Trip to Vanua Balavu

Part 3:  The Voyage Home

We boarded an older Chinese made propeller driven plane for the one hour flight from Vanua Balavu to Suva.  

Ben had told me that the pilots had a prayer for a safe flight with the passengers on his last flight from the island.  No prayer on this flight though.  The plane showed its age.  The plane lurched forward and bounced its way down the airstrip on the side of the hill towards the ocean, lifting off as it neared the end.  

Once in the air, the flight was smooth however, and I watched as the island grew smaller in the distance.  

We landed back in Suva with a smooth touchdown.  The passengers applauded the pilots on the smoothness of the landing.  Here you can see the new and the old bridges over the river.  The new bridge was built with aid from the European Union, or so the sign on it indicates.  

When we got back to Suva, we stayed at the Rain Tree Lodge on the edge of town.  I headed into the City for an evening of sight seeing.

The lodge is up in the hills, and based upon my observations, appears to be pretty popular with back packers.  Apparently this pond at the lodge used to be a quarry.  Rumor has it that there is still a bulldozer at the bottom of it that was abandoned after the quarry started to fill in with water.  I thought the giant ferns on the edge looked pretty neat.  

We took a bus from Suva to Latouka along the northern route, which is the King's highway.  

We traveled on the same bus with the couple on the right in the photo.  They live in New Zealand, he was from there, and she was originally from England.  Most everyone else on the full bus was from Fiji.  

The main road across the north is in places, little more than a gravel road on the side of a hill.  

There are numerous wooden bridges along the route.

It had been raining pretty heavily, and at one point a quite a bit of water, like a small river was washing down the side of the hill, across the road and down the steep embankment on the other side.  I thought to myself, they're not going to try to drive across this, but well, they did, and we didn't wash down the ravine.  I video taped that crossing for posterity.  

We passes lots of small villages and saw lots of scenery along the way.

There were many small villages tucked into the hills along the roadway.

Rugby is a popular sport here from an early age.

A boy traverses a river on a bamboo raft.  

At a few of the many stops, vendors would walk up to the bus to sell there local foods and wares.  

There were miles and miles of sugar cane fields along the way as well.  These will likely be a source of greater wealth again in the future with the growth in the use of bio-fuels.

When we arrived in Latouka, most of the shops were closed, even the vendor booths along the bus stop.  It was a holiday in Fiji, prophet muhammed's birthday.  

Here was a closed booth along the bus terminal for a service I hoped I wouldn't need for a while yet.

We stayed at a local hotel along the Ocean, and made our way to the airport the following day.

A street lined with stores on a Tuesday morning in Latouka.

We took a taxi from Latouka to Nadi International Airport.

A storm was rolling in as we boarded the plane at Nadi.  I don't like flying in bad weather, but soon we were up and over the storm and on our way back to Sydney.  The flight took about 4 hours. 

Back in Australia, we stayed in Sydney that night, and then caught a bus to Canberra.  We were met by Cassandra, Ben's wife, who drove us back to Ben's place.  

Here is a photo of Ben and Cass's neighborhood near Canberra.

I fit into a way to small leather riding jacket, and we took a motorcycle ride up in the hills to a park not to far away.  In the past it was the location of a radio receiving station where the first radio signals from the Apollo space mission were received.  

I stalked a few kangaroos that were hanging out, while Ben and Cass enjoyed the scenery.

Kangaroos appear to fill a similar niche to what deer fill in North America.

Cass and Ben enjoying the park.

The next day we went up to Ben's farm at Tarago.  Most of Australia has been in the grips of a severe drought.  There had been a bit of rain at Tarago, but Ben has been going up there regularly to water some trees that he put in. 

I spied this Southern Cross wind turbine on the way, it is a water pumper, and is similar to the Aeromotors I am used to seeing back home.  

Farmer Ben sets off with the tractor to water his young trees.

The only power out on his farm comes from solar.  It basically provides power for fluorescent lighting for the trailer and work shed on the small 25 acre farm.  

Back in Canberra I took in a few of the sites of the town.  

The old Parliament House.

New Parliament House.

The war memorial and museum.

Ben and Cass in front of the Telcom tower, situated on a hill above the city, it is the highest structure there and has wonderful views of the surrounding countryside from its observation deck.  

We went to the Cirque du Soleil which was in town that evening, and called it a day.  While I was there we took a drive out west to Ben's father's farm.  The drought became very evident once you got past the hills into the plains there.  Everything except for the eucalyptus trees was brown and dry.  Along the way a spotted some more renewable energy in use.

A building fitted with polycrystalline panels on its roof.  

A store selling solar panels and other renewable energy and remote living items in a small farming town along the way.  

Out at Ben's parent's farm, we fed the animals and then had lunch with Ben's parents.  It was a nice picturesque farm, except that it was obviously very dry.

We loaded hay from a storage shed where it had been collected since the 1990's and took it out to feed the sheep.  Normally at this time of year they would be grazing on the green grass in the fields, but with no rain, there is no grass left to graze on, only brown stubble.

After feeding the sheep, it was time to feed the cattle.  I was thinking my what nice horns you have there.

There were  several dams where water runoff from the fields is collected for use to water the animals, and as a reservoir in times of drought.  Some of these dams were completely dry, and Ben's father is taking the opportunity to enlarge some of them.  It may be even dryer in the future if global warming predictions turn out to be correct.  Hopefully it will rain soon, as there is not much water left.   

Here is where the sheep get an annual hair cut.  

From Canberra we made our way down the coast back to Sydney.  Once you got east of the mountains, it was wet again, almost like a different country.

Some surfers were out in the surf in this scenic town along the eastern coast.

I spied a wind turbine on this boat I saw at a stop along the way.  

Back in Sydney, we went out on the town to see the sights again.  

This mast was outside the National Maritime Museum.  I was thinking 'tilt up tower'.

We had a late snack at doughnut shop I didn't know existed outside the U.S. until my visit here.

A Krispy Kreme doughnut  shop as seen from my hotel window.  

The next morning it was back to the United States.  Again I flew to Los Angeles  and then on to Chicago.

A last view of Sydney Harbor from the window of my flight.  Can you spot the Opera House?

I was tired from all the travel when I got back so I slept until the next morning.  A bit of snow on my car reminded me that I was back in Chicago. 

My vehicle with a bit of snow on it the morning after I got back home.

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