A week in another world...

So I’ve hit the 6 month mark of my time here in Vanuatu, and it definitely feels like home now. I have managed to master the language, established a good social group, and have a pretty good idea of the best places to eat, drink and play around town. In recent months I’ve been kept busy with lots of visitors (Jess & Mike, Averil & Steph, and then Shelley) followed by a week in Australia (a jam-packed week of catch ups, coffee and brunch, bridesmaid dress shopping and family time). 

Jess & Mike at the races

Taking visitors on an island escape

Good times in Tanna

Hello Melbourne!

Returned to Port Vila for 4 days, then off to the island of Ambae for a work trip. This particular trip summed up life in Vanuatu pretty well, highlighting the need to be flexible and embrace “island time”. Enjoy!

Monday:

5.30am: Wake up. Madly run around packing for a week on a remote island. No need to pack any electronics – no power to charge anything. Essentials: head torch, toilet paper, conservative clothing. Check!

6.30am: Arrive at the airport for my 7.30am flight. Redirected to the international terminal despite it being a domestic flight (don’t ask questions, just accept). Almost lose my pocket knife through security screening (not usually a problem here for domestic flights).

8.30am: Arrive in Santo. Two hours to kill before I need to check in for my next flight to Walaha, Ambae. Jump on the bus that volunteer David’s work has organised for him (he is here for the week for some meetings) for a ride into town. Meet volunteer Lou B in town for a coffee meeting (small work discussed) and explore Luganville before jumping in a taxi back to the airport to check in for my next flight.

10.30am: Check in my bags and meet up with Lou G (yes there are two volunteers called Lou who both live in Luganville!) and Jacqui – my two colleagues and room mates for the week. Sit chatting until our designated boarding time.

12 noon: boarding time has been and gone. Scheduled departure time has also passed. Still chatting.

12.45pm: Small plane lands at Luganville airport. Unloads and refuels. We prepare to be called for boarding.

1.00pm: Boarding call for passengers flying to Sola (not for us). After inquiring as to the whereabouts of our flight, we are informed that this plane needs to fly to Sola (1 hr away) then will return to pick us up and take us to out destination. Expect another 2 ½ hour wait at least, but do not want to leave the airport in case plans change again.

2.15pm: Airport official finally informs us that our flight for today has been cancelled. Another flight should be going tomorrow (sometime, hopefully). Make arrangements to stay in Santo for the night. Call our contacts in Ambae to inform them that we will not be arriving today (they don't seem overly surprised or concerned, although we later found out that some committee members had walked 2 hours to be there for our arrival, only to turn around again). Try again tomorrow.

Walaha airport - slightly bumpy grass runway

Tuesday:

9am: Use the morning taking a tour of the hospital and scheduling another coffee meeting. Phone call from Air Vanuatu confirmed a new flight for lunch time today.

11am: Check in for our flight.

12.30pm: Finally in the air, en route to Ambae (only a 20 min flight from Luganville, who would have thought it would be so tricky).

1pm: Arrive in Walaha. Truck awaits to take us to our accommodation, and then onto the “opening ceremony” for our week of work. Greeted at our guesthouse by four hospitality students and two owners of the guesthouse (slight overkill for only the three of us checking into a guesthouse consisting of two bungalows) who take our details for registration, present us with fresh coconuts and show us to our room - basic but comfortable with an ensuite and flush toilet - a luxury!

1.30pm: Continue on to the workshop venue (a purpose built bamboo shelter). Opening ceremony consists of singing, dancing, praying, raising of a flag and presentation of salu salu (island leis). Required to make small “toktok” in Bislama to thank the committee for their warm welcome.

3.00pm: Time for a relax at the guesthouse and an early night before a big day of work tomorrow.

Spel smol

Wednesday:

8.30am: Set out with Lou G (Australian volunteer physio) and four local committee members for a day of home visits on foot. Leave Jacqui to run disability and sign language workshop. Lucky for an overcast day – lots of walking today. Manage to see six kids and one adult for assessments and advice clinics – goals of these visits were to take details and photos to add to database, conduct feeding assessments and assess for equipment needs. Difficult to do too much more in a one-off visit. LOTS of walking – covered most of west Ambae on foot, walking between villages on public roads, private roads and through the bush. Ate lunch sitting on a grave next to a church. Pleasantly surprised at how well-presented and cared-for all the children were – disability inclusion and awareness seems to be a lot better here than what I have encountered in some other places in Vanuatu. A few tears from grateful parents who are used to receiving false promises. This is the first visit of any health professional to the area, let alone two at once.

6.00pm: Arrived back at the meeting place to dinner prepared for us by the committee – a huge mound of white rice topped with 2-minute noodles and tuna. Interesting combination!

One grateful family

Thursday:

6.30am: Woke after a terrible nights sleep. Achey legs, headache, sore throat, blocked nose. Don’t think I’ll be going far today! Saw Lou off for another day of walking – mostly adults today so hopefully I won’t be needed too much. Back to bed.

5.00pm: Slept most of the day. No energy. Was filled in on the day’s events by Lou, who walked even further than yesterday and saw 16 adults today – I wouldn’t have lasted so it was a good thing I decided to stay behind. Decided against attempting the walk up the hill for the “closing ceremony” – Lou and Jacqui attending on my behalf. Back to bed!

*Closing ceremony consisted of more singing, prayers, dancing, “toktok” and presentation of local homemade mats and baskets as a thankyou to us for coming. Also lots more rice, noodles and a cake. Shame to have missed it but don’t think I could have sat through the three-hour ceremony feeling the way I was.

Friday:

7.00am: Time to pack up and get to the airport for our flight.

8.30am: Arrive at the airport. Joined by six committee members to see us off and thank us again.

11.00am: Plane delayed… surprise surprise.

11.30am: Plane finally arrives. People disembarking unhappy to find out that the plane was overweight when leaving Santo so their luggage had been left behind (they were not informed of this before leaving Santo). Their luggage should come sometime tomorrow (maybe…). I watch my luggage being loaded onto the plane before embarking.

12 noon: Arrive in Santo. Proceed to Lou’s for some lunch, and then crash out on her couch for more sleep – virus has taken hold. Tell myself that despite the horror stories, I do not have malaria or dengue (quick course of antibiotics on return to Vila for a chest infection and I’m now back on my feet again). Return to the airport at 5.30pm for evening flight back to Vila.

7.15pm: Flight leaves with only a 15 minute delay. Must be a miracle!

All in a day's work

So you must all be wondering where I actually fit in time for any work, what with all the diving, trekking and trips to the islands. Work hasn’t featured a lot in my blog entries to date, so it must be about time to let you know what I’ve been up to during business hours.

A bit of background: my assignment here is an AVID assignment through Austraining International, funded by AusAID. I have been assigned to work with the Vanuatu Society for Disabled People to set up Early Intervention services for children with disabilities. My assignment outcomes include (but are not limited to) improving access to facilities and services in the community; increasing disability awareness; and creating a higher profile for disabilities in Vanuatu… Easy, right? I should be able to achieve all of that in 12 months! Hah!

So lets start small. My number one goal on arrival was to restart an early intervention group that had been running last year, but had folded due to a lack of staff (local or expat) to run it. My “Pikinini Group” is now running two mornings a week for two hours. There wasn’t much info on what had been done before, so I have developed a simple program loosely based on some multidisciplinary programs run in Northam. I have a regular group of kids attending - about 15 accessing the service and averaging about 6 kids per session. This has been made a whole lot easier thanks to a large amount of donated books, puzzles and toys from Australia – a huge thanks to friends, family, Northam colleagues and the Shoalhaven Crossroaders for all your generous donations! The program consists of a schedule of activities targeting a range of developmental skills through stories, songs, craft activities, dancing, obstacle courses and play. So far this has been a huge success – the families that attend really value the service and I have already seen huge improvements in the children’s skills!

Play dough time in Pikinini Group!

The next hurdle is to source a local counterpart who I can train up to run the group in the long term – it is not exactly sustainable if I continue to run the group as it will most likely fold again when I leave in February. This is proving to be a little more challenging. The society that I am working for currently receives NO funding (not from the government, not from donors, not from grants, nothing). There are only 3 paid staff members – one field worker, one accounts worker and the director. They are only just surviving off the sales from a car, which was donated by an expat lady who was leaving the country, but this is fast running out. This means that they will soon not have money to pay their power and phone bills, let alone fund programs and resources… The frustrating thing is, there are two case workers who travelled to Fiji two years ago to complete training in disability, however since returning there has not been any funding to pay them a wage and so their skills are not being utilised – these two local people are currently working elsewhere, not in the disability sector. So my current priority is to try to find some funds to secure at least one of these workers back on the team! In a country where everyone is looking for funding to run one program or another, grants and pools of money are quite competitive, but I am hopeful that something will come along soon!

Another issue we are currently working to overcome is the state of the VSDP building. My office is an old demountable that is not secure, is falling apart (the kitchen has been condemned and there are holes in the walls) and requires a lot of repair and maintenance. We do have quite a nice therapy space, with a mural that was painted by the women from the prison next door, but when there is no running water in the tap in the bathroom, the work environment is not ideal! The Port Vila Rotary club have teed up with Rotary New Zealand, and are planning repairs and extensions to the building through a series of Busy Bees, including a fence to secure the area, an outdoor play area – very exciting! – new kitchen and bathroom, and eventually new offices, with part of the building being demolished. Construction is due to start next month, which will be great!

A group of women in Port Vila have also recently formed their own NGO called Friends of People with Special Needs, whose role will be to fundraise, lobby and apply for grants and equipment for the centre. There is certainly a lot of good will around, and I am hopeful that we can really make a change. It’s quite motivating to have so many people wanting to help out!

I do have a loose kind of “multidisciplinary team” that I am working with here:

- Sue is an Occupational Therapist from Australia, full time mum of 7 month old Jesse and wife of Frank. Frank is carrying out a volunteer assignment in agriculture here, but has a keen interest in disability and can be quite handy with wheelchair adjustments and repairs! Sue and Frank have been in Vanuatu for 3 years or so, and have been a great resource for me finding my feet here and filling me in on what has been done in the past and how everything works. Sue is very keen to get in and help out, and we have done many a home visit over recent weeks with Jesse and their house girl Mercy in tow.

- There is one local case worker, Tom, who I share an office with. Tom has an interest in wheelchairs and is a great resource for locating families and getting in contact with new clients. Also a great opportunity for me to practice my Bislama as much as possible!

- Elison is the executive director of VSDP, a chief from the island of Pentecost with a heart of gold and lots of great ideas, just limited time and resources to follow them up.

- Dunstan is our accounts worker, also from Pentecost, and gets around on crutches due to childhood polio. Another great person to practice my Bislama with, and he often comes to find me to tell me to “spel smol” (take a short break) and “storian” (have a chat) with him in Bislama.

And that’s it for current staff! Hence there was a lot of excitement when I arrived, and a lot of hope placed in my being here. I am feeling a bit of pressure to deliver and create something sustainable that may have a chance of standing on its own two feet after I leave!

In the meantime, I am getting huge job satisfaction out of helping children and families at an individual level. As well as the group, I have been trying to get out and see some children at home. This is often easier said that done, and can be a bit of a logistical nightmare to organise at times, with no addresses, disconnected phones, a language barrier and limited transport - but hugely valuable to see the kids in their home environment and the limitations that go along with it.

Community visits have been made somewhat easier by my discovery of a community bus that we are able to use for free on the odd occasion when it is available. I am hoping to find a local bus driver who is happy to help out so that we can set up regular clinics, but for now I’m it! So I have been driving a left hand drive, manual, 12 seater transit van through the disorganised and pot-holed streets of Vila, through informal settlements with one-way dirt roads and potholes that turn into swimming pools after rain, undertaking 7-point turns in order to find my way out again. I’m telling you, it is an experience!!

So in short, my job has taken a turn from Speech Pathologist to “generic therapist”, wheelchair technician, bus driver, first aider (fixing various sores and infections of pikinini I encounter along the way as well as taking one to the hospital last week with a suspected asthma attack), and everything in between. A few additional skills to add to the resume!

One of my biggest highlights of the job so far has been a week with a Physiotherapist from an organisation called Altus Resource Trust in Auckland. Altus run programs throughout the Pacific, sourcing equipment and traveling to countries for about a week at a time running therapy clinics. We have been liaising with Altus for a couple of months, sending photos and information on clients we are working with, and they have sourced some wheelchairs and equipment for us that they arranged to be shipped over (my dealings with customs to get them through with the minimal fees and taxes possible are another story, for another time, but frustrating!!!). This resulted in a week with Sue (OT), Sue (Altus Physio) and Susannah (SP) – easy to remember names! - travelling around Port Vila and Efate carrying home visits and fitting wheelchairs and pushers for kids (and some adults) with a range of disabilities.

Some highlights of our week with Altus in pictures:

(The families have consented to me sharing these pictures with you)

One happy camper with her new "truck"

These two brothers have an unknown diagnosis - they both reportedly developed normally for the first couple of years of life, but then got sick. Neither of the boys are able to sit independently, so prior to fitting them with chairs they were constantly either lying down inside at home or being carried. A wonderful, caring family to work with.

Doctor Suz to the rescue - re-dressing some nasty looking infected sores on this little one, whose legs were severely burned in a fire 2 years ago when a mosquito net caught alight. Poor thing is petrified of white people - but her legs are healing nicely! We have given her a pusher for transport in the interim while she waits for a wheelchair.

One of the more challenging wheelchair fittings - a gorgeous seven-year-old with hydrocephaly

Making friends with the locals

"Truck blong Anna" - we managed to get a small smile out of her as we were leaving!

The week was a huge success, we were able to provide seven kids and two adults with appropriate seating and transportation and provide the families with hope that they never thought they would receive! And Sue is hoping to come back in about 4 months time to follow up, and possibly bring an OT and a wheelchair technician from Altus along as well.

I’m sure there is lots more to tell, but I might leave the work update on that positive note. I hope there are a lot more success stories to follow!

Until next time, ale gudnaet.

Those crazy Pentecost-ians!

Well, it has been a while between updates. Last weekend marked 3 months on the island, and things have been fairly busy (in a relaxed island-time kind of way).

Visitors have been and gone, with more on the way. First up, Mum and Dad came for a week just after Easter, bringing with them a suitcase full of goodies (mostly for work, but some for me as well!). Highlights of their stay included Dad experiencing a magnitude 6 earthquake whilst lying in a hammock; Mum enjoying mastering the local buses with frequent detours through a village to drop off and pick up various Mamas and pikinini; a visit to my work to help out with my early intervention group (although Dad could not be coaxed to participate in the Hokey Pokey, much to my disappointment); a cruise on a yacht out to Moso island for some of the most amazing snorkelling I have ever seen; and visiting my kastom Mama and Papa in Siviri, where I went for my village stay. Despite some typical wet season weather (there’s nothing quite like tropical rain), I managed to show them the main sights of Vila and had just enough sunshine to still enjoy some snorkelling and waterfalls.

There's some familiar faces - a coffee stop on our way around the island

Snorkelling at Moso Island

A refreshing dip at Blue Lagoon

Last week I had Nicole here for 6 days, and again the weather came over wet and windy. With the cooler season setting in, it was also quite cold for Nic’s stay, and I actually wore a jumper for the first time since I’ve been here! We had to change our original plans slightly (the boat ride out to one of the islands would not have been pleasant), but the loan of my housemate’s quad bike certainly came in handy for the week and we had a great time (it just meant we had to go for a massage rather than a snorkel, tough life…).

Quad biking around Efate

The sun came out just in time for Emma, Matt, William and Patrick to come to Vila for the day on the cruise ship, and we had a magical time at Hideaway Island and the cascades. The boys’ 5- and 8-year old excitement made the whole day thoroughly enjoyable (squeals of delight at seeing real coral and rainbow fish whilst snorkelling in waist deep water, and swimming in a waterfall that was “even better than the one in the Chipmonks movie!”) I think they all would have slept well back on the ship that night!

Birch family happy snaps

The weather has fined up again since Nic left – I think she took the rain with her!

I’m also slowly ticking off some other islands of Vanuatu from my travel list, with a trip to Pentecost last weekend. 

Flying over an active volcano on the way to Pentecost

Lonorore Airport

A group of us ventured to the large island to the north for the annual Nanggol or land diving ceremony. Basically a bunch of crazy blokes from the villages on Pentecost build a rickety tower out of bamboo and branches, tie vines around their ankles and jump off head first (it is believed that this ritual is the grass roots of modern day bungy jumping).

Nanggol

Ok there may be a bit more to it than that… The tower is actually a bit more sturdy that it looks at fist glance, with a lot of thought and strategy going into the locations of the platforms, the way the vines are tied, and the way the structure snaps in certain places to break the diver’s fall. But I stand by my crazy comment.

And he wasn't even jumping from the top!

The Nanggol is considered a right of passage into manhood for young boys, with some as young as 8 years old jumping from the lower platforms of the tower. The more experienced older men jump from the higher platforms, with 15 jumps all up. Throughout the ritual, men in nambas and women in grass skirts dance and chant in encouragement. It is supposedly quite safe (although they hit the ground, the slope and softening of the ground by turning it over breaks their fall), but there are still reports of injuries and the odd death in the past – mostly put down to bad spirits, or preparation rituals not being followed correctly. Needless to say, it was an incredible ritual to experience - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Preparing to jump

Dancing pikinini

After the Nanggol we took a truck to a nearby village for the rest of our weekend stay – a lovely, quaint, basic but comfortable guesthouse on the beach where we spent our time swimming at the waterfall, snorkelling, playing and singing with the village children, and relaxing with a deck of cards and a book. I had arranged prior to our visit for the chief of the village to take me to see a couple of children with cerebral palsy in nearby villages for work. The rest of the group came along for the hour and a half trek up to the village on top – a lovely steep walk with some incredible views, to a village that had never before been visited by so many white people at one time (there were 6 of us!). I managed to complete a feeding assessment, fashion a drinking cup out of my plastic water bottle, and check over a wheelchair (not exactly my forte but Jane and Jo, you would have been proud!)

The walk back down from the village

Our own private beach

The waterfall

Lush scenery

It is such a different world and pretty special to be immersed into another culture, if only for a few days. I find it quite humbling and everyone I have come across in the villages have been so welcoming and accommodating, friendly and generous. This is definitely the real Vanuatu, away from the hustle and bustle and westernisation of Vila, and I hope to spend a lot more time in villages throughout the islands over the next 9 months while I’m here.

Kids learn to wield bush knives from a young age - this young girl expertly cracked open a sprouting coconut for us to taste the "navara" inside.

Kids from the village

All smiles - the children lined up to see the pictures of themselves on our cameras

On our last night the pikinini treated us to a custom dance, followed by an impromptu sing-a-long with the chief and his guitar

Three islands of Vanuatu down, only another 79 or so to tick off the list…

Some simple truths...

Accepting simple truths of life in Vanuatu… (aka some things I have had to learn to live with):

1.         Rubbish disposal is all but non-existent. The garbage truck is very rarely in operation. Public bins are full to overflowing. You occasionally pass people carrying out a weekend clean-up bagging up litter from the side of the road, but it is a scratch on the surface of the endless litter lining the verges. I even came across one child being scolded when she threw her twisty packet into a bush and it blew back out onto the road, as quite clearly she should have “thrown it into the bush properly!”

2.         The Vanuatu people have not mastered road drainage. Or road maintenance for that matter. Any bus trip is an off-road adventure, with pot holes the size of small elephants and puddles to the bumper after heavy rain. There was a bus strike last week as a protest against the state of the roads (no evidence yet whether this achieved anything).

3.         Safety has a loose definition. There are no such things as seatbelts. You will often detour via a service station when on a bus, where the driver will proceed to put fuel in the car with the engine still running. It is not unusual to see workmen balancing precariously on scaffolding meters high in bare feet, or operating an angle grinder in thongs (and they’ve never even heard of safety goggles).

4.         Time is a fluid concept, as is distance. If asked how far, you are likely to receive an answer of “klosap long wei” (translated as “close up that way”). One hour could mean half an hour, or could mean 3 hours. Most questions are answered as “yes” regardless on whether they mean it or not.

This brings me to my Easter Trekking experience. A last minute decision to fly to Malekula for Easter to complete the 4-day Manbush Trail Walk turned into the most gruelling and exhausting hike of my life, with some hard-hitting truths of some of the above lessons.

Let me start out by saying the brochure looked very innocent, with photos of happy faces and middle-aged couples going for a leisurely stroll in the bush… WRONG! I guess tourism is a new concept on some of the islands, and expectations of Western travellers are a bit different to what the locals perceive.

Our small plane - which may or may not have had engine troubles...

We started out on Thursday, with a morning flight to Malekula from Vila. We boarded our small 18-seater plane, only to fly a lap over Vila and promptly land again. Engine issues apparently, so we were all ordered to disembark and wait in the airport for further instruction. About an hour later, we were asked to reboard (the engineers couldn’t find anything wrong) and set off again for our hour flight to Norsup, Malekula. We did make it thankfully, but the delay set back the start of our walk.

 The view flying over Vila 

 Norsup airport

The truck picked us up from the airport (truck = literally sitting on the back tray of a ute) to drive us to the start of the walk, however before too long we came across a section of road that was so far underwater that even the 4wd truck couldn’t cross. The only option? Get out and walk across – another truck would pick us up on the other side. So began our first 100m waist-deep river crossing, carrying our packs and all our gear with us.

Another truck did pick us up and take us to the start of the trail. By this time it was getting close to 4pm, and the tour guide gave us the option of starting the trek then and possibly walking the last part of the day’s distance in the dark with torches, or staying in a nearby village for the night and starting off the next day. As we all had head torches and were reassured the track was quite safe, we opted to start the walk so we weren’t too far behind schedule.

It was only after starting out that they informed us about the 10 additional river crossings to complete before reaching the village where we were to stay for the night. And not just ankle deep streams – these were waist-deep fast-flowing rivers (thanks to a small cyclone the weekend before), the final five of which were crossed in the dark. Not ideal and I still can’t believe we all got through without one of us falling in the drink, packs and all, but we eventually made it to the village with soggy feet by about 8pm.

 One of many river crossings - this one in daylight thankfully!

The villagers seemed a little frazzled at our arrival, but found us a hut to stay in (with thin woven pandanas mats to sleep on) and prepared us a meal of island cabbage (local spinach) and boiled taro. A shower consisted of wet wipes, and we crashed out to sleep (best we could on a hard ground with no pillow).

Our hut on the first night

Some local village children

The next morning, we were greeted with breakfast of more island cabbage, this time with boiled banana. Not the most appetising breakfast, but we sensed the need for energy for the day’s walk ahead so managed to eat our fill. We set off on a steep decline down a slippery, muddy path and soon discovered this was meant to be part of the walk completed yesterday, but due to the increasing darkness the guides had decided to stop for the night at a closer village (the reactions of the village then made more sense, they really weren’t expecting us!)

Green as far as the eye can see

More rivers to cross

Friday’s walk involved some stunning scenery, with vine-covered rainforest broken up by tropical flowers and the odd garden planted by a not-so-nearby village. However it was difficult to enjoy the scenery after a while whilst putting all concentration into foot placement so as not to slide down a muddy cliff as we climbed an 800m high mountain. Less river crossings on day 2, but we found that wet shoes + mud + steepness made for some sore muscles and physical and mental exhaustion. We also soon discovered that “meals included” did not include lunch, and so between us we shared out our dried fruit and nuts, muesli bars and crackers dipped in peanut butter for energy along the way.

Up up up!

Spot the forced smiles...

The brochure had indicated 6 hrs of walking on day 2. After walking for 7 hrs, we asked how much further we had to go, and were given the response of “about an hour”. Two hours later, the response again was “about an hour”. With no roads and no other option but to keep moving forward, we just had to trust that we would get there eventually and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Umbrella anyone??

As darkness settled in and the head torches were brought out once again, we finally stumbled on some civilisation. 10 hours after starting out, we scrambled up a steep hill to our hut for the night, quads aching and packs feeling heavy, only to scramble back down again to wash off the mud in the river best we could (the guys were alright, they could strip off to bathe but for us ladies it was fully clothed). Our guides brought us some laplap for dinner (ground taro or yams wrapped in leaves and cooked in coconut milk) and we tried to find some dry clothes for sleeping.

Our hut, night 2

Muddy and waterlogged - my poor sneakers may never recover!

One toe casualty... Ouch!

We requested to set off early the next morning so as to get as much walking done in daylight as possible. Although 7am soon became 8.30 by the time they brought us some boiled banana for brekkie. The clouds looked ominous as we set off for day 3, and the rain soon started, making the muddy slopes even slipperier than the day before. This time it was two big mountains to climb up and then back down again. At one point we reached the top of a waterfall; a spectacular view until we saw the muddy cliff beside the waterfall that we were expected to navigate down. If I wasn’t concentrating so hard on ensuring I stayed upright it would have been quite scary. As I said, safety has a relatively loose definition. The swim at the bottom was a small salvation and a sigh of relief before heading off for mountain number two.

 Laplap

Boiled banana

Wan bigfala waterfall

The final hour of walking on day three (another 10 hour day but we finished in daylight thankfully) should be classified as more of a stumble than a walk. I don’t think my legs have ever been more tired, and it was mostly the thought of a hot meal and an actual mattress for the night that gave me the energy to keep going. Fish with rice has never tasted so good, and the thin mattress felt like sleeping on a cloud!

We made it!

So that brought us to the end of our walk. We still can’t work out why a walk that was meant to take 4 days was condensed to 2 ½ days. The Sunday and Monday were then spent taking a leisurely three hour boat trip back up the coast to Norsup, and then waiting around for half a day for our flight back to Vila, so we weren’t exactly pressed for time.

 Our boat back to Norsup

Our group and guides

I forgot to mention, our ni-Van tour guide and porters (who carried our heavy gear) completed the whole 50 or 60kms bare-foot and looked like they still had miles left in them at the end!

I’m still not entirely sure I could say I enjoyed the walk after crossing the island from east to west, although it was a good challenge and there is definitely a sense of achievement for having made it. I would have liked a medal or at least a certificate at the end so there was something to show, but I guess the photos will have to do! What a way to celebrate my birthday weekend!