Hike Up Simbo

Last week, I had the chance to hike up a dormant volcano on Simbo Island, about 2 hours by boat from Gizo.  I don't really know what the type of volcano it would be, but it is not active, but not dead.  There are hot springs in the ocean around it, and lots of sulfur smelling stuff at the top.

 

I went up with some medical students that were in town, and we all met nice and early to follow a boat over for the day.  In true Solomon fashion, the boat driver came on Solomon time, which apparently is one hour later then the real time!  But we were all thankful to have nice weather, as we had a long sea crossing in a little boat.  The boat was just a 6 M long banana boat, with a 40 HP motor on the back.  But the seas were fair, and the driver good (I kind of feel like I'm writing for Gilligan's island here!)

 

We got to Simbo, and had not arranged anything the day before, as it was all last minute.  But we quickly had two guides volunteer to lead us around for the day, and it just happened that both of them were named Eddie!  So that made the names easy to remember.  We wanted to see a custom or taboo site, where they have skulls and trophies from head hunting times.  So they lead us first to a small island named Nusa Simbo, about 18 M from Simbo Island.  The tsunami three years ago washed out the bridge, so we got paddled across the lagoon in canoes.  We then walked to a village at the far end, about an hour away, only to find out it would be too hard to go to the taboo site there.  So the guides took us back to where we started, and visited a great taboo site about 100 M from where our boat landed.  So if your keeping track, it took us 2 hours of walking to see the taboo site that was only 100 M away.  You do the math, we were all a little frustrated.  But it was a lovely walk, and the kids in the village made everyone laugh.  They would follow just behind us and if we stopped they would all stop, and sit down in a group copying us!  Adrian, the group photographer always had a small cluster following closely behind him.

 

After visiting the taboo site, and finding some bettle nut for the guides, we all got in the boat and went around to the base of the cone, about a 10 min ride, where the guides had us all stop and wash our faces in the hot springs before continuing on, as is there custom.  The volcano here is home to a bird called the Megapod, which the villagers depend on there eggs for food.  The birds are a bit bigger then a chicken and lay similar eggs.  But they bury the eggs 1 M deep in the hot sand around the volcano to incubate them, and the villagers come behind and dig them up.

 

At the base of the volcano we stopped and had a basic lunch of tinned tuna, crackers, bread, and some biscuits.  The day was hot, but clear and gorgeous.  We started up by first walking around the edge of a salt water lake, which was separated from the ocean by only a 10 M wide rim of jungle and large rocks, we all struggled walking on.  Then we cut through the bush for a bit, where you could hear the megapods calling each other, and see there scratches everywhere in the trail.

 

We then came to the very base of the cone, and started a steep climb up sharp rocks, I actually wore shoes that day for the first time since my December trip to Australia.  The climb to the top was only about thirty minutes, where we were all stunned by amazing views over the island and the sea.  We had a moment for some photos, and we all felt a bit like the cast from "Lost".  As we came down no one got hurt, and made our way back to the boat.  Our guides asked to be dropped off at another village on the way back, this sounded easier then it turned out to be.  We headed through the lagoon by Nusa Simbo where we had walked earlier, and saw some gorgeous villages (defiantly the coolest ones I have seen here) where the kids were out surfing and body boarding on pieces of timber. 

 

We dropped off our guides, but had to exit through the surf and the reef, and ended up banging it on the way out, breaking a pin in the propeller.  Our guides saw us stranded, and got in some dug out canoes to come out and help.  One helped our driver, who was sitting his dug out canoe to remove the propeller, while the other one paddled our boat to stay out of the breaking waves. 

 

I volunteered to watch his dug out canoe, so got in, then quickly fell out, they are quite hard to balance!  But got the hang of it and was going in circles around the boat, while some local kids came out to see what was happening, I challenged them to races, and did my best to flip them out of their canoes, so that I could win.  We got the boat fixed and were on our way in an hour or so, making it back to Gizo as the sun set.  We all had a great day and thanks to Adrian, Gigs, James, Aoife, Cerys, Roshine, an Jaan for a great day!

 

Pictures soon, I need to get them from Adrian

 

Luke