Hi
from Clare, 11-2019 Heading north to Luganville 12th
October 2019
Today
is the thirteenth day of our trip from Port Vila, the capital of
Vanuatu, to Luganville which is the second largest town in Vanuatu.
The distance is only 150 miles but we have stopped at many places
along the way to enjoy the village hospitality and learn more about
the Vanuatu culture.
We
arrived at the island of Epi on 29th September in company
with three other yachts. We have known Mark on ‘Macushla’ for a
number of years having sailed with him across two oceans and through
the Caribbean. We made new American friends, Ian and Cindy on ‘Oyster
Reach’ and together we are travelling up to Luganville. British
couple, Steve and Jody on Ena Vigo are also new to us although known
through our radio net.
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| Our anchorage at Epi Island |
Lamen
Bay, Epi, is a small but industrious community. The village houses
and gardens are well maintained. We found the ladies making baskets
from palm reeds and we had breakfast at a most attractive hut
decorated with shells. The breakfast of eggs, toast, local fruit,
pancakes with local jam, tea or coffee was delicious and cost $5.
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| Village ladies making multi purpose baskets |
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| At Breakfast Left Cindy, Andrew, Clare, Right Steve, Ian, Jodi |
The
snorkelling was good, we found large turtles, but no dugong. It
always amazes us that when snorkelling we always find something we
haven’t seen before. The photo below shows a living creature that
looks like a piece of wool spread over the coral, but when disturbed
the tentacles retract back to one central point; quite fascinating to
watch.
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| Ocean creature |
Our
next stop was Port Sandwich. No sooner had we dropped the anchor that
a canoe came alongside welcoming us with gifts of papaya, and
grapefruit. When walking ashore that afternoon, small children gave
us lemons and bananas. The next morning was market day so we set out
at 6.30am with Ian and Cindy of ‘Oyster Reach’ and Steve and Jodi
of ‘Ena Vigo’ to arrive in time for the early morning 7am market.
I think someone forgot to tell the locals the start time as no seller
arrived until 9am. We stocked up on fresh vegetables and I bought a
dozen eggs. You can imagine how surprised I was that night to
discovered that the eggs were hard boiled.
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| Receiving local fruit upon arrival |
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| The local market at Port Sandwich |
The
three kilometre walk to market gave us an opportunity to see the
small villages along the way. The people came out to talk to us and
seemed genuinely interested in where we came from and how long we had
been cruising. Even the children would step forward without
hesitation to shake hands, it is very cute.
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| Village houses |
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| Village children on the way to the market |
Port
Sandwich is a very deep bay and has a number of rivers to explore by
dinghy. We packed a picnic lunch and along with Ian and Cindy from
‘Oyster Reach’ we motored our dinghies up the rivers enjoying the
explosion of tropical foliage teaming with bird life.
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| Our trip up the river |
Our
next stop was at Banam Bay where we organised a walk to a waterfall
and some traditional dancing. The people here live in small
communities of extended families. All the huts are in close
proximity. The people seemed very happy and contented, they smile a
lot. We met a mother carrying a one year old child who shook our
hands unprompted, it was very endearing. We couldn’t help but
notice that we haven’t heard any small children crying in the
village communities. There seems to be endless child minders
carrying little ones around.
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| The Gorgeous Children from Banam Bay |
The
walk to the waterfall was easy on flat ground and mostly in the shade
of fruit trees. The chief from the first village was our guide. The
waterfall was owned by the next village so we had to ask permission
from that chief to see his waterfall. So the chief from the second
village came along with us and showed us the various edible plants
along the way. We were given a cacao fruit to suck on. The outside
of the bean is white, soft and sweet and only bitter if you bite into
the brown bean. It was a good experience as the people are very
welcoming. Andrew and Ian from ‘Oyster Reach’ enjoyed a dip in
the pool at the base of the waterfall. The girls were content to just
wade in up to our knees.
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| Andrew having a dip in the waterfall |
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| The two chiefs with Andrew, Ian with the local lads |
In
the afternoon we returned to the first village to see the dance show,
Unlike other communities we have experienced, the men danced in one
area and the woman in another. Their tradition in this village is
that the village women are not allowed to watch the men dancing. We
think the men we saw dancing really enjoyed themselves. We then went
to another location and watched the woman dance. Their dancing was
similar to what we have seen before but there was more participation
by small girls who joined in enthusiastically.
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| The village men dancing |
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| The village women dancing |
It
was with some regret we left this community and sailed the following
morning to Port Stanley. This is a busy location with a wharf, lots
of cars, and townships that have been established long ago by the
French and English. We hitched a ride in the back of a four wheel
drive for $1 to the township of Lakatoro. We were hoping to visit a
local handy craft shop which has a good reputation. However it was
shut and none of the local people could tell us when it might be
opened again. Not to worry, we consoled ourselves with a visit to a
chocolate factory instead and bought some rather tasty dark
chocolate.
Earlier
that morning a local family from Selenamboro village on Uri Island
came out to our boat for a chat. The guy, David, asked Andrew if he
would help him wire his new house for electric light. So Andrew
spent a few hours that afternoon cobbling it together and as he said,
probably breaking all the wiring rules. However by the end of the
day the job was complete and the local guy was a happy man. Now he
needs lights to use with his solar powered battery.
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| Andrew at work |
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| David with his first light switch |
The
following morning we sailed to Wala Island. We were instantly met by
a local offering a tour of the island for $5 with a basket of local
fruit at the end. So we went for a walk around the island but we have
to say the guide was very hard to understand. When talking about
local customs, it was difficult to determine whether he was talking
about now or a custom from the past, so we didn’t learn a lot. The
fruit at the end was most generous. We ended up with mangoes,
papaya, bananas, grapefruit, ginger and cucumber. The guide asked
Andrew to check his house batteries and wanted any spare rope we
might have to tie his house roof down in preparation for the next
cyclone. He also asked if I could put some movies on his USB stick.
I agreed thinking I could just give him what we had, but no, he only
wanted action movies and musicals. So I spent quite a few hours
during the night sorting through our movies to give him what he
wanted. He was pretty happy this morning when he came by at 6.30am
to collect the two sticks he gave us yesterday. We have concluded
after the last few days that the requests are always larger and more
complicated than first anticipated.
Yesterday
morning we sailed to Vao Island and had a good walk with a chief who
couldn’t speak English. French is the second language for these
islanders. However the chief managed quite well explaining that
where we were walking was tabu unless we were with the chief. It was
an area of traditional ceremonies usually including the killing of a
pig. There are six tam tam drums (hollow logs), one for each village
on the island. Each tam tam has its own sound and that is how the
chief calls the people of that village to assembly. The tam tam can
be heard from a great distance.
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| Ian, Andrew and the chief in front of the tam tam |
SO
WHAT’S NEXT
This
morning we sailed to Espirito-Santo. We caught a very nice tuna on
the way so we are sharing dinner with Oyster Reach tonight. We don’t
know how long we will stay here but we want to dive on the wreck of
the President Coolidge which is a World War 2 troop ship that sank
after running into a friendly mine. Also Million Dollar Point where
the American government dumped all their equipment at the end of the
war. We also want to see Luganville township before sailing back to
Port villa.
We
have very much enjoyed our trip north and we think Vanuatu is a
lovely country.
Love
Candy xx
