so we tagged along the next day and spent most of the day in Seghe. Although it is the main town of northern Marovo Lagoon, it is normally a fairly sleepy place, except when the ferry comes in two days a week.

The Women's Day and ferry arrival coincided on the same day, so we were in for a treat. We wandered the town, watched the women's march, listened to plenty of speeches, visited the market, etc but the day's highlight was the bamboo pipe band. They may have used bamboo pipes in the past, but PVC pipes seem to be the material of choice nowadays, played with the soles of old flip flops.

The Marovo Lagoon is one of the world's largest saltwater lagoons and has plenty to offer. While at the Matikuri lodge, we indulged in a boat trip out to the oddly named Penguin Reef and did plenty of snorkeling on the house reef.

Benjamin also made arrangements for a home stay with Charles & Carol in Bareho as part of an overnight kayak trip. Benjamin had a couple of sit-on top boats and one regular kayak so we set out north to the interesting Mbambatan Passage and we did some great snorkeling where it met the sea. We lost track of time that afternoon and Charles got a little worried about us so he paddled his dugout canoe and we met him when we were paddling back through the passage towards Bareho, that was nice of him. Over in Bareho, he offered us refreshing fresh coconuts, showed us our room and then took us around town including a look at the Bareho war canoe. I cannot remember how many paddlers it carries, but we were super impressed with it. We had a lovely evening at their place and we all ate together and had a fun conversation. That is one of the more interesting aspects of the South Pacific is that not only do many speak English with such proficiency, but they often make good conversation. We were a little unsure of the winds, so we made an early start to the day back to Matikuri.

At times, the Matikuri can be a happening place. While we were there, the premier and his entourage stayed there, other people involved in the women's event stayed at Matakuri and there was a steady flow of local people dropping in, so there was plenty to watch (in a languid sort of way) just sitting on the wonderful lodge deck.

All good things must come to an end, and Benjamin brought us to the Eastern side of Marovo Lagoon to Chubikopi where we had arranged to go diving with Solomon Dive Adventures. There had been some recent land issues so we weren't able to stay on the property so we arranged to stay at the Chubikopi Rest House and do some day diving. As it turned out, the dive outfit owner had just turned quite ill so we were picked up by a couple of their dive guides and we went for two dives with them. The Solomon Dive issues ran quite deep and they were not permitted to dive outside of the lagoon so we dove inside the lagoon. So rather than a spectacular setting, we did two dives inside the southern part of the lagoon. It was murky and although we briefly saw an eagle ray, the focus became nudibranchs, that were nice but that wasn't what we had come all that way to see. So, rather than continuing to dive with Solomon dive Adventures, we transferred to another “eco-resort” the following day.

Lasa collected us by boat from Chubikopi and brought us to his lodge near Chuchulu village which is now called Pepele (previously known as Lombi Mulaka). He put us in a lovely leaf house that he has constructed for tourists. Later on, we discovered that he had moved another guest out of the leaf house into a room in the big house to make room for us, but he hadn't told that guest. Graham from Brisbane has been coming to Solomon Islands for a number of years to fish, and Lasa figured new business was more important than loyal, existing customers. As it turned out, Lasa was an excellent host and Graham was an equally excellent provider. Lasa is an entrepreneurial character (he has a small eco-timber business) and is keen on developing a tourism business. He was learning the ropes of running a small lodge and he was a good study. Graham went trolling each day and never came back empty handed, typically returning with five fish including sea trout and Spanish mackerel. There was plenty of food on the table and each night we had plenty of fish and either a mangrove crab or coconut crab.

One morning, we headed out to snorkel with the manta rays and we collected our guide/kustom representative along the way at Mbuinitusu. When we reached the area, our guide started to look for the mantas from the boat, but then another boat zoomed out from shore and a heated discussion took place with the a fellow in the other boat. Apparently, another member of the tribe had decided that he had kustom rights for the manta rays so we opted to drop in on Uepi Resort instead. The fairly large resort is owned and run by an Australian family. A large group of doctors and supporting staff were staying at the resort and were conducting a semi-annual tour of villages in Marovo Lagoon, so it was empty of guests during the day. That worked in our favour, because the resort managers allowed us to go diving. This was by far, the best diving that we did on this trip. The Uepi reefs are protected from fishing and offered a first class diving experience. We were impressed with the marine life; plenty of schooling fish, sharks (no hammerheads that day), octopus, etc. We hadn't anticipated going diving that day, so Lasa went back to Pepele and returned with one of our bags that had our credit cards in it. Interestingly, in the South Pacific, none of our rooms (except in towns) had locks on them and we felt comfortable leaving all our valuables in them without concern. We also did a day trip, snorkeling on the west side of Uepi Island with Lasa in a beautiful location. In most places in the world, there would be other tourist boats there, but the Solomon Islands is mostly off the tourist map.

Next it was onto Munda. It was well into November (the beginning of the South Pacific typhoon season) and the days were becoming increasingly cloudy with periodic showers and short periods of rain. A heavy shower arrived while we were waiting at the Seghe airstrip but the Twin Otter arrived and the pilots skirted showers on the flight to Munda. I had called ahead so a gal met us at the airstrip and we walked over with her to the Munda Guest House. It was built by and is run by David, who previously managed the Agnes Hotel (he is a son of Agnes and is still a shareholder in the Agnes Hotel). On our first night, we dined at the Agnes Hotel. It was fairly quiet, but there was an ebb and flow at the Agnes through the week. We had a week in Munda and we developed a routine of having lunch at the Agnes and making our own dinner at Munda Guest House.

The primary reason for our visit to Munda was to go diving. We had read a few reviews on Munda Dive that suggested it was a well run operation. We were not disappointed. A South African woman was managing the Dive shop, getting the local staff all trained up and generating an enthusiasm that really improved the diving experience. We thought the dive guides were very good and the diving itself was top notch (not quite to Uepi, Palau or Komodo levels, but darn good). We finally saw our first hammerhead shark as one approached us slowly with curiosity at the beginning one of our dives. We thought there were plenty of fish and interesting underwater topography in the Munda area.

Munda itself is a sleepy place. We arrived late Friday afternoon so the weekly market was winding down. It seems that as the week develops, more and more vendors bring their produce and sea food out to the market area in front of the town wharf. But it is pretty quiet Saturday, Sunday, well, most days of the week. On one day, we made a tour of the Munda shops; mostly run by Chinese. I even wandered to Kokenggolo in the afternoon heat to discover that it was even quieter than Munda. There are a couple of bars in town that get livelier at night and there is always a morning visit to the bakery to talk bread (actually quite good bread), but the casual visitor might run out of things to do quickly.

Munda has an interesting WWII history; the airstrip was built by the Japanese and was overrun by US forces in 1943. So there are plenty of war relics in the sea and on land. Although not far from where we were staying, the walk to Barney Paulson's museum (Peter Joseph WWII Museum) was a challenge in the tropical heat. Barney has an avid interest in WWII relics and has assembled an interesting collection and he makes an excellent guide to all the historic objects. When he was younger, he and his father found a complete case of WWII Coca-cola. They tried one and it tasted fine and then they finished the case off.

On our last morning, we caught the Friday morning market and then waited at the airstrip. The flight out with a jet prop plane was delayed with some mechanical issues but a Twin Otter arrived and after a great deal of discussions and negotiations it was agreed to take all those who were catching international flights and we we were whisked back to Honiara. We grabbed a lunch in town and by coincidence the Aussie pilot was also eating at the same place, so we had a good old chat with him. On Saturday, we checked out the huge Honiara central market. Then it was off to the international airport for a series of flights that brought us and our luggage to Vancouver.