SOLOMON ISLANDS MAY 2012

After what seems like an eternity of internet research, no easy feat when it comes to the Solomon Islands, as there really is very little info out there.  The trip is planned, tickets booked and paid for, now the painstaking, yet enjoyable task of packing our fishing gear begins.

   Our clothes’ packing is relatively easy for 3 blokes going to live in the jungle for a few weeks, but the fishing gear is our priority and a big task for 3 serious fishermen. 

  I’m happy to live in the same clothes for the duration, but seeing as this is primarily a fishing trip, tackle and gear we will need is highly important.  There will be no shops where we’re going.  It takes weeks  to sort out , buy new gear and try to fit it all into a bag that is actually able to be carried around,  whilst keeping in mind that a lot of our internal flights once there will be on Cessna’s.  

  This isn’t a bad thing though as it feels like the trip has begun already, due to the huge job it has become to get our gear sorted,  mostly done over a few beers after work and giving us all an excuse to hang out, talk fishing and imagine what it will be like. 

  What I consider to be the ‘trip of a lifetime’ and my first foray into really putting together my own adventure itinerary, will be done with my 2 best mates Lucas and Stenty.

The time has finally come and we pile our massive collection of gear into Stenty’s ford XR8, a great car for the near 1000km journey it takes just to get to Perth before we fly over to QLD.    We arrive in Perth without incident and spend some more time and money in the tackle shops finalizing our stash of gear and head for the airport the next morning.   

Qantas delivers us to Brisbane with raging hangovers from the night before (guess we started the holiday early) and we have to overnight there before leaving for Honiara, the capital of the Solomon’s on Guadalcanal Island, early the next day.

As we are going through customs, trouble brews.   We all have carry-on luggage full of fishing reels and apparently now in the days of bureaucracy gone mad,   the fishing line that is on our reels is considered a weapon?!  We are being told that the line will have to come off before we can board the plane and I go from zero to hostile in about 0.3 seconds.   Airports tend to bring out the worst in me, 

  I have since learned to control this,    sort of!   

After a few heated exchanges in regards to the lunacy of it all, and why on earth we would spend months planning this trip just to hijack the plane with fishing line, I demand to see the supervisor who lets us through after some smooth talking and explaining how we couldn’t possibly use the line dangerously.  The funny part is,  with 100lb braid,  yeah it really is sharp as razors and tough as rope, so in theory could be quite dangerous! 

 We are all wearing our professional looking fishing clothes and with the amount of gear we are taking they actually ask us if we are from a TV show!  My brain is a bit slow early in the morning or we maybe could have milked that and got an upgrade!