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Round the World 2007-2
In this part of the blog we are in Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu - July 21-22, 2007 - Port Vila
We arrive in Port Vila with heavy rains and from then on, heavy rains every night.
Some days feeling again the Country before searching for my friends here for spearfishing.
There are some interesting places I would like to dive, beofre all the FAD (Fishing Aggregation Device) just out of Port Vila harbour. AND, of course, a fabled reef north of Efate I was not able to dive last time I was here.
Vanuatu - July 23-24, 2007 - Port Vila
Again rain, rain, thunderstorms and rain.
The last day hopefully also sun and rainbows.
With some lazy shopping for wonderful fruit at the Market.
Passion fruit, mango and delicious little bananas. Almost from the garden behind the house.
Vanuatu - July 25-26, 2007 - Port Vila
Waiting for diving and for other's organization, some tourism around Efate. With the sun! Finally.
The deepest post office in the world!
Vanuatu - July 27 - 28, 2007 - Port Vila
STILL waiting for diving...
Luckily, Efate is a wonderful treasure chest of vistas and pictures. Like these ones of Mele Cascades.
Or elsewhere, almost everywhere around the island...
Vanuatu - July 29 - 30, 2007 - Port Vila
A faint glimmer of hope in the future... But time is crumbling away under my feet and already approaches the moment when I've to leave Vanuatu.
In the meantime we had here the 27th Indipendence Day.
Big Parade, with the military band all in red. And of course a huge crowd of people attending.
And more explorations at the public market...
Where, if you want, they'll sew you on the fly a tailored shirt.
Vanuatu - August 2-5, 2007 - Mistery Island
I know of a place in the World where giants wahoos (Acanthocybium solandri) are strolling their blue realm.
It’s a well defended reign, it has grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) as pawns and big silvertip sharks (Carcharhinus albimarginatus) as powerful knights.
There, in those clear and seemingly bottomless ocean’s water, the surface always tossed by strong winds and mighty waves, sometimes they can encounter a mad, lonely diver. And sometimes, in their cautious way, they can show a tiny bit of curiosity, perhaps more than it could be advisable.
I took only one of them, but it was a really good one and worth the long trip. In the water, behind a screen of sharks, I’ve seen ones bigger than that. The hand-line fishermen there take now and there some old monster of around seventy even eighty kilos. I know it because they told me. So I’ll return for sure in that village, with my new friends, to try again for the king or the queen Wahoo, deep down their blue realm.
I’ve only pictures and a presumed weight for my Wahoo, because the place is so far away that the only scale in all the few villages, in all the island itself, is at the airport. Meaning almost half an hour of march in the jungle, and another half an hour to the village, the fish tied to a long bamboo pole with palm leaves ropes, two men struggling under the weight. Not a nice thing to ask, only for a curiosity. So I took precise measurements and used instead a mathematical formula to know (well, scientifically guess) the approximated weight of the fish, knowing species and length of it.
The theoretical weight so is 45 kilos. The real one is unknown. Could it be less. Or more...
The hand-dug canoes, the whole village enjoying my fish, shared among all.
Vanuatu - August 2-5, 2007 - Scott Rock
Mad expedition to Scott Rock, a lonely, far away reef in the middle of the Ocean east of Efate. Nothing out of the water, 7 meters deep the top. Just the finding of it has been difficult.
In the water so a killing current I was barely able to remain in position, dirty water of maximum 15 meters of viso. Almost nothing to see, two needles of rock coming up from the gloom, A bit further and the bottom of the ocean drops down to a hundredth of meters. Ah, I forgot the sharks. Lots of sharks.
Kicking madly, I aimed at a medium-sized dogtooth tuna of around 30-35 kg, I had fired and taken it nicely with a good shot. It was not a killing one so, as I went to the surface, I tried to bring the tuna with me . No way, even so small they’re already too powerful. I resurfaced, ad immediately started pulling the rope, a matter of few seconds. It went up, ok, but it was not a tuna anymore. By the time I was able to see clearly it was a sphere of twenty hungry and angry sharks, all madly excited and all devouring my fish. In thirty seconds the tuna has disappeared, only a lonely white ribbon of flesh remaining on spearpoint.
Reef difficult to identify, in absolute solitude in the middle of the Pacific.
Vanuatu - August 8 - 10, 2007 - Efate
Last few days to savour the tropics before descending to New Zealand. And to winter! Brrr.
A long, slow going round the beautiful Efate Island. Here and there little villages, clean waters of small rivers bubbling into the ocean, children out of school, barefoot, all wanting to give you the “high five” and smiling dazzlingly and happily if you do it, looking proudly around.
Goodbye Vanuatu, hope to see you soon...
Next stop, New Zealand!