In a crater and at the end of the road...
Kokamo's Pacifc Meanderings
Tom and Rachel
Thu 16 Sep 2010 08:20
|
Kokamo is inside a volcano! At
13:32.5S 167:20.3E
For the last couple of days we've
been anchored in the middle of Urepararpara Island, the northernmost island in
the Banks group. After our experiences of wide open horizons in the nearby
Reef Islands, it was eerie sailing into this enclosed space. Ureparapara
is a decent sized volcanic cone, which during
its eruptive genisis blew out a small section of it's sidewalls,
allowing the sea to flood in. This pyrotechnic feat has left a relatively
narrow opening which we sailed through, and then two miles onwards between
diverging and diagonally rising knife-edge ridges, clad in deep green jungle, to
the anchorage in front of a village in the middle of the volcano.
The villagers were extremely friendly
- not least because they do not get many visitors. We were the 9th yacht
to drop anchor this year (the previous 4 only coming in the last few days as
they'd been at the same cultural festival as us). Thanks to
precipitous slopes on all sides there is no airstrip, and there is no ferry
service either. In fact, for any goods, the locals rely on the
Chinese ships that come to pick up the copra they grow. But recently the
ships have paid them in money, rather than bringing goods, with the
result that all outside food and supplies dried up 10 months
ago, and while everyone has money there is nothing to spend it
on. This all explains the bizarre situation we found ourselves in:
being offered good prices for any spare stores we had on board.
Luckily we'd heard that supplies in
the Banks could be sporadic, so had stocked a big sack of rice, sugar, lots
of packets of seeds, batteries etc. We didn't feel we could take any
money - but we do now, once again, have more bananas, island cabbage and
pamplemouse than we know what to do with.
Chief David took us up to the ridge
of the crater - a very sweaty hour-and-a-bits climb, hauling ourselves up
by the roots of banyan trees on the steep sections, to over 600m above the
sea. The vertiginous green horeshoe, rising out of the deep blue, with the
thatch of the village tucked below us, and Kokamo and a couple of other boats at
anchor in the middle, was certainly a special sight. And looking outwards,
we could see all the islands of the Banks group, tantalising close.
Paradise indeed....
...Or at least so it seems.
Chatting to the big chief back in the village - Chief Nicholson - it seems all
is not so paradisical at present. (Since our Bislama - the kind of pigeon
English that is Vanuatu's national language - has got better, we've found
that we've been taken into the confidence of Chiefs much more often. Also,
I've been asked a couple of times to translate from Bislama to French by Chiefs
for other yachties. I suspect the final translation often bore little
relation to what the Chief was trying to say!) Anyway, apart from the lack
of any outside goods to alleviate the diet of yam, taro and manioc (and I
suspect perhaps because of it), there has also been a tussle with the other
village on the island in the last couple of months, with threats of serious
violence. Never before in his time as chief, or his training before that,
has Chief Nicholson had to deal with such divisions on the island, and
he was busy trying to organise a big reconciliation for next week -
with an exchange of pigs and kava between the islands to settle the
peace. Fascinating stuff, I have to admit - I really felt like we had
dropped in on a complete other world, entirely preoccupied with its own internal
dynamics. When our world is always so instantaneously interlinked
with everywhere else, this evidence of a place which is still
an island in the truest sense was somehow refreshing. I suspect such
romanticism might wear off if I had to live there, however!
After just a couple of days,
we're moving on, however. A weather window has opened up,
breaking the usual strong south-easterlies with gentle easterlies.
This doesn't happen often, so we've grabbed the opportunity head back south to
the main islands of Vanuatu overnight. In a way, we've
reached the end of the road with our year of sailing - we've got
as far north as we're going to get (about 800 miles short of the equator),
and to make it back to New Zealand it's time to head
south. It's been a great couple of weeks up here in the Banks -
a real highlight. So we head south with heavy hearts.... for
now.
|