Travelling from Port Vila to North Efate under your own steam is an adventure in itself. Every journey will be different. It won't cost much but you will need time, a little local knowledge and most likely, some patience.
Passengers transferring from buses to boats at Emua Wharf with Nguna Island in the background. We start our trip to Nguna Island at Au Bon Marche in Manples around 10.30am on a Wednesday morning. Any earlier and we're assured we'll have a long wait. To get there we flag a bus in downtown Port Vila (150 vatu each) and tell the driver where we want to go. There's no need for us to actually know where Au Bon Manples is - bus drivers already do - and with our backpacks it's clear that we're travellers looking for public transport to take us north. But for those who like more detail it's on the Lini Highway, the main road between Port Vila and the airport, on the right hand side if you're driving out of town. Public Transport to North Efate can be found at Au Bon Marche, Manples. Au Bon Marche supermarket and a service station make Manples a busy hub. At the far end of the forecourt next to the fence near the air pump there's a single tree and we make a beeline for it, settling down to wait in the shade. I strike up a conversation with a young NiVanuatu woman who also appears to be waiting, and confirm that this is where we'll find a bus going to Emua Wharf. When the driver is satisfied that he has enough passengers to make the trip worth his while, she tells me, we'll go. Soon. A word at this point about "Island time", what locals often laughingly refer to as "black man's time", which bares little resemblance to time as we know it. Fifteen minutes is just as likely to be an hour by our reckoning, and it's no use getting upset about it. Best to leave your watch behind at home and go with the flow. In the meantime we take the opportunity to stock up on a few provisions at the supermarket. Bottled water, because we know the drinking water on the Nguna will come from rain water tanks and we choose to be cautious. Some snacks, just in case. Sooner than we expect we're clambering into the bus along with half a dozen other passengers. We could as easily be riding on the back of a PT (Public Transport) which is a small truck, usually with some sort of a tarpaulin awning stretched across the top to provide shelter from the sun and rain. Seating can be anything from a wooden plank to a bag of rice. View over Mele Bay from Klems Hill. We travel in relative comfort, our bus making easy work of the steep climb up Klems Hill. One last, spectacular vista of Mele Bay and we're plunged into rural Efate. The smooth tar-sealed ring road is a dream after the bumpy potholes of Port Vila. It's an easy forty minute drive to Emua Wharf with occasional stops to pick up and drop off passengers. Even for us who know the route well, the scenery is a delight; the first glimpse of the distinctively-shaped Hat Island marking Roi Mata's Domain, the sparkling turquoises and deep blues of the beautiful Havannah Harbour, iconic Earnest and his World War 2 Coke Bottle Museum at Tanoliu . . . All the while, enticing views of Nguna appear and disappear around corners and on the crests and dips of hills, the green volcanic cones drawing ever closer. The distictive shape of Hat Island forms part of Roi Mata's Domain, Vanuatu's only World Heritage Site. Emua Village and roadside market alert us that we're nearly at the end of this leg of our journey. The bus slows and turns into the parking area at Emua Wharf, depositing us and our luggage in the shade of a tree. The cost of the ride from Manples to here is 500 vatu per person. Now the waiting begins in earnest. We're early, apparently. We can charter a boat to Nguna for 3,000 vatu and leave right away, or we can wait for more passengers and do the trip for 500 vatu each. How long before other passengers come? A shrug. Maybe half past two. It's just after midday now. We elect to wait. There's not a huge saving to be made and the price is not unreasonable given the cost of fuel, but we're committed to travelling like the locals. Arriving by bus at Emua Wharf. NiVanuatu are supposedly the happiest people in the world, certainly they're among the most patient, and they know how to manage the heat of the day. The boat drivers flop in the back of a truck parked under a tree, legs draped over the sides with hats pulled down over their eyes, while we wait in a more upright position, shelling peanuts and snacking on fruit. For the longest time, nothing happens. When it does, it's in slow motion. A PT pulls in, backs up and reverses down the wharf. Passengers climb out dragging their bags behind them. They're headed for Pele and a man disentangles himself from the pile of legs and arms in the back of the truck, makes his way leisurely to his boat. Another man wanders in our direction, holding his cell phone. Emma's on her way with some other tourists bound for Nguna, he tells us. We can travel with them. They'll be here in fifteen minutes. Passengers boarding a banana boat headed for Pele Island. An hour later they arrive in a bus. Now it's all go on the wharf. A flurry of unloading ensues while two boats are readied, boxes and bags shared between them. A couple of jaded-looking tourists are ushered into one (they've spent the morning driving around picking up supplies from various places around Port Vila, we find out later) and we follow after them, while a group of locals climb into the other. There's a spluttering of engines, some manoeuvring, a lot of yelling and waving, and we're off. Steady Trades are blowing but the chop on the water is enough just to cool us with spray, not frighten us or make us ill. Kenneth (we're now on first name terms with our boat driver) throws out a fishing line, and before long he cuts the engine and reels in a protesting fish, flipping and glistening on the bottom of the boat. Supper, he grins. Kenneth steering the boat expertly towards the beach at Uduna Cove Bungalows. The trip from the wharf to Nguna takes about half an hour. We drop off the tourists, whose spirits have revived considerably, on an idyllic white sand beach. Uduna Cove Bungalows, where they'll be staying, are hidden inside the fringing bush. From there it's just a short run along the coastline to Taloa Village. We're helped out of the boat into ankle deep water and splash up onto the shore to be met by Leiwa of Nakie Women's Guesthouse. We've arrived. A friendly wave goodbye from Kenneth.
Tim Foster
5/8/2020 11:51:46 am
I very much enjoyed your narrative. My family ( wife and three children ) and I lived in the then New Hebrides in the mid 1970s and were familiar with the route you described except that the roads were all coral and very dusty. The view over Vila Bay from Klems Hill hasn't changed much nor it seems has the Pacific Pace. By the way, I worked for the Condiminium PWD and that was the best job in the world.
Dianne
5/9/2020 02:07:14 pm
And I very much enjoyed your narratives Tim. Some internet sleuthing turned up Stories from the New Hebrides (https://neilbegley.com.au/stories/category/tim-foster/) Ha! Those kidney-dislodging roads on Tanna. Waiting two days on the air strip at Craig Cove, Ambrym, because weirdly, in a country where every thing runs at least three hours late, planes leave early. The airfield at Lamen Bay on Epi Island was in good repair, even after TC Pam, but the road down to Valesdir can only be described as an adventure. So many more Travel Tales to be written. We are both incredibly fortunate, I feel, to have had the best jobs in the world. Comments are closed.
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February 2024
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