Vanuata and Australia

From Fiji Stephen and Gill left to go and tour New Zealand and so some new crew were needed. Michael White, (on the left) the son of the first house sitter we had employed flew with his cousin, Daryl Higgs to join me at Musket Cove for the leg to Cairns. Sadly, Daryl was very ill on the first part of the voyage to Vanuatu and he was unable to continue, but Michael learnt the ropes very quickly and did very well on a difficult passage.

Vanuatu is actually an archipelago and we sailed into Efate, a beautiful and lovely island where we were made so welcome by some of the nicest people we have met on the trip so far. While we were there we took a short plane ride to Tanna which was much more remote and primitive. Here we are at the local market where beautiful fruit and other produce was for sale at ridiculously small prices. I bought a pineapple handing over the equivalent of 50p and when I waved away the change, there was considerable amusement as I could have had two for that amount.

Only six percent of the island’s inhabitants are ‘employed’, the rest being engaged in subsistence farming and village life, but they seem very happy for all that. We went to a local village where we were shown round and treated to a dancing display, and we felt that we were seeing the way they have lived for hundreds of years, I wonder how much longer it will remain.

The main reason for visiting Tanna is the (very) active volcano. Two hours in a four-wheel drive and a scramble up this lava desert brought us to the rim.

The volcano exploded every three or four minutes, some of the blasts being sulphurous gas but if you look closely at this picture the ‘blobs’ are not dirt on my camera lens but huge lumps of rock being thrown into the air.

As the sun set the show went on……

And as it got darker the molten rocks could be seen clearly flying into the night sky

Then it was on to Australia; a nine day crossing that started well with two down wind days but then the wind was from the South and up to 50 knots giving a big beam sea which rolled the boat and had waves breaking right across the cockpit. So we were glad to reach Cairns and some ‘Western civilisation’ and it was time to lift for repairs and antifouling in preparation for the voyage home.

Once the work on the boat was done we had ten days to enjoy Australia before Sue and Gill were due to fly home and so Sue and I set off to visit friends in Brisbane. Whilst we were there we went to visit Australia Zoo and were there on the day that Steve Irwin was tragically killed by the stingray. The Zoo was beautifully kept and all the animals were in perfect condition and a joy to see.

There is a show put on in the ‘crocoseum’ every day and we watched snakes, birds and crocodiles being handled, flown and fed, all extremely well done

There were enclosures for possums, elephants, tigers, cheetahs and here the wombats. All the animals are being handled and were accompanied by humans who spend up to ten hours a day with their charges to establish the bond between them and the animal.

There was also a beautiful aviary with many exotic birds and colourful parrots

We had time for a short break on Fraser Island to tour the famous sand dunes but mostly to take a tour to see the whales playing in Hervey Bay

The beautiful humpbacks stop in Hervey Bay on their migration South and can be seen breaching and fin slapping from very close quarters by taking a whale watching tour on the resort boat

The accommodation was pretty impressive too! But it was nice to have a comfortable break before returning to the boat in preparation for the trip round to Darwin and on to Indonesia.

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