Langa Langa Lagoon 3

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Fri 7 Aug 2015 05:44
Pos 8:51.43S 160:44.55E
Daolusu Village
 

2015-08-06  We woke bright and early and whilst eating our breakfast of fresh mango we watched the village life commence.  Children boarded their canoes and paddled some considerable way to reach their school on a neighbouring island. 

Younger children were fishing off the balcony of the house which stood in the sea, with a long bamboo pole, one father, surrounded by his children, was casting a line from his front door.  He seemed to catch quite a few tiny silver fish. Yummy, fish for breakfast.

We put together a parcel of children’s clothes, old reading glasses and a few odd bits and pieces then made our last visit to Busu. Presenting them to Agnes, the chief’s wife who we found with her son and his family, we thanked them for their kind hospitality.

Great hugs and kisses all round, the Japanese family joined us so a photo shoot began.  As we finally made it to the floating pontoon Agnes presented me with a beautiful shell necklace and matching bracelet.  I was so touched, the work that goes into these pieces of jewellery is phenomenal.  I will treasure them.

Shan,

Back to Bob

Having used up my entire Japanese vocabulary with a farewell “Soyonara,” it was time for a short trip, just a couple of miles further down the lagoon to search for a good snorkelling site. Our first choice, a small sand fringed side lagoon with a very narrow entrance proved inaccessible because of the tight gap in the reef.  

Continuing down, we came to the main channel out of the lagoon and seeking the shelter of the lea shore slowly worked our way onto the fringing reef until we were able to drop anchor in 7 metres of water on a rapidly shelving bottom.

The water was as clear as Gin, well that was until we jumped in and approached the reef, then it was like a snow storm below, as the sea was full of tiny, pinky-brown spores or eggs, rather like swimming in caviar! There were some new species for me, though the poor camera couldn’t hack it, trying to focus on the soup instead of my fish, very frustrating.

After an hour or so it was back for a beer and time to move on, so continuing out of the Lagoon we made our way up the outside into the open ocean. Eventually we reached another entrance and picking up our old route on the chart plotter we worked our way back to Francis and his village, Daolusu.

He arrived proudly wearing his “Dawnbreaker” T-Shirt and looking very cool in the pair of bi-focal sunglasses I had given him. Regrettably there was no further news regarding our stolen goods though he assured us they were still working on it and maybe we’ll get some news in a few more days

After he left we fired up the Bar-B-Q and while I cremated the steaks (the last of the Cordon Black Chefs), Shan was organising the sautéed potatoes etc. A bottle of McGuigans, Black Label, Cabernet Sauvignon, lightly chilled was produced from the wine cellar and so we dined.

Bob the Blog