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Port Vila - 4th January 2011
We arrived today in the capital of Vanuatu - Vila. It's an island with a population of 35,000 people and a whole lot of duty free shopping.
We had a tour booked for this island, so after we disembarked the ship we got in a tour bus and headed to the Mele` Cascade Waterfalls. Mele` is a village in Vila where all of the occupants are family - cousins, aunties, uncles etc, and they essentially own the waterfalls.
We drove about 20 minutes to the waterfalls carpark and the rest of the way was on foot. We climbed what felt like a million stairs, but in reality wasn't very many at all, and stopped a few times along the way for our tour guide Paul to show us interesting plants or fruits or the ways that the locals use the various leaves and branches to create tools. We stopped one last time at a high point of the mountain and the view over Vila was stunning.
We walked through a lot of squishy mud and slippery ground to finally arrive at the waterfalls. There are no artificial paths created here, so walking is done over the wet rocks that make up the waterfalls area, surrounding shallow rock pools (one of which had a huuuuge eel fish in it - I got a photo with it, so I'll upload that later). We waded into the main "pool" where people were swimming and jumping off the rocks into the water, and blindly navigated the rocks under the water trying not to bash our legs on them. Matt and I had some other people on the tour take a photo of us under a waterfall, and I was surprised at how powerful the water flow is - it was pushing me down quite hard - it's hard to believe that these are just natural waterfalls that are always running. I half expected someone to switch it off and the water to stop running, but this was the real thing - natural freshwater waterfalls and it was stunning.
After climbing the rocks and jumping into the water a couple of times we climbed further up to the "main" falls and got some photos of us in front of it. Not long after that it was time to head back down the mountain, and I swear it was harder getting down than it was getting up there, because of the slow speed at which we had to go to ensure we didn't slip and fall on the wet, muddy terrain and hurt ourselves.
Once we got back down to the bottom, there was some fresh fruit and drinks for us, then we got back on the bus and headed back into town. We had the driver drop us off in town so we could go shopping.
We found the famous duty free shop I'd heard about on the forums, which was known for being much cheaper than the others in the town, and Matt finally got all of the "cheap booze" he was after. We wandered around a little bit more, then got a taxi back to the port and went back on board the ship.
After that it was just lunch and relaxing on board, so not much to report.
- comments
Mum Can't you remember me slipping on the muddy rocks and scaping all my legs - and then when we got back down for lunch Cheryl and I had the BEST TASTING PINEAPPLE I have tasted. So glad to hear you guys have had a great time - but I can't wait to see you either ...luv ya xxxx
Mum Can't you remember me slipping on the muddy rocks and scaping all my legs - and then when we got back down for lunch Cheryl and I had the BEST TASTING PINEAPPLE I have tasted. So glad to hear you guys have had a great time - but I can't wait to see you either ...luv ya xxxx