Eli Eli village 1

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Sun 9 Aug 2015 21:37

pos 8:57.50S 160:45.28E

Buma Eli Eli village

 

2015-08-06 Leaving Daolusu Village we worked our way further down the lagoon and out through Tafalaba Passage, to the outside of the reef looking for a snorkelling site and with the line out, to catch a fish while we were at it.

The rough seas cancelled most sites. So, we re-entered the lagoon through Sulilui Passage, several miles further down, and carried on until we reached the narrow straight between Kwasi Kwasi Island and the mainland which is the end and final exit from the lagoon.

It was blowing somewhat out there, so we returned to explore some of the creeks and villages back inside. Passing a large colourful monument outside an even larger church in one of the villages we continued along the coast until we came to a nice reef near a sandy bay with a single house on it.

Anchoring proved somewhat of a problem with it dragging over the coral bottom before falling off into deeper water. A gentleman in a canoe and a young boy with goggles pointed to spot they considered more favourable and after another three attempts we finally locked into the bottom.

Our gent introduced himself as Rafael the chief of the several villages along this coast and, as we came to learn, was a father of 14 children it seemed he had done his best to populate most of them!

Already the word had gone out and the first canoes were arriving. Armed with our trusty lollipops I dishes out while Shan organised traffic flow. So it continued until it was time for dinner and, as Raphael had come to join us for happy hour, he was tasked with sending them all home while we talked with him.

After dinner it was out with the MexT then a few rounds of Yatsy before an early night in order to be ready to visit the village market at 8 am and before another flotilla of canoes and kids tomorrow.

Bob the Blog