We had a lie in after our long day yesterday, and suddenly remembered we had told Paul we would meet all the carvers on the beach at 10am. It poured with rain overnight and plenty about this morning. We dashed to the beach to find nobody there except Paul’s dad with some mediocre carvings. Finally Paul who lives next door, turned up and said the carvers couldn’t come in the rain in their leaky canoes! So we had to go to the village Mbiki which is famous for their carvings, the carvers would display their goods in the village hall.
We had to dinghy around the island to get to the village as the sand spit was too shallow for us to cross. We found the village, the hall full of carvers and their carvings. Really very impressive, and everyone trying to persuade us to buy their exceptional carvings. Some of it begins to look rather kitsch seeing it en masse, but you have to admire their skill and their desperate plea to make a sale. We were prepared to trade and pay some money, so popped back to the boat to get things they wanted – Rowan’s long trousers, sheets, drill bits, tools, rope etc We came away with an enormous bowl and some huge decorative squid salad servers.
We returned to the boat via Chief Lutens, as he is the custodian of a B24 bomber wreck from WW2. Chief Lutens was 2 weeks old when the plane crashed, with 8 survivors out of 9 crew. His father fed and looked after the crew until they were rescued, so the baby was named after the lieutenant, but it was difficult to pronounce, so they shortened it to Lutens! He was a very sweet old boy and gave us one of his carved bowls as a thank you to Rowan for helping him fix his leaky boat, Rowan has just the right glue for the job but what a thoroughly messy job. Afterwards we visited the wreck, the tail of the bomber still sitting in the water looking remarkable after all these years, the wings and engines are all in the undergrowth of the bank. Quite something, it carried 500lb bombs and was called ‘Bundles for Japan’! I took photos from the chief’s folder about the wreck, which you can read, the locals have a fairly different recollection of the crash.
We bought yet another bowl from the chief’s son, keeping everyone happy, and finally had to but a small bowl off Paul too. Now I just need to get some wood worm oil as I spotted a hole in the huge bowl! Chief Luten’s son asked us if we would like some lobster, which we readily accepted. We thought he would never get them to us for supper. I defrosted a portion of our tuna we caught, only to hear the boat arrive at nearly 6pm with our lobsters. Beautiful looking things, Rowan manfully cooked and prepped them, they were delicious.
Rain over the islands
Mangrove swamps nearby, I’m curious to see a crocodile, but not that brave to swim
Rain coming
Love the blue/grey layers in the rain
The carvers display their works
The WW2 Bomber wreck
The tail looking remarkably well preserved
The metal still is in great shape, amazing it is still here sitting in the water after all these years
A wing being taken over by the jungle
An engine
Rowan lifting bits up
Orchids softening the scene
JeldiJeldi parked next to WW2 history!
Looks like the spiky sea urchins are doing a good job of protecting the bomber tail
Another wing
Contents of Chief Luten’s folder
Our carving purchases, bowls and salad servers
Supper delivered
Supper cooked
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