East Coast Trip
Today there was a full schedule. The plan went a little like this...communal breakfast then bus pickup by 9, followed by visits to a lovely beach (Lommoc), lunch at Oyster Bay beach, a blue hole swim and then head out for a simple local meal. Suffice it to say we achieved 3 out of four.
Our driver was Was (see what I did there?) and his delightful wife Edna, a community nurse, was our accompanying Nevan guide and interpreter. Ednah is so lovely, and very patient with us as ignorant tourists. She tolerated our gaffs brilliantly and told us many stories of her life- growing up in a local village, doing high school in Luganville and nursing training in Port Vila. She has also lived in Wodonga for three years so her cross cultural knowledge and wisdom is considerable. She's also pretty adventurous, and when we got to the blue pool she tried a snorkel and goggles for the first time.
The trip up the East coast was lovely. It's basically the only main road and pretty much hugs the coast until it peters out at the northern end. While we didn't go this far, we probably did 40km of it and it gave us a pretty good picture of rural activity on Santo. We passed plantations- coffee, coconuts, various fruits, the introduced noni berry, sandalwood and others. We passed traditional copra drying facilities, multiple roadside stores and several lines of church goers heading home after their service. One of these happened to be Ednah's mother which was a treat for us, but seemed pretty unremarkable for Ednah.
Lommoc resort has basic facilities, slow cafe service, but one of the most delightful settings I have seen. Lovely little huts spaced along the foreshore with lush lawns between them and the sea, which is pretty much snorkel worthy coral. Unfortunately as with the Whitsundays, much of the coral is dead or dying, but several beautiful fish and some interesting corals survive. By midday we were on our way north to Olry beach.
We found Olry to be fairly busy, so being cunning, we ordered lunch and headed off for a walk. Timing should be perfect. But this is Vanuatu. The walk took about 50 minutes and on return I was told the Vegetarian burger I had ordered wasn't possible, so I reordered..... Fish. Chatting with the locals, we relaxed, knowing we would soon be fed. But this is Vanuatu. Many fish meals arrived. Too many. Some burgers didn't arrive at all, and a smoothie ordered by Robyn also vanished into a parallel universe. Li struggled with a coconut crab, so one of the waitresses brought out a stone and did an effective demonstration of crushing the claw on the table in front of us. Wide eyed and ashamed at our incompetence we could barely eat our food. (Joking..it was a scene of gluttony)
Other patrons included medical students on elective from Birmingham, Manchester and Stoke on Trent, and Anne, an OT who was supervising OT students from the Sunshine Coast. A lovely pleasant lunchtime and eventually we had all been fed.
We soon were bussing southwards and we pulled up at a Blue Hole. It was really blue, and the water was crystal clear. We had some fun. It was really blue, and also a really pretty blue. Some local nivans were also having fun here.. We enjoyed the frivolity of jumping in. It was late afternoon so actually a bit cool, so we didn't linger. Off we headed home and all pretty tired, we decided to eat in. Fluffy omelettes was the order of the day and Jeff showed his culinary talents and created the fluffy tastiest omelettes I have ever had.
Satisfied little munchkins, we headed to bed.
Our driver was Was (see what I did there?) and his delightful wife Edna, a community nurse, was our accompanying Nevan guide and interpreter. Ednah is so lovely, and very patient with us as ignorant tourists. She tolerated our gaffs brilliantly and told us many stories of her life- growing up in a local village, doing high school in Luganville and nursing training in Port Vila. She has also lived in Wodonga for three years so her cross cultural knowledge and wisdom is considerable. She's also pretty adventurous, and when we got to the blue pool she tried a snorkel and goggles for the first time.
The trip up the East coast was lovely. It's basically the only main road and pretty much hugs the coast until it peters out at the northern end. While we didn't go this far, we probably did 40km of it and it gave us a pretty good picture of rural activity on Santo. We passed plantations- coffee, coconuts, various fruits, the introduced noni berry, sandalwood and others. We passed traditional copra drying facilities, multiple roadside stores and several lines of church goers heading home after their service. One of these happened to be Ednah's mother which was a treat for us, but seemed pretty unremarkable for Ednah.
Lommoc resort has basic facilities, slow cafe service, but one of the most delightful settings I have seen. Lovely little huts spaced along the foreshore with lush lawns between them and the sea, which is pretty much snorkel worthy coral. Unfortunately as with the Whitsundays, much of the coral is dead or dying, but several beautiful fish and some interesting corals survive. By midday we were on our way north to Olry beach.
We found Olry to be fairly busy, so being cunning, we ordered lunch and headed off for a walk. Timing should be perfect. But this is Vanuatu. The walk took about 50 minutes and on return I was told the Vegetarian burger I had ordered wasn't possible, so I reordered..... Fish. Chatting with the locals, we relaxed, knowing we would soon be fed. But this is Vanuatu. Many fish meals arrived. Too many. Some burgers didn't arrive at all, and a smoothie ordered by Robyn also vanished into a parallel universe. Li struggled with a coconut crab, so one of the waitresses brought out a stone and did an effective demonstration of crushing the claw on the table in front of us. Wide eyed and ashamed at our incompetence we could barely eat our food. (Joking..it was a scene of gluttony)
Other patrons included medical students on elective from Birmingham, Manchester and Stoke on Trent, and Anne, an OT who was supervising OT students from the Sunshine Coast. A lovely pleasant lunchtime and eventually we had all been fed.
We soon were bussing southwards and we pulled up at a Blue Hole. It was really blue, and the water was crystal clear. We had some fun. It was really blue, and also a really pretty blue. Some local nivans were also having fun here.. We enjoyed the frivolity of jumping in. It was late afternoon so actually a bit cool, so we didn't linger. Off we headed home and all pretty tired, we decided to eat in. Fluffy omelettes was the order of the day and Jeff showed his culinary talents and created the fluffy tastiest omelettes I have ever had.
Satisfied little munchkins, we headed to bed.
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