I stood along side of the dirt road, my bare feet sunken a few inches into a muddy puddle my snorkel gear slung over my shoulder waiting for the next mini van bus to amble up the road looking for a passenger. It had been raining hard through the night and didnt seem like it would be letting up any time soon. Above me a pair of birds were having an argument about something. I craned my head back and watched as the pair fluttered from coconut to coconut in the palm above me squabbling. Just then one of the birds latched on to a palm frond bending it down unleashing a torrent of collected water that fell square on my face. Thanks birds. I muttered wiping small bits of leaf dander off my face.
I looked down the road again and saw no bus nor people. I figured the locals like anybody else sensible opted to stay inside and avoid the rain too.
Shrugging my shoulders I decided to walk into town rain or not and hope for the best. My big plan for the day was to get to the ferry that would take me to Iririki Island so I could do some snorkeling off the islands back side. I had heard good things and I was eager to see what wonders those waters held.
Almost as if rewarding me for my commitment to adventure five minutes into my trek the rain stopped. The ground being used to rain and very porous absorbed the excess water and soon even the murky puddles that lined the shoulders of the road were draining away. I learned a important lesson about island adventures. When in doubt just go for it.
I wandered down the road and made my way down the hill from the neighborhood my hotel was located on towards the worf and the main road in town. Along the way I passed by the island nations convention center, stopping to get a quick shot of the architecturaly strange shaped building. Turned out the building had just been purchased by chinese developers and was in the process of being turned into a restaurant or something similar.
Continuing on my way another block later I strolled past the Australian High Commission (embassy and consulate). Security was high there with barbed walls and roving security. A sign said "no visitors appointment only." Of course being a landscaper I looked past the intimidating facade and noted that the landscaping was well done. They utilised variggated ginger in the parking lot. Always a good choice I thought to my self nodding approvingly.
Eventually I came to a long set of stairs that would take me down into the main part of town below. The view from the top of the stairs was that of the town and harbour. The water normally bright blue was a muted colour this morning due to the overcast weather. But the skies were clearing fast and warm tropical waters awaited me.
I got moving again sidestepping an elderly man making his way up the stairs a basket of fruit from the market below balanced on his head. Maybe in his mid sixties he groped with one hand ahead of him as if seeking balance, his other hand stabilizing the heavy basket as he slowly took one tentative step at a time. I nodded hello and he smiled a toothy grin in return. Long deep wrinkles around his eyes from a lifetime in the sun framed his face and the smile was genuine and friendly.
The ferrys for Iririki Island landed just in front of me at the bottom of the hill in the same car park as for the town markets. Just my luck one was puttering its way towards me. The covered skip too big for the tiny motor powering it. It pulled along side the concrete seawall and the young captain waved me aboard.
Iririki is a small island located only a few hundred metres from the shore of town in the middle of the bay. Its a self contained resort island with its own assortments of apartments, lagoon style pools and restaurants. However, it also had excellent snorkling around the backside of the island that faced the open harbour or so I was told.
As I jumped from the bow of the ferry onto the steps of the islands landings I was pleasantly surprised with just how well appointed and thought out the little island was. Small roads winded through out the resort and soon a gulf cart wheeled up and asked me where I was going. I said I'd like to go around back and snorkel some and hopped on.
The snorkelers cove required a flight of steps to access the beach. As I made my way down a pair of tourists marched past complaining about how awful the snorkling had been as if to warn me not to waste my time. But these two also looked a bit entitled and like they didnt know their head from their ass so I ignored them and continued down. The beach looked welcoming to me.
Turns out those two tourist were idiots. Clearly they didnt bother to swim 100 feet out to where the reef actually began. The waters were clear, visibility high and the cornucopia of sea life fantastic.
Iririki reef is very different from Mele reef that I had snorkeled the day before. Mele is more like Manhattan or Tokyo. Dense and compact with avenue of coral to swim through. The fish so numerous they are practically scampering over each other as they frenetically went about their reef business. The cosmopolitan nature to the fish at Mele reminded me of the crowded busy intersections you see in photos of Times Square or of that famous Tokyo crosswalk that sees a million visitors a day.
Iririki was different. The water deeper and the reefs were large outcroppings scattered across white sandy expanses. There were also lots of fish there too. But a different sort. Bigger fish and more invertebrates such as shrimp and spiny lobster. In some ways it seemed a more diverse ecosystem. At first I focused on the outcroppings, some were huge mushroom shaped corals growth the size of small trees growing profusely along the sandy bottom. But I soon learned much of the real show was to be found along those sandy expanses.
I spotted a large Morey Eel undulating its way across the bottom making its way from one thicket of coral to another. I followed it and then dove down for a closer look once it had wrapped its self around a piece of coral it fancied. The eel was a beautiful creamy white with a speckled pattern of gold reticulations that faded into a dark coffee brown. It sat there jaws agape and watched me carefully.
I made my way farther out away from shore maybe another 300 feet. As I casually swam outbound I spotted the distinctive silver and black banded pattern of a sea snake as it slithered mesmerizingly along the bottom across the white sand. I knew what I was looking at was a yellow lipped highly venomous sea krait. But I also knew that, although very lethal, they were also very docile. This guy was a good three feet long and I followed him around for the next half hour curiously watching as it hunted by inspecting every nook and cranny it could find of the reef before moving on to another in search of its lunch. At one point he swam up and surface a few feet away from me to get air. He looked at me his little head bobbing out of the water and then dove back down, completely unconcern about my presence. Feeling comfortable around the snake I waited until it had stuck its head pretty far up some hole it was inspecting and I reached out to stroke it along its back and tail. It was smooth to touch and barely reacted to me. A pretty cool customer the snake was.
I decided to move on and continued out further into the bay where the water was much deeper. I was well rewarded. Here i found underwater spires of coral thirty feet high that dropped by out of sight to the depths below. I spent the next hour diving down and swimming in circles around these spires. Staghorn and table coral clung to the sides of these reef columns as did a colony of black and white striped lobster. I knew somewhere about 500 metres from me was a 240 foot sunken steam ship from the early 20th century. But i also knew that it sat about 25 metres down and that on a overcast day like this it would be unlikely id see anything except maybe its vague outline. Otherwise id probably be crazy enough to try and swim all the way out to see it.
Boat traffic was high here in this part of the bay at the far end of the reef. A half kilometre over at the far end of the bay a massive cruise ship was anchored. Skips were racing back and forth every few minutes to drop off day trippers from the boat to the port. Many of the skiffs were racing past the back of Iririki Island where I was swimming taking the fastest rout to the main landing by the markets in town. I had to be weary of these boats and surfaced frequently to make sure none were heading my way. I'd bob on the surface as each approached and waved to let the captains know that there was a diver here. Most saw me and waved back. A few were taken by surprise and the expressions on their faces were as if to say "wtf a diver out here?" But they would turn their boats and give me a wide berth. Something I was thankful for. I continued diving.
All was well until I heard the distinctive tonals of a ships screw. I wasn't sure where but I could tell it was close by and fast approaching. I surfaced to see a hundred feet away a large speed boat with passengers racing towards me at full throttle. I waited a split second to see if the boat would turn. But the bow was directly facing me and I realized the captain couldn't possibly see me. I quickly dove down and kicked as fast as I could going strait down. At about fifteen feet under I flipped over onto my back and looked towards the surface just in time to see the twenty foot boat scream by directly overhead. As if in slow motion I saw the hull eclipse the filtered sunlight dropping me into a deep shadow, and the tiny air bubbles cavitating off its screw in helical streams. Like a sea monster is tore by, the butt puckering sound of its propeler going "chuka chuka chuka as it did."
I decided it was time to head back into shallower waters maybe only twenty feet deep closer to shore. Along the way i found a sunken arbor made of rebar. Delicate corals grew along the arch and i couldnt resist the temptation of diving under and threw it. Small schools of neon green fish the size of your finger darted along side me in ribbon like shoals.
As I swam up to the shore a local flagged me over. He gave me some bread to attract the fishes which I happily excepted. He then pointed to a red navigational bouy and said he was going spear fishing and if I would like to tag along. I think I spent less than a millisecond deliberating with my self when I said absolutely. I followed the man out and we went even further into the harbor.
The water here was much deeper and as I approached the buoy I watched as the anchor chain descended out of sight below me. I had no idea how deep the water was here but I knew I couldn't see more than 40 feet down or in any particular direction and the water was a deep dark blue. A pinge of icy fear trickled down through my guts suddenly feeling vulnerable but I squashed it away and kept the spear fisher in sight and watched as he dove down and attempted to spear large silvery fish that stayed just on the outer limits of my vision. Couldn't identify what type of fish he was going for but I could see their vague silver shapes circle around out in the distance. The man was unsuccessful and after a while together we swam back to shore.
The nice thing about Iririki is that they allow visitors to use their extensive lagoon style pool. I walked across the small island and hoped into one of the lobes of the pool. It was one of those where it has an island in the middle. And various shallower kiddie pools surounding it. It was lovely and I bobbed in the water rinsing the sea salt off me until the rain started to pick up again prompting me to make way back across the ferry to my own hotel. If I ever had the money Iririki Island would be high on my choices of places to stay.
Before going to bed I visited the local Kava shack again. I slurped down five shells or bowel of kava and sat under one of the thatched huts next to a few of the people from the neighborhood and stared at a lone tv in the corner. A local skit based comedy show was on. It consisted of one young guy going around saying hes the boss, and pointing at every place in town saying "you see that. I own that too. Im running things around here!" Eventually he goes on a date with a pretty lady and just before hes about kiss her he snaps back to reality as a hangabout kid being yelled at by his mom for daydreaming again. I chuckled, yawned and made for my hotel down the street and promptly fell asleep my thoughts on my destination for the morning. A reclusive reef tucked into a cove just outside the Pango village.
As promised daily upload of flowers I thought were pretty on my day out
All photos taken by Steemydave