Solomon Islands Diving from nicolaoutdoors on Vimeo.
Right now, I’m suffering a bit of reverse culture shock after returning from the Solomon Islands. It’s pretty hard to integrate back into the city with the cars, people and the general pace of life and I’ve had many ‘what am I doing here?’ moments …
We stayed on the island of Uepi, a barrier island of the Mavoro Lagoon in the Western Provinces. The Mavoro Lagoon is reputedly the largest saltwater lagoon in the world. It’s a double barrier–enclosed lagoon, bordered by the volcanic New Georgia and Vangunu Islands on one side and a double line of long barrier islands, of which Uepi is one, on the other. The lagoon contains hundreds of tiny islands all covered by coconut palms and rainforest and fringed with mangroves or coral reef. Most of the islands’ villages are dotted along the coast of New Georgia, with Seghe being the main settlement and location of the airstrip (a mown strip of grassy land on which chickens roam).
Uepi is uninhabited except for Uepi Island Diving. On one side is the lagoon, where baby sharks cruise the shallows, chasing large schools of juvenile fish and sea cucumbers and mantis shrimps bury in the sand. On the seaward side is a deep marine abyss, “The Slot”, reaching the oceanic depths of 6000ft/2000m. The lagoon and The Slot are linked by a passage between Uepi and the Chrapoana Island. The passage is deeper than most other entrances to the lagoon and large quantities sharks and pelagic fish can be seen riding the current.
A typical day at Uepi might start with a pre-breakfast swim with manta rays, who regularly visit a cleaning station in the lagoon. After breakfast you might swim alongside a coral-covered wall that drops away to the oceanic abyss and cruise along with hammerheads and eagle rays. Afternoon might be a dive into the passage where you’ll almost have to part the fish to see the water and grey whaler sharks are never out of view. We also dived a World War II plane wreck, a tuna boat wreck (My camera wouldn’t work on this spectacular dive but there is a great shot HERE), a sinkhole with a tunnel through to the sea, sea caves and caverns, swimthroughs and endless vertical walls as well as the beautiful Penguin Reef, which is reputedly used as an example of pristine reef by the BBC film unit.
We took a huge number of photographs and video…. It’s hard to choose a few that capture the beauty either above or below the surface. Highlights were pygmy seahorses (even smaller than I expected!), nudibranchs, manta rays, heaps and heaps of sharks, crocodile fish, basket stars …