‘Aaaryghh,  Meylboorggyn’,

 THE BLACK HOLE & THE BOOZE RUN

On another day we venture the furthest into the lagoon we have been, and take a packed lunch to have during the day, this also goes into the ‘Solomon’s Esky’.  A great morning of fishing and yes, more spectacular scenery that I’m really not going to try and describe this time, you simply have to see it for yourself, sees us pull ashore on a small island to have lunch. 

 It’s perfect as per usual and after lunch Lucas and Stenty go for a snorkel, it is just far too hot for my lily white skin to handle away from the safety of the tree shade and I give it a miss.  The island we are on is separated from the next one by a fairly narrow channel, maybe 2-300 meters across, but the depth goes from about 1.5 meters down to around 500, then back up again at the next island.  It’s phenomenal! 

 I have a quick walk out to near the drop off for a look before scampering back to the shade, the boys reckon snorkelling out over the edge of it was unbelievably freaky.  One minute you’re snorkelling in shallow water then the ground just disappears into a black hole!  Who knows what’s lurking in there!

We need to do a run for beer and Johnny’s mid way through the trip as this camp just isn’t prepared for 3 Western Australian country boy’s and the thirst we get whilst out fishing, especially in that heat, we wouldn’t normally need to keep our fluids up so much!  This trip in itself is another brilliant day on the water and into the heart of the lagoon, we fish our way towards the booze store and land some great species, before it’s time to head ashore on a small island, as usual it’s paradise. 

  There is an old white guy sitting under the shade of the stilted house, he owns the island, not sure where he was from but he visited about 30 years ago, fell in love with the place and a local girl and hasn’t left.  He has a great supply shop and we stock up on Johnny Arrow, Solbrew and some homemade Rum and Vodka that is sold in plastic bottles, a bit of Solomon moonshine!  Some more Pall Mall Blue’s for Stenty and I, the ONLY type of cigarette you can buy anywhere in the Solomon Islands (well aside from the chop chop!) and John tells us it’s time to make tracks back to camp before they realize what we are up to!! 

But first we have to contend with the village idiot, some local guy who although amusing at first, is now becoming a nuisance, as he is blind drunk and it’s only about 2 in the arvo.  I would go so far as to say he was ‘trashticated’ (yes, that is my word as far as I know, I’m waiting for Oxford to add it to their dictionaries). 

Yes it was funny for a while, but he kept wanting to shake our hands over and over, whilst singing and incoherently rambling some nonsense, and somebody from Australia had obviously taught him ‘Melbourne’ which he used every 2 minutes.   Nothing else, just ‘Aaaryghh,  Meylboorggyn’  or something similar.  He ran (sort of) down to the beach to wave us off and decided he was going to dance on some rocks for us while still singing, this nearly finished him as he almost fell and broke his neck. 

His friends were there to catch him and drag him back to wherever he had originally sprung from!   It really was good value and great entertainment!  Lucas seemed to be getting quite chummy with this loony, not sure if they still keep in touch!  All part of the experience.