The dive centre organised a Lomo which is a local feast - a fire is lit in a rock filled pit, once the rocks are sufficiently hot, cassava roots are placed over the rocks, then a selection of fish and chicken in baskets woven from palm leaves were placed on the oven, along with a vegetable and coconut dish. the whole thing is then covered with palm and banana leaves and left to it’s own devices for the next couple of hours.
White cassava roots are placed in the centre, and the fish and chicken round the sides of the Lomo fire pit.
Coconut shells filled with green vegetables and a cast iron pot of pork stew were also placed in the Lomo before it was all covered with the leaves.
A couple of hours later the Lomo was opened up and diner was served!
There is a small village in Viani Bay and of course a school - most of the children had gone to Taveuini for a 7 a side rugby tournament - it’s the national sport - and this little girl showed great potential.
After a few days in Viani bay we decided to move on - a slight delay was caused by our friends on Rebell who managed to get their chain wrapped round a large piece of dead coral.
It was so well wrapped that Ian ended up swimming over to help un hook it.
Our next stop was in Albert Cove, Rabi Island - another place we’d visited last year, but certainly worth a second visit. There are a couple of basic houses here that are occasionally used during coconut harvests, but apart from that the place is fairly deserted so it was a surprise to suddenly find 50 or so people turn up for a picnic. We went to introduce ourselves and learnt that a small group of students from the University of the South Pacific were touring the villages on an environmental education field trip.
From what we could see, there was considerable emphasis on Cava consumption on this picnic! The Cava roots have been placed in the sun to dry, the larger roots have been sliced up.
Once the fire is ready, the drying process continues in this specially constructed oven. The dried roots are then ground, mixed with water, drained and finally drunk - usually from a coconut shell or other round bowl.
The island is very lush, the interior virtually impregnable, but at low tide we did manage to walk round the bay.
Low tide in Albert Cove, there is a fringing coral shelf around much of the bay - you have to step carefully to avoid walking on the coral. Nautilus is one of the yachts in the distance.
We knew from our last visit that there was an excellent coral wall just outside the bay - we headed off in our dinghy for a dive.
Diving in Rabi Island, Albert Cove - There is so much to see it’s hard to know which way to look!
Albert Cove in the rain - it’s tropical, and you don’t get all that greenery without a lot of water.
After Rabi Island we wove our way carefully through miles of reef to Yanuca - a tiny island with a population of just 65 people. We anchored in School Bay, and with some difficulty managed to get ashore through the shallow coral reef.
School Bay, Yanuca Island - what you can’t see is the swell: it was a rather exposed anchorage, anything not tied down fell over on board Nautilus.
We finally made it ashore just as the school day ended, the 15 primary school children were thrilled to be able to lead us to the village, practicing their already very good English on us as we walked along.
We followed the children to the village where we met Willy, the acting Chief, and presented our Sevusevu - a gift of cava. Due to the difficulties of getting ashore and the extreme roll in the anchorage we turned down his offer of a cava ceremony as we really didn’t think we’d be able to make it back to the boats afterwards. Willy was also keen to take us to one of the other islands, Cobia, for a hike and some snorkelling and suggested an anchorage for us over there. Bernt and Birgit on Rebell were not keen on this suggestion so headed off in search of a more peaceful anchorage and we headed off on the 2nm trip to Cobia.
The anchorage was tiny and surrounded by multiple reefs, but it was beautiful - we took the kayak ashore and walked around as much of it as we could.
Cobia - Yanuca is the bigger island in the distance.
Our decision to stay the night in Cobia was not a good one - towards the end of the afternoon the wind began to shift, there was very little swinging room between the coral reefs so we put out our 16kg stern anchor in an effort to hold ourselves in position (our main anchor is 25 kg with 80 metres of chain, the stern anchor has only 10 metres of chain, the rest is rope). With absolutely no light pollution, there is a whole new level of darkness on the Pacific island and although the moon was almost full, it was not due to rise until a good 3 hours after sunset, so in that absolute blackness we experienced a series of fairly strong squalls complete with torrential rain and a 180 Degree wind shift. Every alarm we had on board was going off - we were way too close to the reef, it was windy and shallow, the stern anchor was dragging. Anyway - an impressive level of calm was maintained onboard as we managed to winch up the stern anchor and then our main anchor and very carefully retrace our track through the reef to School Bay on Yanuca.
We re-anchored at midnight, by that time the sky had cleared and although it was still blowing 25kts the moon light made everything seem much more manageable.
After two uncomfortable nights in Yanuca and the excitement of the trip to Cobia we have now headed to Matagi, a volcanic crater again surrounded by coral reefs. Apparently it’s a private island belonging to one of the resorts, but we’re hoping to get ashore for a quick walk and also hope to go for a dive before heading further south to Banua Valavu in the Lau group.
No comments:
Post a Comment