Farewell to Vanuatu

We are back in the 'big city' of Vila, (17 44 191 and 168 18 525) which really does seem like a city and hardly like the same country after the little villages we have been to recently. There is our favourite Nambawan Cafe where we can sit and look out over the harbour with a good cup of coffee and free wifi. Then a visit to the Nambatu Au Bon Marche with cheese, pate and lots of goodies on the shelves. Also a huge market with locally grown fruit and veg. A little red fruit they call raspberry but which looks more like wild strawberries is in season at the moment. Not the flavour of the fruit we know, but still good on cereal and yoghurt. Also guanabana (soursop) is on every stall which makes delicious juice once you have sieved out the large pips and cotton-wool-like inner part.

One of our jobs here is to get an Australian visa. A 3-month one is available on line, but we will need much more time than that if we want to make a visit to England and sail down to Tasmania and then sail all the way up the east coast to Darwin before heading off northwards to pastures new. So lots of forms to fill in, plus proof of funds, plus a letter with the reason we need a 2-year multiple entry visa. So today we are off to the Oz High Commission to talk nicely to the lady who decides whether we get it or not! Definitely a day for a clean shirt. The only passport photo we have of the captain is of him in corporate mode with suit and tie and no beard, hardly the same man!

We will be sorry to leave Vanuatu, our next destination, New Caledonia, which is French territory, will be much less remote. We have been wondering what the inevitable march of progress will do to these islands. Vodaphone's construction of mobile phone masts on nearly every island has had a huge affect. One the plus side it gives the possibility of communication with family living elsewhere, for medical emergencies, and to keep in touch with supply boats. But money is needed to buy and run phones where many people were living in an almost totally cash-free self sufficient way before. Main villages have a sun panel to power a plug socket where phones can be charged; this means that someone from outlying villages (often 2 days walk away) has to make a pilgrimage every few weeks with all the village phones to get them charged up! He will make fire by rubbing two sticks together, pick or catch his food en route, drink from streams, and often have to carry a heavy weight of yams or equivalent as a gift to friends and relations in his destination.

Of course many young people want to head for the bright lights to make money. Secondary education usually involves living away from home as well. It is rather sad that there is very little work available in the towns, life is much more expensive and very different to what they are used to, and often they eventually go home again. There they find that they haven't learned the skills that are essential for self-sufficiency in a remote village. Talking to the older people, most are reluctant for change to come. At present if their little generator breaks down or they can't pay for phone calls, life still goes on as it always has and they are fine. Many plans for tourist resorts have been turned down by local chiefs. Visitors are always welcome, and there is always a 'guest house' for them to stay - but they are used mainly by visitors from other villages who are used to sleeping on a mat on the floor, using a privy which is a hole in the ground with two planks over, and washing in the sea or a stream. So the few foreigners who visit anywhere outside the main towns are either young backpackers who don't mind roughing it, or teachers, missionaries, and medical people. Plus the likes of us who have our own little homes afloat.

So a few more days before the wind looks good for the 2-day, and often rough, trip to Numea in New Caledonia. Evidently the charts of the area are accurate which is more than can be said for Vanuatu, where we have often been anchored on 'land'. The only accurate charts are of the harbours used by the US army during WWII, the others could be Capt. Cook's originals which have been transferred straight onto electronic charts as well!