Sunday 7 September – a fascinating walk on the island next door

We had a reasonable night in our lovely airy room, the fact that it had three fans in it confirmed it gets hot in there. It really is a special place, the loos are all compost loos, which is interesting, there is a bucket of sawdust next to the loo and you chuck a couple of coconut scoopfulls in, instead of flushing. It looked like a long drop but had no smell whatsoever. There were little grains of something falling onto our bed, I had swept the bed clear before getting in last night and during the night discovered we were covered in them again. So small they were falling through the mosquito netting above us. it was a bit disconcerting wondering what it was. We had a huge squall during the night, thankfully no lightning, but of course Rowan was concerned about the boat. At least the two lads were on it. Rowan was up at 7am to get the boys home, they were fast asleep when he got there, he walked around the boat before they woke up! Not sure what good they would be if somebody did board the boat but guess they were a deterrent. Rowan said they were delightful 16 year olds, very respectful.

We had breakfast at a table out over the water and discovered grains were dropping onto the table, just like over onto our bed, it is from the woodworm in the poles in the ceiling. At home the woodworm produces dust, this is like tiny pellets the size of sea sand grains. We had breakfast and returned to PolePole. We didn’t opt for another night.

We planned to do a walk around the island next door, we had been told there were a couple of Japanese guns from WW2 to see and a blow hole. Jen and Kary came with us, we dinghied over and the resort dogs swam over to join us, not that far only about 100m, they clearly know when someone is going walking. They had been a pain walking around the village yesterday as they are obviously top ranking dogs, being the only fat dogs we have seen. They got all the emaciated village dogs barking and terrified as they strutted their stuff next to us. Definitely racist dogs! We paid an entrance fee at the house we went ashore at, 10Kina each. He pointed in the direction we should go. We followed the path around and when we found a lady hanging out her laundry we asked her if we were going the right way. We had missed a turning, sweetly she escorted us through various homesteads back onto the track. Then she shouted out to her kids who were playing out in some shallow water to come and take us to the sites. Two very engaging girls and their younger brother. It was a good 40 minute walk through thick vegetation on the Western side of the island, a lovely walk mainly in the shade. We first came across a Japanese bunker, they showed us a hole into a cave, they told us it led to the next gun about 50m away. Quite astonishing the guns were in reasonable condition, abandoned here in the jungle for all these years. There is no signage for these relics, even google maps doesn’t have them marked. There was a second gun another 50m along. We carried on walking until we got to the very top of the island, the girls then got us scrambling up over a coral bank, sharp as anything but not quite as treacherous as at Chief Linus’s island walk. Once on top we had a view of a couple of blow holes. I think the tide was not quite right as they were not that impressive. Anyhow it was a great view out. The kids were very chuffed with some lollipops I produced.

It was a great walk, thankfully there was quite a bit of cloud about to keep us cool. We got back to PolePole and spent the last of the afternoon reading the Sunday papers.