Wednesday 17 September – diving with Dorian

Dorian picked us up at 9am, in his rather rickety old boat. He picked up Claudette on the way as she wanted to dive too. I was the only one not diving but went along for the ride, planning to snorkel but left my earplugs behind. Just as well I didn’t swim as I didn’t want to encourage my cold to get any worse, thankfully it hasn’t gone to my chest. We went to one very picturesque uninhabited little island and they had a good dive, with great visibility a vibrant coral wall at about 20m, the highlight was seeing popcorn fish, leaf fish and loads of lion fish, a variety that only lives around PNG. Some also saw the little sand eels that pop their heads out of the sand like little Jack in the box. We had a downpour between dives, which kept it beautifully cool. The second dive was good too although the visibility was not as good. I spent the time talking to Dorian as he had burst his ear drum and was not diving, he had two locals lads diving, who were good at pointing things out. Dorian has lived here for 25 years, his wife and daughter, who is 16 years old, have returned to Hout Bay in South Africa a couple of years ago. He is trying to sell his business as tourism has died, it doesn’t sound like that is too likely. You can’t buy property in PNG, so he has nothing to tie him here, a lonely existence!

Late afternoon we went into the village to take some more goodies for the kids – books and pens. We had arranged a walk around the village to look at the Japanese bunkers on their land. Plus the remains of a gun. This end of the island was obviously a strategic look out post for the Japanese, some of the bunkers were in amongst the houses. The kids were very cute who guided us around. The chief/leader had told the kids to earn some money while they are on their two week Independence anniversary holiday. They all go to school in Kavieng and seem to be on holiday here with the grandparents we think. They took us for a walk to the other end of the island which had a lovely white beach and outlook. We gave them some money for the coconuts they had cut for us today and said we would take more tomorrow.

We had a lovely evening, so tranquil, nobody coming out on canoes, just a stunning, peaceful setting.