On Friday we took the dinghy and motored up the river, to the Matevulu Blue Hole. A beautiful river that meanders for about 1km through tropical jungle, ending with a swimming hole that is somehow tinted blue even under a grey sky. Nice to have a fresh water swim, but the river trip was gorgeous with the overhanging trees and jungle vines reflecting in the mirror of the river. In the afternoon we walked a few km down the road to look at the Riri river from the bridge. Yesterday we decided to go upstream to the Matevulu Blue Hole again, but this time in our kayak. So, after baking some bread and pumping up the kayak, we set off. It was a brisk paddle at times to head upstream through the narrow parts, but restful where the river widened out and slowed down. Nice to take in the sounds of the jungle birds on the way. Coming back was a very easy ride, swept along by the river and pushed back out into the bay. An enjoyable ride. In the afternoon we motored around the island and the reefs in the dinghy to explore and spotted a turtle swimming by. Last night the crew of most of the yachts in the lagoon all met up for Happy Hour at the Oyster Island resort. Lots of stories, fun and laughter - a really good bunch! Based on the excellent reports we heard from fellow yachties we decided to take the dinghy up the Riri river today, to the Riri Blue Hole. We thoght it would be similar to Matevulu but our fellow yachties were right - this one is even better! The river has a sandy bottom and crystal clear water. All the way up the river it looks like you are in 2 inches of water but it is over 1m - it is just so clear! At the end of this river the Blue Hole is bigger, deeper and a more intense shade of blue. We had fun climbing up on the platform perched in a tree and swinging from the rope, across the blue hole and dropping with a splash! A stunning place and a really beautiful river trip. We are so very lucky.
This afternoon we decided to go for a walk to Matevulu village and we took along some seeds in case we found some people who needed seeds for their gardens. The signs we not so clear and we had to guess which way to go at a fork in the road. The road we chose took us to Matevulu College instead of the village, it turns out this was a lucky find! The college is a full boarding school for over 400 students and is set well away from any village and a few km inland, so is quite isolated from the usual community life here. The grounds are neatly groomed and beside the school is the teachers compound. There are 31 teachers and they all have a house next to the school. Children help with cooking duties, do their own laundry and other tasks to help them be self sufficient adults one day. The list of school rules on the notice board is very strict! We got talking to a couple of teachers who were doing some administration work on their day off (Sunday) at the school. The two teachers we happened to bump into, Mr Pong and Mr Issac, were the agriculture teachers. We asked them about their lessons and they explained that the students learning agriculture helped to plant vege gardens to feed all the children at the school. They were planting 1000 seedlings per week but needed more to have enough food for the children. We asked what they were planting and discovered that the only steady supply of seeds they had was for Bok Choy, but they wished they had some other varieties of seeds to grow. When we opened our back pack and produced several packets of watermelon and pumpkin seeds for them, they were astonished! Wow! They could not believe it! With big smiles and many many thank yous they kept shaking our hands and shaking their heads and saying wow! They explained to us that getting seeds was difficult and many times teachers were bu ying seeds from their own money just to keep supply of seeds for their nursery. They were truly very grateful. Mr Pong took us for a tour of the school and showed us the nursery and the gardens planted by the children. He insisted we take some Bok Choy with us by way of thank you, and later as we walked with our bunch of Bok Choy, one of the students proudly told us that he had planted it and helped it grow. A fabulous experience - we were so happy that we took this wrong turn and ended up at the school.
Tomorrow we have made arrangements with Bob and Sue to go on the Millenium Caves tour, which should be a great trip trekking through the jungle, along bamboo bridges, down cascades to a massive cave full of bats followed by a float down the rapids! If we survive this, we have booked to go diving with Bob and Sue on the wreck of the USS President Coolidge on Tuesday. This wreck dates from WWII where the USS President Coolidge was part of a fleet of more than 100 ships stationed here by the Allies. For three years, to September 1945 more than 500,000 military personnel, mainly American, were stationed here. Roads were laid, runways, wharves, jetties, offices, accommodation blocks, military hospitals and workshops built. Much of this infrastructure can still be seen today, though most of it in disrepair! On 26 October 1942 the Coolidge, a 22,000 ton luxury liner, converted to a troopship was bringing 5440 US troops to Santo. Approaching the base trhough the wrong entrance the ship struck two of their own defense mines! The captain attempted to save the ship by running her aground, allowing most of the troops to make it ashore. Only 5 lives were lost. The wreck is now a prime dive site, so we will have a look!