Fish On

Well its been a very busy few days, after arriving in Honiara and getting sorted with a new bank account, pijin lessons and mobile phone, it wasn't before we were back on the plane heading to Nusa Hope for a couple days of staying in the village of Steve's wifes family. The stay was an adventure in itself, both in accessing the the village and the experiences we had while there. We flew initially from Honiara to Munda and then it was about a 50 minute banana boat ride to the village. Close to the village, the dark cloud started to roll in and before long it was raining hard, raining hard enough that the rain stung, getting wet while charging along in the boat has been one of the few times that I have actually been cold while in the Solomons

The following day Steve was keen to get out and check out the marine life, I tagged along as this was too good an opportunity to pass up. We drove the boat out to a headland were the shallow reef dropped off too some very deep water where apparently all the big pelagic fish congregate. Steve and Maka both jumped in, I soon followed and after a while I began to relax and appreciate more and more the surroundings; below on my left was shallow reef full of coral and small colorful reef fish, too my right was deep water which looked seriously deep as I couldn't see any indication of where the bottom may have been. Occasionally a small white tipped shark would swim along the edge of the drop off.  

Steve suggested I have a shot with his spear gun, "no worries Steve" trying to make it look second nature, like I grew up spear fishing. I took a shot at a nice blue fish on the shallow reef, fired, nothing happened the fish was still kicking around alive and well, "Good shot you just needed to be about four metres closer"  was Steves response. Well I tried and as I didin't accidentally shoot anyone who was in the water I considered it a success.    

I had a go of Maka's more 'tradational' spear which was essentially a metal spear, wooden shaft and bit of rubber. The main difference in the technology here was that the spear wasn't tethered so once you shot it you had to go after and retrieve the spear (note to self, shoot as shallow as possible). I took aim at another colorful reef fish and fired and again I missed. Maka being the good natured guy he was, was good enough to go after the spear now laying on the reef.

I now felt like a seasoned spear fisherman and at the end of that morning I felt incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to experience such a beautiful environment. To be swimming around in the bluest waters, full of coral and a wide array of tropical fish, surrounded by hillsides covered in lush rainforest, made me think (and not for the first time) how the f**k did I get here again.