The
2003 Tall Ship Soren Larsen Pacific
Voyage Log
September 2003 - Vanuatu Discovery
Banks islands - Santo northwards:
Austrian
adventurer and long term Pacific voayge crew Emil writes of his
highlights of 10 night voyage to our most remote destination -
the Banks Islands.
After some days of laziness at the Aore resort near Santo, there
was time again for another nightsail. Even the Banks Islands are
the bad weather part of the journey normally , it was complete
different this time. Beautiful stars in the night, a slight breeze
and almost no swell lead us smoothly to Vanua Lava, the main island
of this region of Vanuatu.
From here this unique mixture between adventure and relaxation
started again and here are my personal charts of this hits of
the hits islands:
10. The lonely walk on Kwakea Island. White sand, tourquoise sea,
nobody with me , the passion of solitude. Just getting away of
everything. Sitting in the sun, collecting shells and watching
the waves.
9. Snake Dance of Ra Island. This is a special fertility dance
by men only, with long sticks symbolizing the snake or maybe some
special male body part and all the dancers are fully painted in
black/white/brown. First the villagers were dancing, then we.
It was a perfect joint venture of local and foreign custom dancing.
8. Ureparapara. The sea had opened a huge bay after the collapsing
of the caldera of this old extingued volcano. To see all the extent
orf this landscape, we had to ascent to the crater rim. It was
sweaty and steep. But at the top a beautiful panorama of the bay
and Motua Lavas in the distance under a blue sky were the reward
for the keen hiker.
7. Hat dance of Ureparapara. It does not happen so often, that
a whole ship is worn on a head while dancing. This village is
unique with all their crazy and impressive handicrafts on their
top end. If you enjoy looking at man with sharks (in two parts),
stingrays, butterflies, spiders and the perfect copy of the Soren
Larsen on their top ends, you have to join this trip next year.
6. The Waterfall of Vureas Bay. After such a long journey a bath
in these twin waterfalls is outstanding refreshing and sitting
on a rock under the falling waters gives a perfect massage for
the back. The evening in a local hut with delicious sweet water
prawns and rice was a second perfect massage, this time for the
stomach.
5.Water Dance of Gaua. Imagine, you are sitting on a nice shore
and young ladies would suddenly go in front of you into the sea
up to their belly and start beating the water with their hands
like a multiplied re-rised Keith Moon on a modern clubbing night....
This is exactly this weird and funny experience, you get at this
place. I can hardly wait, trying out this thing in my own bathtube
at home.
4. Snorkelling in the Reef Islands. The best place so far, we
saw octopuses and graceful white mantas, turtels and crayfish.
With Frank, our second mate as a perfect tour guide under water,
I would be still there, if there had not been this horn of the
Soren Larsen....
3. The World War II remains of Santo. Million Dollar Point offers
you a strange variety of dumped gear, from guns, planes and cars
to immense amounts of house components,equipment , china and bottels.
The real name should be CocaColaSpot, because collectors of original
stuff of the forties will get insane on ebbtide, when you just
have to pick up these from the ground . But besides this all the
bunkers, broken airplanes and overgrown airfields inside the island
give a special look on the crazy times of fighting.
2. Swimming in blue holes. Crystal clear waters on five different
spots along the eastcoast of Santo. From the smallest one, Surentam
hole, just beside the road,where you can jump in from your car
to the best one the blue Lagoon hole near Golden Beach in the
northeast. Petrified wooden logs in this greenish clear water
create a special scenery. Best chill-out track in always wet swimming
trunks.
1. An afternoon with Frankie Stevens. In Fanafo, a village half
an hour away from Luganville is the Nagriamel movement still active.
25 years ago a man called Jimmy Stevens was fighting for independence
and wanted to go back to the roots of Vanuatus legacy. So he built
almost his own bank,created his own money and some day he invaded
Luganville with 200 fighters with bow and arrow. The siege lasted
not very long, Stevens got in prison for 12 years and died shortly
after his release. But his sons are still in the same spirit and
have many supporters here. Spending a couple of hours with them
and talking politics in a complete different way was definitely
the winner of trip seven.
Best regards
Emil.
| Read
more of Emil's account's of a Voyage Crew's tall ship adventure. |
|
| Auckland
Kermadecs Tonga voyage |
here |
| Kingdom
of Tonga |
here |
| Tonga
to Fiji |
here |
| Fiji
to Vanuatu |
here |
| Vanuatu
Northbound |
here |
| Vanuatu
Banks |
here |
| Vanuatu South- New Caledonia |
here |
| |
|
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