The Big Bay

With Jess's departure from the 'isles of paradise' getting closer, the season of ticking off the boxes to ensure all places of interest have been seen has begun. After the fishing adventures of easter, we thought of trying to get to either Ambae or Malekula, two large islands south of Santo. Unfortunately these plans have been thwarted a little bit, but there's always a plan b (or z, whatever the case may be).

Plan B in this case was a trip to Big Bay, which, suprise suprise, is a big bay at the north of Santo. The name being similar to the NZ tradition of naming things (ie North Island, South Island... wahooo). So the two misses and our master (andrew) packed up the first national realty truck and headed north.

Big Bay. Vanuatu's answer to Tongariro National Park (NZ) Yellowstone National Park (USA) or Daintree (Aussie). Or at least the home of Vanuatu's only official registered conservation area, namely Vatthe. Also, the first place to be 'discovered' by a European: Pedro Fernandez de Quirros, a Spaniard with a lust for gold (assumed anyway) and possibly island senoritas.

Vatthe is also the home of one of the more volatile villages on this island.
This manifests itself in a variety of ways, from infantile pettiness such as talking to Purity (don’t be fooled by the name), the chief’s wife who used to run the bungalows but was ‘let-go’ and therefore chose not to pass on the message that we were coming up, to the torching of houses, destruction of boats and ongoing litigation between two factions of the community.

The bungalows are located at the village of Matantas, which is set underneath a limestone escarpment at the eastern end of the bay. With six really cute bungalows, a big dining area, kitchen, showers and even flush toilets, the potential for the area is immense. However, ongoing disputes regarding management and money have put the hiatus on general maintenance and the place is slowly falling into a state of disrepair. So, after arriving unannounced (not from lack of trying), and attempting to run over the smallest dog in Vanuatu (or maybe it was a rat) we picnicked at the beach while the door was fixed to our bungalow and things were tidied up.

As a conservation area, Vatthe is home to Vanuatu’s largest river, the Jordon River, and has the biggest tract of intact alluvial lowland forest in Vanuatu. It’s also renowned for birdwatching, so we were sure to singout any time one was spotted….ie “there’s a bird”. “there’s another one”. “I think that’s a chicken”.

So, after storianing with a guy from the village who was prepared to take us to the River for sightseeing and swimming (Jess and I) and fishing (Andrew) we headed through the forest to the mouth of the Jordon River.

The ‘Bay’ is quite reminiscent of west coast NZ: reflective state beaches interspersed with black sand and river stones, with the Cumberland Ranges (the western arm of Santo) rising in the distance. The weather and mossies were also quite westcoastesque, with plenty of rain either brewing or falling during the weekend. The fishing wasn’t as successful as the previous mission, and after returning to the village, Andrew ventured out to the rocks to catch dinner for the night. The misses stayed back roasting yams, plantains and kumala over a few glasses of red wine.

The next morning, Andrew arose for the early morning fishing excusion at the river mouth, while Jess and I walked up the beach. After a smol spel back at the bungalows, we decided to head back to town as the rain was bucketing down by this stage…. home for dvd’s and cheese toasted sammies.