Brisbane; a relaxed supper and then an early train to catch the 9.00am flight to Honiara in the Solomon Islands. It was a delightful flight with relaxed, happy island crew and the company of Carlos' parents in the same row as us.
We were met by Carlos and Sophie and taken to the enormous house that they are house sitting. In the afternoon we had a stroll along a nearby beach with palm trees, coconuts and crushed coral below our feet. The hulks of rusting landing craft from the 1942 - 43 battle of Guadalcanal lie just off the beach and are, apparently, wonderful dive sites.
We hope that constant slathering of Deet will discourage the mosquitoes as it seems that there is an outbreak of Dengue fever here.at the moment.
Yesterday we visited a small museum of scrap from the battle, US Lightnings and Corsairs, an almost recognisable Grumman Wildcat and many Japanese artillery pieces . It was a slightly unreal experience as we are so used to improved, interpreted and reconstructed historical displays that seeing bent and twisted aircraft as they had crashed seemed rather bizarre.
This morning we visited the Honiara Botanics which was, I am told, planted by the British in the '70s. To me it was wonderful dense jungle with huge Breadfruit trees, Betelnut Palms and hordes of other trees that I couldn't start to identify. The shrub layer is almost completely composed of those house plants that we all know and love. Mother in law's tongue, Crotons, Tradescantia, Strelitzia and so on. Even in the wild they have the variegation and colour that we all know.
A short flight took us to Matukuri in the Marovo lagoon. Our resort was delightfully basic with a cold shower in a garden and 'interesting' loos but the bungalows were comfortable and spacious. The welcome from Benjamin and Jill was very warm and the food delightful. Here we snorkeled the local reef and were amazed at the fish, coral and sharks. There were salt water crocodiles in the area but thankfully we saw none.
We visited a local artist in his village home and were able to buy some of his paintings and carvings.
The next day we were taken to an outer reef where the coral cliff dropped away into unimaginable deep blue depths with schools of fish cruising below. The colours of fish and coral are so bright - it is just a shame that the colour disappears as you go deeper. We finished off by diving a wrecked Tuna boat and then resting for a while on a classic white sand desert beach. Quite beautiful!
Yesterday (not sure of the date) We flew to Gizo and the Sanbis resort. Emma has suffered a little gastro but seems better now. Time spent here just chilling, snorkeling and drinking beer...not bad at all.
