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Second stop on my journey was to reverse the trip to Nadi..speed boat to Kadavu, commuter plane to Nadi, then flight on to Honiara, Solomon Islands. History buffs will recognize Honiara & the Solomons as a great battle area during WWII, Guadalcanal. There are massive numbers of wrecks there, ships, planes, etc.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to tour Guadalcanal battle areas but my hotel, the outstanding Coral Sea Resort was on Iron Bottom Sound, the site of many downed ships & planes.
The capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara, is not considered a safe place for tourists to walk around, outside of certain central areas but I had a taxi drop me at the central market & found most people to be very friendly & helpful. I was searching for a particular item, got redirected about 5 times & ended up finding it about 3/4 of the way back to my hotel. What the heck, walked on back. The staff at the hotel was a bit horrified I'd walked the entire way by myself but had no problems at all.
Looking out on Iron Bottom Sound from my hotel in Honaira.
Another DeHaviland commuter plane to Seghe Island, then another boat ride to the Marovo Lagoon, considered one of the finest diving & snorkeling areas in the world. The resort sits on an channel with the Pacific Ocean on one side & the lagoon on the other. The channel becomes a super highway for large schools of bumphead parrots, sharks, rays, dolphins and large schools of fish moving from the ocean to the lagoon & back.
LOL, the stunning Seghe Airport. Oddly, no VIP lounge here. Grass runway with water on each end.
View from my covered deck of the fantastic Marovo Lagoon. It's HUGE & at low tide, a snorkelers paradise with just about anything you want to see. Uepi Resort is remote & takes an effort to get there but they stay booked & took me 2 years to get a reservation. Worth the effort.
One of the main attractions is a great black manta feeding & cleaning station in the lagoon in shallow enough water, it's easy for a snorkeler to get close. On the way out, had a large pod of dolphins escort us, jumping & running with the boat. Had to resist jumping in with them.
The black mantas were a joy, but there were also other rays out in the ocean, devil rays & some smaller rays.
If you are frightened by sharks, this isn't the place for you. White tip & black tip reef sharks in & out of the channel on a regular basis. One black tip seemed to enjoy swimming along with me at arm's length several times.
My only issue was during a night snorkel when the sharks are actively feeding & we apparently caught the eye of one white tip which turned & came right at us at hip height. Passed right between the snorkel guide & me. Scared the crap out of both of us. We weren't sure WHAT it was thinking.
A major delight to have this young Maori wrasse come right in, within feet of me & hover at the reef wall to get a good cleaning from a small cleaner wrasse. You can spot the blue cleaner wrasse just below the middle of the Maori. Maori's can be shy, so this one coming so close was special.
Parrotfish, Damselfish & wrasses along the reef wall.
Not all the action was in the water. We had an almost daily visit from a large monitor lizard who'd come to our deck & wait for us to toss part of our lunch to him. He was pretty friendly, unlike the rest on the island who'd dart out & take off. Besides tons of geckos, land crabs & other creatures, there were also the enormous coconut crabs out in the forested area.
The channel, looking from the lagoon to the Pacific Ocean at sunset.
As with most tropical Pacific lagoons, at this time of the year, it gets a massive amount of small critters in the water. Great food for the mantas & other creatures but I snorkeled one day without my dive earplugs & ended up with a massive inner ear infection which ended my ability to go in the water for the rest of my time. Lost my hearing in one ear & was afraid of what it was going to do to the large amount of flying I had to do in the next days. Fortunately, I travel with a lot of antibotics & the resort had some as well.
Ended up delaying my flight out to Bali by a day to visit a clinic in Honiara & make sure I was cleared to fly. Didn't want to chance bursting an eardrum & anyone who has flown with a sinus issue, knows how extremely painful it can be.
Back the boat ride to Seghe, commuter plane to Honiara & took an day to visit the clinic. Cleared to fly with more meds. But had to change 4 flights & 3 hotels. Not the easiest task in the US, a monster headache in a 3rd world country. A lot of cuss words involved.
Planning to go back & see the areas I couldn't see because I was sidelined with the ear infection. Amazing place.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to tour Guadalcanal battle areas but my hotel, the outstanding Coral Sea Resort was on Iron Bottom Sound, the site of many downed ships & planes.
The capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara, is not considered a safe place for tourists to walk around, outside of certain central areas but I had a taxi drop me at the central market & found most people to be very friendly & helpful. I was searching for a particular item, got redirected about 5 times & ended up finding it about 3/4 of the way back to my hotel. What the heck, walked on back. The staff at the hotel was a bit horrified I'd walked the entire way by myself but had no problems at all.
Looking out on Iron Bottom Sound from my hotel in Honaira.
Another DeHaviland commuter plane to Seghe Island, then another boat ride to the Marovo Lagoon, considered one of the finest diving & snorkeling areas in the world. The resort sits on an channel with the Pacific Ocean on one side & the lagoon on the other. The channel becomes a super highway for large schools of bumphead parrots, sharks, rays, dolphins and large schools of fish moving from the ocean to the lagoon & back.
LOL, the stunning Seghe Airport. Oddly, no VIP lounge here. Grass runway with water on each end.
View from my covered deck of the fantastic Marovo Lagoon. It's HUGE & at low tide, a snorkelers paradise with just about anything you want to see. Uepi Resort is remote & takes an effort to get there but they stay booked & took me 2 years to get a reservation. Worth the effort.
One of the main attractions is a great black manta feeding & cleaning station in the lagoon in shallow enough water, it's easy for a snorkeler to get close. On the way out, had a large pod of dolphins escort us, jumping & running with the boat. Had to resist jumping in with them.
The black mantas were a joy, but there were also other rays out in the ocean, devil rays & some smaller rays.
If you are frightened by sharks, this isn't the place for you. White tip & black tip reef sharks in & out of the channel on a regular basis. One black tip seemed to enjoy swimming along with me at arm's length several times.
My only issue was during a night snorkel when the sharks are actively feeding & we apparently caught the eye of one white tip which turned & came right at us at hip height. Passed right between the snorkel guide & me. Scared the crap out of both of us. We weren't sure WHAT it was thinking.
A major delight to have this young Maori wrasse come right in, within feet of me & hover at the reef wall to get a good cleaning from a small cleaner wrasse. You can spot the blue cleaner wrasse just below the middle of the Maori. Maori's can be shy, so this one coming so close was special.
Parrotfish, Damselfish & wrasses along the reef wall.
Not all the action was in the water. We had an almost daily visit from a large monitor lizard who'd come to our deck & wait for us to toss part of our lunch to him. He was pretty friendly, unlike the rest on the island who'd dart out & take off. Besides tons of geckos, land crabs & other creatures, there were also the enormous coconut crabs out in the forested area.
The channel, looking from the lagoon to the Pacific Ocean at sunset.
As with most tropical Pacific lagoons, at this time of the year, it gets a massive amount of small critters in the water. Great food for the mantas & other creatures but I snorkeled one day without my dive earplugs & ended up with a massive inner ear infection which ended my ability to go in the water for the rest of my time. Lost my hearing in one ear & was afraid of what it was going to do to the large amount of flying I had to do in the next days. Fortunately, I travel with a lot of antibotics & the resort had some as well.
Ended up delaying my flight out to Bali by a day to visit a clinic in Honiara & make sure I was cleared to fly. Didn't want to chance bursting an eardrum & anyone who has flown with a sinus issue, knows how extremely painful it can be.
Back the boat ride to Seghe, commuter plane to Honiara & took an day to visit the clinic. Cleared to fly with more meds. But had to change 4 flights & 3 hotels. Not the easiest task in the US, a monster headache in a 3rd world country. A lot of cuss words involved.
Planning to go back & see the areas I couldn't see because I was sidelined with the ear infection. Amazing place.
