Blog: Angelfish

Arriving in The Solomon Islands

So here we are in Honiara (with an aspirated H), capital of The Solomon Islands.  Recovering from our considerable jet lag and the marathon journey around the world, we are aclimatising before embarking on our dive trip with the Bilikiki.

So far I can tell you that the islands are densley covered in forest, palms and banana trees as you might expect and very green just now as we are at the end of the rainy season.   The temperature is over 30 degrees and consequently the mosquitos are active.  

Honiara is a small city, with low ramblilng buildings either side of a broad avenue.  The shops don't have windows but do have large doorways which give them all the look of  lock-up and a sense of impermenance.

Our room is overlooking the sea and the swimming pool, as well as the building site where they are refurbishing some of the hotel rooms and were yesterday lopping large branches off a well established tree which is sitting right outside the refurbished block.   A young man was in the tree, in fact at the top of it, with a machete and no harness.  We watched in horrified fascination as he casually chopped away and held on to a piece of string hanging between two branches.

This afternoon we will board the Bilikiki and sail off into the sunset ready to dive tomorrow.  More on this when we are back on dry land as we will not have internet access on the boat.  Photos might have to wait until we get back to blighty.

by angelfish on 03:07 on 1st April 2008