Nolhivaranfaru
Roam2
Terry & Fiona
Mon 7 Mar 2011 06:45
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06:41.97 e
073:07.01 e
We made the exhausting 10m journey here, tearing
ourselves away from the luxurious Island Hideaway Resort. We ended up spending
an average of 20usd per day on happy hour beers and had a 'snack lunch' one day.
they seemed happy with that despite their guests probably paying in the region
of 1000 usd per couple per night! we were offered buffet dinner at 130 usd each,
very politely declined. we even got use of the pool and their internet in the
library thrown in!
the entrance through this reef is wide but shallow -
less than 5m. and our inexperience in coral made us nervous of the depths. what
colour is ok? what colour is too shallow? anyhow we made it in and anchored in
front of the village in 4m sand and occasional coral. the windlass is now
operating in manual only mode after we took it apart with the help of Matt,
Bernard and Murray from the kiwi boat 'Island Time'. the gear casing is severely
cracked and therefore not a drop of oil in sight. they reckon on a less than 10%
chance of fixing it successfully. oh dear.
so we dropped the anchor on the clutch cone and have
devised a way of raising it using a chain hook, a rope and the main sheet
winch.
we took the ferry from here to the regional capital,
Kuludufushi mainly to get an internet sim that works. there is a large harbour
there but they are reported to charge 26usd to moor. the ferry cost 100 rufiya
for both of us (abt 8usd) for there and back. we were expecting a town built
around the harbour as in Greece, but its set well away behind a large flat
piece of land that looks as though its been reclaimed. there were plenty of
shops all selling a similar narrow range of goods - canned veg, milk powder,
custard powder, flip flops and a very limited range of fresh stuff - potatoes
and onions, perhaps some garlic. we saw a couple of cabbages and some carrots. I
bought some apples thinking they were 5R a kilo, but they were 5 each - about 40
cents. I wonder where they came from. there are no pineapples for sale, yet
india has them in abundance, you'd think the Maldivans would like them too.
the local island is doing quite a bit of building -
houses for tsunami refugees from islands affected further south. one of the
housing areas is known as the 'chinese zone' and it does indeed house chinese
origin people. the other zone is Maldivan. apart from building houses, a few
boats and minding a couple of shops there doesn't seem much more to do. the
streets are sand both here and Kuludufushi. there are a few vehicles here but
quite a lot in Kuludufushi, we even saw a suped-up toyota, wide wheels, all the
trimmings etc. I've no idea what use it was on an island with only sand roads
about 2 miles long and less than 1 wide!
next stop...not sure....
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