Returning from Choiseul took even more time
as KUNA punched into southerly squalls where
neither sailing nor motoring were an option!
By 2pm, after dodging some narrow reef passages,
including a blasted 1.8 meter gap, KUNA pulled
into an allround protected anchorage of
Liapare island, a mecca for a few yachts as it
is a private slipway ran by an ozzie guy!!
Knowles Hudson has been there for 20 years
and is married to a solomons islander, nurse
Rosie. They operate a bit of a tourist guest
house somewhat hidden in the middle of a chaotic
collection of boats, boat parts, trucks, etc..
and employ a number of Solomon islanders tradesmen.
During the troubles in Honiara, Knowles repatriated
quite a few of his company trucks to the slipway,
to avoid them being pillaged. Sadly, the tsunami
did a lot of damage to the flat strip of island
where the slipway sits, wiping away hangars, workshops
and boats, ie turning it into a mess. Boats at
anchor in the bay, interestingly, rode the wave with
not damage. That was a fortuitous place to land in
as the windvane trim tab needed a stainless steel
welding job done. It got hit by a tree trunk or
something during the night.
The slipway guys also seriously intend to refloat this japanese fishing boat and fix it!
The croc problem.
According to Knowles, a large crocodile comes to
the beach next to the slipway and even enjoys
sunning himself on the slipway concrete. He's
taken a couple of dogs and some pigs around the
place and Mark is really keen to film it. Knowles
is keen to kill it as it has become dangerous to
the locals and not good for tourism.
Before the guns were removed from the Solomons
islands by the peace keeping force, many had the
opportunity to shoot the unwanted animals, well
for the short period of instability when guns
were out. RAMSI is now in
charge of helping the locals by doing crocodile
kulls. People reckon that nowadays there are many
more crocs and they are causing problems throughout
the islands. Most people we talked to have croc
casualty stories to tell, far or close. The growing
crocodile danger is not so much the result of the
lack of guns to eliminate them but rather due to the
Solomon islands population is rapidly expanding
pushing people to live and use areas that are
crocodile habitat, therefore exposing themselves.
Its seems that the croc population is definitely
expanding too, like it is in Australia.
a venture on the reef flat.. tide is too low to cross with the dinghy!
So we came back and built a hide for the infrared camera out of coconut leaves on the beach with the help of the security guy Laudi and a few pikininis (kids in pidgin). A night of waiting for the crocodile is coming up!
