The Friday without a plan.
This was a sleep in morning, so I didn't. At 6:30 I was wide awake and up. This is quite unusual, but it was nice to sit with the throng at breakfast. As usual with this group, the communal energy transforms into a plan. The plan was... Check out Turtle Beach Lodge! Full of newfound purpose we were off in the vehicle. I know I have described this before, but it's worthy just noting that travelling at anything above about 20km per hour on a main road with all the hazards, vehicular, pedestrian, animal, and even the odd overhanging branch, is not without its anxieties. At 80km/h it's exhilarating but you know that in an accident you are basically dead. There's just no way you could protect yourself, hold on, or plan to minimise injury. Even sitting in the tray (which you end up doing sometimes) you are quite vulnerable. Such is life.
The east coast road is now a familiar one, and soon we were beyond Sapi, on rural roads, waving to virtually every pedestrian, especially children, who can be quite vocal too.
Turtle Lodge looks like paradise! The owner Dianne seemed fairly blunt on first meeting but warmed slightly. We had a look at the bar area, and we were sold. There were bookings available for Monday and Tuesday. Rob'n'Pete started the trend with their credit cards drawn like guns. We followed, as did Li,Trev and Jade. Bettine was still weighing her options, having more time than we do on Santo. Jeff was impressed but unable to join us due to his return flight being Sunday.
Diane explained that they have kayaks for visitors, but they get first choice. Sunday was a planned kayak training day, so we needed another option... Alex's kayak hire just down the road. Through the gate and down a long driveway we came across a large hut, with one end dedicated to kayaks and gear. Keeper was there, and explained our options. Sunday looks like a goer! All happy with our objectives for the day fulfilled we returned to town.
We took the scenic route, avoiding much of the outskirts of Luganville, coming in via the coast/airport road. Here we discovered Janice's paradise- the golf course! It looked quite adequate. I pondered whether she would actually be able to have a round, as it was so busy. The slopes were dotted with enthusiastic Nivans, laughing, chatting, swinging, playing the greens. I was amazed at their proficiency. Golf must be a national sport I decided.
OK... Enough artistic licence. The course was deserted.
Back at home we devoured lunch.. All this wandering around like a tourist is quite hard work! We had more pow wows about Saturday's plan- Millenium Cave. This is the highlight of Santo's tourism spots. It involves a jungle walk, a wade through a large limestone cave, lunch on the banks, some canyon negotiation and a steep ascent out of the valley followed by a forest walk back to the local village. An 8am pickup was the arrangement. We were all going, with Issy not sure... Cold dark grottos aren't exactly her penchant it seems.
By 4:15 pm we were supposed to be off again. Our problem was that Janice and Jade were off on a "housecall" to visit the mother of Bill, of Big Bay. Bill's mother lived in Luganville somewhere, but by about 3.20 this "somewhere" had proved elusive and we sent out a carrier pigeon via Digicell letting the Js know that they might miss our deadline, which would mean finding their own way to "innominate wharf" (my label), which might also be as invisible as an American hangar under American vine. More about American vine later.
Magically, they reappeared in time for us to head out, dressed up to the 7.5s (= AU "nines" as the conversion rate is about 1.2). Our destination? Klaus and Marie's restaurant, agri farm on Aore. The trip over with Adam, our skipper was fun.. A brief crossing of the strait between Aore and Santo, accomplished in two trips. The sunset from Aore was spectacular, and we wandered up through immaculate gardens to meet our hosts, Klaus and Marie, who had specially opened their restaurant for us. Klaus was talkative, informing us about the locals and his troubles in helping them to accept Western Medicine over Black Magic and bush medicine. He also thought it ironic that while they spend hours squeezing lime juice for the cheese making operation, they won't use lime juice when they have a sore throat. I wondered if the Nivans regard lime juice for pharyngitis as Western Bush Medicine, and where that sits in the whole potpourri of "validated remedies".
Marie later told us about staff attrition. A big problem for them. Some staff had run away (head chef with his wife, the head waitress) and some had decided to leave amicably, choosing the higher pay of fruit picking in Australia. This was a real stress for K and M, especially the loss of chef and waitress as they had an upcoming wedding of 60 people, and needed to supervise the sous-chef while she unskilled. Our meal was great, courtesy of aforementioned sous chef. But before the meal... The cocktails! Suffice it to say they were delicious and we had quite a few. Much conversation and merriment followed, and main course led on to dessert which for many of us was a continuation of cocktails, with Affogato accompanied by coffee and Kahlua.
After thankyous and goodbyes we managed to board our water taxi without incident and by attrition limited to only one driver sober enough to drive us home. Michael drove well, eyes out for drivers affected by Kava, and we were home to frenzily prepared Millenium cave gear and lunch, and we were in bed, probably at a later than sensible time given the BIG DAY planned for tomorrow.
The east coast road is now a familiar one, and soon we were beyond Sapi, on rural roads, waving to virtually every pedestrian, especially children, who can be quite vocal too.
Turtle Lodge looks like paradise! The owner Dianne seemed fairly blunt on first meeting but warmed slightly. We had a look at the bar area, and we were sold. There were bookings available for Monday and Tuesday. Rob'n'Pete started the trend with their credit cards drawn like guns. We followed, as did Li,Trev and Jade. Bettine was still weighing her options, having more time than we do on Santo. Jeff was impressed but unable to join us due to his return flight being Sunday.
Diane explained that they have kayaks for visitors, but they get first choice. Sunday was a planned kayak training day, so we needed another option... Alex's kayak hire just down the road. Through the gate and down a long driveway we came across a large hut, with one end dedicated to kayaks and gear. Keeper was there, and explained our options. Sunday looks like a goer! All happy with our objectives for the day fulfilled we returned to town.
We took the scenic route, avoiding much of the outskirts of Luganville, coming in via the coast/airport road. Here we discovered Janice's paradise- the golf course! It looked quite adequate. I pondered whether she would actually be able to have a round, as it was so busy. The slopes were dotted with enthusiastic Nivans, laughing, chatting, swinging, playing the greens. I was amazed at their proficiency. Golf must be a national sport I decided.
OK... Enough artistic licence. The course was deserted.
Back at home we devoured lunch.. All this wandering around like a tourist is quite hard work! We had more pow wows about Saturday's plan- Millenium Cave. This is the highlight of Santo's tourism spots. It involves a jungle walk, a wade through a large limestone cave, lunch on the banks, some canyon negotiation and a steep ascent out of the valley followed by a forest walk back to the local village. An 8am pickup was the arrangement. We were all going, with Issy not sure... Cold dark grottos aren't exactly her penchant it seems.
By 4:15 pm we were supposed to be off again. Our problem was that Janice and Jade were off on a "housecall" to visit the mother of Bill, of Big Bay. Bill's mother lived in Luganville somewhere, but by about 3.20 this "somewhere" had proved elusive and we sent out a carrier pigeon via Digicell letting the Js know that they might miss our deadline, which would mean finding their own way to "innominate wharf" (my label), which might also be as invisible as an American hangar under American vine. More about American vine later.
Magically, they reappeared in time for us to head out, dressed up to the 7.5s (= AU "nines" as the conversion rate is about 1.2). Our destination? Klaus and Marie's restaurant, agri farm on Aore. The trip over with Adam, our skipper was fun.. A brief crossing of the strait between Aore and Santo, accomplished in two trips. The sunset from Aore was spectacular, and we wandered up through immaculate gardens to meet our hosts, Klaus and Marie, who had specially opened their restaurant for us. Klaus was talkative, informing us about the locals and his troubles in helping them to accept Western Medicine over Black Magic and bush medicine. He also thought it ironic that while they spend hours squeezing lime juice for the cheese making operation, they won't use lime juice when they have a sore throat. I wondered if the Nivans regard lime juice for pharyngitis as Western Bush Medicine, and where that sits in the whole potpourri of "validated remedies".
Marie later told us about staff attrition. A big problem for them. Some staff had run away (head chef with his wife, the head waitress) and some had decided to leave amicably, choosing the higher pay of fruit picking in Australia. This was a real stress for K and M, especially the loss of chef and waitress as they had an upcoming wedding of 60 people, and needed to supervise the sous-chef while she unskilled. Our meal was great, courtesy of aforementioned sous chef. But before the meal... The cocktails! Suffice it to say they were delicious and we had quite a few. Much conversation and merriment followed, and main course led on to dessert which for many of us was a continuation of cocktails, with Affogato accompanied by coffee and Kahlua.
After thankyous and goodbyes we managed to board our water taxi without incident and by attrition limited to only one driver sober enough to drive us home. Michael drove well, eyes out for drivers affected by Kava, and we were home to frenzily prepared Millenium cave gear and lunch, and we were in bed, probably at a later than sensible time given the BIG DAY planned for tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment