day 160: the curse of the leifinator
Jamie here, It has been raining on and off all day here which is great as they’re just coming out of a drought. The others went for a hike in the rain while I set up the kayak to do some trawling around the bay. I had to get creative to set up the rod with no rod holder and without getting in the way of my paddles. I ended up sitting on the handle of the rod and point it directly behind me. Not 5 minutes into leaving bluebird I had a fish on! It was a hoot pulling up a fish from our trusty inflatable kayak. It put up a quick fight and I got it up next to me only to find it looked suspiciously like a dirty old barracuda. I could see it’s big sharp teeth glaring up at me while I peered down from my inflatable stallion. It was hooked pretty good and I realised I didn’t have gloves with me. So I let a bit of line out and just dragged it through the water back to bluebird. Here I could get gloves and also the fish I.d book to see what it was. I quickly found out that it was actually a wahoo! A beautiful eating wahoo. I bled and gutted it and quickly got back in the kayak to try and catch another one. Well an hour later after paddling around the bay I came back empty handed but still thrilled with my fish and dreaming of ways to cook it. We are very careful with what fish are safe to eat so I decided to cart it into the village to ask someone if it was ok to eat. I found a man who just came in off a boat. I held up the fish and asked if it was safe to eat? He said thank you thank you and proceeded to slowly take the tail of the fish while I opened and closed my mouth like an embarrassed goldfish. I tried again to ask if it was safe for ME to eat and he sort of said what? And looked confused and maybe didn’t speak too good English. He then saw his mate on the beach and yelled something in Fijian and then told me to take the fish to him, he’s the chief. He then ushered me and pushed my inflatable concord down the beach. At this point I had given up trying to keep it for myself and gave it up to this tall man who was definitely not the chief that we gave our sevu sevu gift to yesterday… I’m sure they’ll enjoy it anyway. We don’t mind pasta and canned tuna. My comrades are still out in the hills in the rain and it’s getting dark. At what point do I worry? At what point do I singlehand bluebird back to aotearoa? WOD today comes from mapua thank you Malcom! WOD: musket. Musket - an old timey smooth bore firearm loaded through the muzzle. Used in a senny: I’d love to stay for lunch but I musket going.
Naomi here, What an adventure we have had. Clambering up gullies and rocky cliffs is one thing and clambering down, yet another. It started easily enough, past the little piggy enclosure, checking out the little piglets… a downpour began and we easily took shelter under some large overhangs. Mine was smaller but uphill so I could throw rocks at Miriam and Matt’s overhang. If they are reading this it was not me it was a very violent downpour bringing rocks down from the mountainside. We got going again and it started raining again and again we took shelter, this time in a better spot as there were a couple trees right there we could watch some cool birds tweeting and twittering. Onwards! Up the gully and along wide expanses of volcanic (?) rock. The rock is nice it’s very lumpy, perhaps a conglomerate with all sorts of other rocks embedded into it that mostly stay put when you put your weight on them for climbing. Ascending to the top we went through various stages of jungle and brush, Matt and I witnessed a couple of goshawks messing about in a tree (I had to throw a rock at one because it kept hiding from us for some reason)… up and up we climbed, each time realising the peak wasn’t quite there, we weren’t quite there…. Eventually we got high enough as the peak really had turned into pile of pretty large rubbly boulders. Here we enjoyed the view and imagined eating a snack (it would have been very tasty) then we began our dicy descent. It went well until I was ruthlessly attacked by wasps, the scary looking kind with the very long legs? I yelled quite a lot and very loudly but unfortunately that didn’t deter them, neither did sitting down and swatting at them. The last time I was attacked by wasps I had to run very far very fast and they followed me for a very long way. Here we were on the edge of a steep cliff in thick scrub and I had very little confidence I could run very far or very fast at all so I used the time honoured technique of running directly at my companion, hoping the wasps would get distracted by newer more delicious flesh. Luckily for both matt and I the wasps lost interest before i got too far and I survived with only a handful of honestly pretty painful stings. We continued our descent, me feeling pretty sorry for myself and thinking more and more about imaginary snacks. Much talk was made about whether or not jamie was cooking a meal for us back home, and whether or not we recognised that particular tree, or rock, from our ascent? I certainly did not, and eventually figured we were one gully over, but hunger drove me forwards and I abandoned my companions in my drive to be free from the oppressive cliffs on either side of me and boulders all around me. I scrambled down the tiny canyon, soon discovering myself in the company of a big balled billy goat and his two nannies. They seemed to be okay with how steep it was. I came across a couple of dry waterfalls where the descent would have been impossible, instead I had to skirt around it by clinging on to the bare rock face. I myself am not a fan of heights so these parts were kind of a hassle but the thought of breakfast crackers and mango stone chutney spurred me on. Eventually I found myself on a rock face and could see Matt on the beach who told me the gully I was on was a good one. When I smelled the sweet stench of piggies I knew I was close. And guess what dear readers when we came home jamie did indeed have a hot meal waiting for us!
Miriam here, the next morning in fact as I was too exhausted last night to write. That was an epic scramble, we were out for at least 5 hours. The views from the top were incredible, distant majestic waterfalls, the far side of this island and many islands beyond, our perspective like that of the goshawk we saw gliding over us as we rested before beginning our descent. I’m grateful we all made it safely home. Maybe it is because I’m a bit older or because of the several injuries I’ve gotten adventuring over the years that have stayed with me in various ways, but I took the way down a bit slower, advocating for sticking together for safety but not about to speed up to catch up with Nao and Matt when they left me behind in their haste to get home. Instead I filled my pockets with usnea, a lichen I was grateful to see that stops bleeding and prevents infections, mangos from a tree I passed, saved the last quarter of my water bottle (I brought the only one), found the gully we had come up which I knew would be an easy enough route down, and proceeded to carefully pick my way back to the beach with the bare feet that had been necessary for the whole trip as it was too wet for even adventure sandals to hold well. I was the last to arrive (but not by much) and they were relieved. We emerged to a brilliant double rainbow, like the sky was celebrating our safe return. Some villagers waiting on the beach were also quite relieved that we all made it and told us we looked like locals now (though they were nowhere near as soaked and filthy as us). They take the safety of their guests seriously and probably thought we were nuts for attempting that without a guide, who would’ve kept us on an established track no doubt. I really enjoyed such a varied and intimate experience of the jungle here, finding slim almost legless salamanders, watching many birds including a harrier gliding high above me, and so many lush plants: chartreuse scaly ferns like cedar seedlings, handsome dark leathery ferns in thick patches, knife serrated pandanus blades, buttress rooted figs, twining corkscrewed vines, the highland scrub near the top almost like evergreen huckleberry with their small shiny leaves, little succulents and dried grass clinging to bare rock hillsides. I have half a mind to try and make it to the waterfall today which looks like much less of a mission comparatively, if it ever stops pouring rain.
Bluebird out !