Chasing Summer –

November 16-19th

Honiara, Guadalcanal

Honiara is the capital city of the Solomon Islands and has a population of 116,000 people, 100,000 more than the last port. There is definitely more to do here, but the roads need a lot of work to make further afield trips more accessible. It takes a while to get around, and the mountain roads become undrivable if there has been rain. You need an SUV or other higher-bodied car to handle the road on a dry day.

One of the must-dos here is a snorkel or dive at one of the sunken ships or submarines that can be found around the island. Mbonegi Beach is the closest shipwreck to the capital and is a 45-minute drive. If the roads were in better condition, it would be about half that time. Becki, Jeff, and I paid 500 SBD (1 SBD = 0.17 CAD or 6 to 1) for a taxi to bring us out and wait for us for three hours. It costs an additional 30SBD per person to visit the beach.

At Mbonegi Beach, not far from the shore, a Japanese freight ship was run aground during WWII. There is a sunken Japanese submarine further up the Island.

Over time, it has become an artificial reef with coral growing and thriving on its remains, and thousands of fish making it home. Sections of the boat remain sticking out of the water, guiding swimmers to its resting place not far from the shore.

The snorkel was a lot of fun with an easy current and lots to see, especially towards the back of the wreck. Our one complaint was getting several stings on our first snorkel. I don’t know if it was tiny jellies or sea lice, but I was very thankful for my rashguard protecting my upper body. On my next two snorkels out, I wasn’t stung at all, so I think a bloom of something swept by and then left.

On our way back to town, our driver stopped to let us take pictures of a church and a section of local smokehouses, which were selling some delicious-looking food. I did pick up a roasted banana for $3 SBD.

On our second of three days, poor weather in the hills cancelled our plans to drive and hike to Tenaru Falls. The drive is 90 minutes of truly terrible roads, and the hike is an hour downhill with mud and a river crossing. It is already a challenging trip, but with extra rain, the drive seemed impossible, and the slippery, muddy section might become a little too challenging, particularly since we would need to climb back up the 300-meter elevation in 2.7km to reach the car.

It would cost about 700 SBD for the taxi and another $200 SBD per person for a mandatory guide. The falls themselves are supposed to be amazing, and one can swim in the pool before beginning the ascent.

Instead, Paul and I headed left to the central market, about a 15-minute walk from the ship. The local market is filled with produce, seafood, woven goods, and clothing. I enjoyed walking around and discovering some new vegetables.

I tried a local red banana (50cents SBD), some kind of nut ($2 SBD for a handful), and bought a woven fan ($100 SBD).

From the central market, we walked back towards the right of the port to the visitors center, a cafe, and an art market.

In the evening, the local Yacht Club invited the crew and residents of our ship to come to the Yacht Club, and they would have traditional dancing, drinks, a dinner, and live music for us to enjoy.

The Yacht Club was a short 5 to 10 minute walk from our ship, but as some residents have been experiencing safety concerns like attempted pickpockets and phone theft two of our residents arranged for a bus to continually go back and forth between the Yacht Club and our ship from 5 to 11.

A few of my friends and I set out shortly before the happy hour was going to start at 5, just so that we could get a table. When we walked in, the music was already playing and several residents were already there.

I was able to sample all three of the local beers: Solbrew, Cabin, and SB. Normally, the Yacht Club does not have food, so they had outsourced a local meal for 100 SBD. There were also coconuts with water available for 10, as well as free samples of ceviche, betel nut juice, and dried coconut.

Our ship’s captain and several of our crew members came to present a picture of the Odyssey to the Yacht Club and thank them for inviting us there.

the local dance troupe formed about five different dances in their traditional costume and surprisingly the danced more than the women. The most interesting thing about their outfits was dried seeds that were tied around the ankles and made sound every time they stomp their feet.

They don’t have much there, but they did their best to give us the warmest welcome they could.

Tulagi Harbour

After spending time in Honiara, our boat made its way across the next closest island, Tulagi Harbor. Here we needed to tender from our boat to the police pier, where we could disembark and explore the island.

Tulagi Harbour was under the British Solomon Islands protectorate. Japanese forces overran Tulagi in May 1942, and the Allies retook it that August during the Guadalcanal Campaign. The war’s pivotal Henderson Field airstrip- Captured and held by the US Marines – anchored the fighting on Guadalcanal. After the war, Britain shifted the capital from the destroyed Tulagi to a new town laid out along Guadalcanal’s North Coast: Honiara. On 7th July 1978, the Solomon Islands gained independence. Honiara has since grown around the Kukum Highway corridor, while Tulagi remains a quiet harbor town with a lot of war history. (on our daily bulletin of information)

The entire island is only approximately 2.8km long, 0.8 km wide, and has no public transportation. Circumnavigating the island takes about two and a half hours by foot. The first tender ashore was shortly after 7:00 AM, and Paul and I were on that boat.

We disembarked at the police pier and walked left towards the town centre and across the narrowest part of the Island. There was definitely a very sleepy, slow pace, but all residents were up and greeted us with hellos and good mornings. We made our way past several little marts and houses, and at the opposite side of the island was the Central Market.

From the Central Market, we continued going right until we reached the school. All of the students were outside, and a teacher was talking to them through a loudspeaker/Bullhorn. Trying to stay and not disturb anyone, we started going around the buildings, but as we kept going around, I realized that we were going to miss the World War Two marker, which was what we wanted to see over here, so we cut across the field to go to the podium. I was very impressed that none of the children really seemed to react to a couple of strangers walking past them, and kept their attention on the administrator.

We walked and saw the Blue Beach World War Two landing plaque, and then decided to continue walking towards the cathedral. At this point, it was very warm, and I was wondering just how hot it could get. The views were beautiful, but the road is not paved, and we quickly left the nice section. We continued following the two ruts on the ground past other houses and the cathedral.

At this point, we were about halfway around the island, and although there was nothing on Google Maps on the North End, we decided just to continue circling around because it did show the road going all the way. As we walked, we came to a swampy marshy area, and then we reached the peak of the island. We continued going right to circle around. It was about here that it began raining.

One of the things we noticed was an abundance of large metal components from ships that had washed ashore from the war, or more recently. If there were a place to bring all this metal, someone could be rich.

Now it was pretty mucky to start with, so the rains were doing nothing to improve the water-filled ruts. Our feet were pretty gross and covered in muck by the time we made it around. As we circled around and started getting closer to the tender pier, more buildings began to emerge. One of the sites here was an old American Quonset hut.

Along this side was what I could only imagine was the old port with a rusted-out metal frame for the pier and 4 ships abandoned and half sunk. There was quite a bit of abandoned heavy machinery throughout the island.

We also went by a dive resort, but the gate was closed, and we had heard that the place was not functioning, so we kept going by. Later on, we found out that it actually was open.

There was a small shack that had a sign for cold beers. Now it was only 10 in the morning, but I still had a little bit of local currency left, so I stopped in there and bought three Canoe lagers.

We continued walking until we got back to the tender pier, where we could wait for the tender boat to take us back to our ship. The rest of the afternoon was rainy on and off, but mostly on.