26 Oct 2019

Jungle Shores and Coral Sea

We were greeted by a beautiful dawn on our first full day on board the Spirit of Enderby. The ship was anchored in Thousand Ships Bay, between Santa Isabel and San Jorge Islands, surrounded by jungle-clad shores.

For our first excursion of the day we headed even deeper into the bay, towards the village of Talise. However, our passage was soon blocked by large numbers of coral heads spread from shore to shore. Eventually we found a clear channel and wove towards a small mangrove fringed creek. Colourful lorikeets flew overhead. The water was too shallow for the outboard motors so we paddled until we grounded. The drivers then leapt overboard and hauled us the last few metres to a rocky beach. We were definitely on an expedition rather than just a cruise!

A few minutes' walk through the jungle brought us to the village of Talise. In some ways it felt very exotic, in others quite familiar. The wooden, palm thatched houses stood amongst neatly tended gardens and were arranged around a 'village green'. At one end a church, at the other a primary school on a low hill.

After a fascinating visit to the school, a pan pipe band performed for us in front of the church. A few of the sets of pipes were small and hand held, but most were giant, as long as a person is tall. They were played by whacking the ends of the tubes with the soles of rubber flip flops, creating a deeply resonant melody. To complete the performance, young girls danced to the music, in tight synchronised formation. There was a huge amount of enthusiasm and jollity, which rose even higher when some of the expeditioners joined the dancing! It was a wonderful and very welcoming introduction to village life in the Solomons.

In the afternoon we snorkelled from a beautiful sandy beach, on the idyllic little island of Uhuta. Just offshore, colourful coral gardens grew in the shallows - an easy and gentle place to explore. Though relatively small in area, it teemed with colourful life, like an animated Disney movie. A large school of young barracuda hung in the blue beyond the coral; a black spotted whip-tailed ray settled on a sandy slope right below us; every few metres a pair of cleaner wrasse were waiting for fishy customers; several brave little clown fish darted out from their anemone homes to drive us off; shoals of colourful damsels pulsated above the coral outcrops while a group of strangely-shaped spade fish drifted between them, sergeant majors foraged amongst them and puffers hid beneath ... the variety seemed almost endless.

We finished the afternoon on the beach, in the shade of the forest, sipping cool coconut water directly from fresh nuts. What a perfect start to our 'Secrets of Melanesia' adventure.

Image (c) N.Nightingale, Heritage Expeditions