We spent the week-end on another long island situated in the next atoll to the East, called Arno. It's tricky to get to cause the storm has destroyed the dock and the only way to get there is to ask the mayor, a nice man who agreed to take us on his own boat, which was to leave on Friday at 9am. At 3:30pm, after a sweaty wait on a jetty with 7 pigs and an assortment of people dropping off items to be transported to Arno, we were on our way .... little did we know that this was to be the easy leg of the journey.
We had a beach hut all for ourselves on a loooong sandy beach with pretty much no one around. Our lovely hosts brought us baked breadfruit and fresh fish in coconut milk. It could not have been any more paradisical! After a lovely day of snorkeling, Seraphim woke up with a gaggle of symptoms Sunday (racing pulse, almost 39c temperature, headache etc.). A very friendly local health practitioner came to see us (for free!) and told us not to worry but we preferred to be on the same island as a hospital just in case. Luckily there was a boat to leave at 3. So we packed and were ready to leave ... and then we waited ... and waited ... and waited ... Seraphim slept. I befriended a group of substance control campaigners, did interviews, went for a swim, they took me to the end of the island on their truck ... still waiting for the boat to arrive. At 5 we started radioing the captain and phoning the mayor .... getting nowhere. By sunset we gave up and were told there would be a boat the next morning at 7. We got up at the crack of dawn .... and the same game ensured. Luckily Seraphim is feeling better today so it wasn't as frantic a wait.
The boat arrived at 10ish and we are back now in our offices.
Botttom line: Arno is not easy to get. But the pictures should explain why I would go again tomorrow ....
We had a beach hut all for ourselves on a loooong sandy beach with pretty much no one around. Our lovely hosts brought us baked breadfruit and fresh fish in coconut milk. It could not have been any more paradisical! After a lovely day of snorkeling, Seraphim woke up with a gaggle of symptoms Sunday (racing pulse, almost 39c temperature, headache etc.). A very friendly local health practitioner came to see us (for free!) and told us not to worry but we preferred to be on the same island as a hospital just in case. Luckily there was a boat to leave at 3. So we packed and were ready to leave ... and then we waited ... and waited ... and waited ... Seraphim slept. I befriended a group of substance control campaigners, did interviews, went for a swim, they took me to the end of the island on their truck ... still waiting for the boat to arrive. At 5 we started radioing the captain and phoning the mayor .... getting nowhere. By sunset we gave up and were told there would be a boat the next morning at 7. We got up at the crack of dawn .... and the same game ensured. Luckily Seraphim is feeling better today so it wasn't as frantic a wait.
The boat arrived at 10ish and we are back now in our offices.
Botttom line: Arno is not easy to get. But the pictures should explain why I would go again tomorrow ....