Commodore
July 2, 2025

Thursday 3 July – a mega scramble to a stunning waterfall

Rowan had tried to organise a trip to the Dramdram waterfalls with a local lady who has some bungalows and could organise a guide for us. Communications are difficult, we struggled to confirm details, so in the end we thought we would wing it and see if we could get a taxi at the small town. We dinghied across the water and found a big jetty, loading copra, coconut flesh, onto a big commercial boat. We managed to tie up ok. a man came and helped us, turned out he was security for the jetty, as well as being the chief of the town. In no time he had organised us a taxi for us. Our taxi driver Lister was 22, had never left the island, only got to grade 7 at school. But he has a vehicle, a wife and a kid, listens to western music, and doesn’t drink cava or smoke! Really interesting. We had to cross over to the other side of the island, which was a lovely drive through thick bush. Jungle bush with coconuts, all covered by a vine that is smothering everything like a carpet, even over huge trees and palms. The creeper must kill everything ultimately. We passed a Chinese lime quarry right on the coast on the other side of the island. The whole time we were on amazing tarmac roads, all built by the Chinese, and handy for the quarry.

A steep decent into the bay and we were at our destination, the Dramdram bungalows. The lady, Roslyn ran the place, she was the most cheerful lady we have met in ages. When we said we wanted to walk up to the falls, she said her husband owned the river and he would guide us. A kid was dispatched to find him. Finally this white haired character turned up looking like father Christmas, barefoot he said he would take us up. His grandson would join us. Lister promised to come back at 3pm to pick us up, Roslyn told us not to worry as Lister was somehow related to her sister. We set off with her husband, just known as chief, he told us he was 92 and never wore shoes, strong as as ox, Lister had told us. Within the first 10 minutes we managed to establish his father was a cannibal. Rowan asked chief if he had eaten human flesh, he said he hadn’t but his dad told him it was like tasty chicken! His english and Roslyn’s was amazing compared to Lister. Adding to the feeling that things are going backwards here.

We had the most amazing challenging walk 3kms up the river. Chief was like a spring chicken and his grandson even more nimble. After about 10 minutes he made me a walking stick with his incredibly strong panga. He was an absolute gent helping me cross the most challenging areas. It was pretty hard work crossing the river/stream endlessly and then walking a narrow, steep ill defined path. The last 50ms we had to swim to see the waterfall behind the big rock. I left my bag and stick, Rowan took his phone thinking iphones were waterproof! It was a challenging swim against a great force of water coming down the falls, there was a moment when I thought I wouldn’t make it, but popped out the other side. Sadly Rowan’s iphone did not like being submerged and died, so we have no photos of the final falls. It was a spectacle, sadly we couldn’t stay long as it was nearly 3pm and we had to walk at least an hour to get back to the taxi. We finally made it back to the road just before 4pm, thankfully Lister was there waiting or us.

Turns out Chief and Roslyn do a 5-10pm security shift together at the Chinese Limestone quarry. Roslyn looked suitably dressed for work but chief looked a bit underdressed in his trunks and bare feet! It is a very steep walk for them to the quarry, so we gave then a lift. Chief still wet in his trunks heading off to be security at 92, at the Chinese Lime stone quarry! What a delightful couple. The quarry looked pretty antiquated, so impressed it was employing the couple. Times are tough, they’ve hardly had a visitor to their bungalow since Covid started. Their bungalow looked amazing right on a lovely bit of beach, even Lister said the tourists have all gone. We were back at the jetty with JeldiJeldi by 5pm, she had been well looked after with the tide dropping significantly.

Finally made it back to the boat exhausted, the climb certainly made us hungry, our chicken curry left overs and Rowan’s bean stew certainly hit the spot.