Bonege 1 is photo heaven

I haven't been diving for a couple of months, and today I was determined to practice my underwater photography. I was pretty pleased with the results. I still have heaps to learn, but these are a big step forward.

Coral Garden as far as the eye can see - Kombuana Island

To the west of a small island in the Solomon Islands hides a magnificent coral garden which is rarely visited by scuba divers. Before you can enjoy this treasure of the deep, you need to gain permission from the customary owners.

Kombuana Island is to the north-western end of the Florida Group of islands. It is about an hour by dive boat from Maravagi Resort, which is the closest tourist accommodation to this hidden gem. Kombuana Island is inhabited by a small village. Outsiders are required to pay a Kastom Fee to be allowed to dive on their reef. To pay the Kastom Fee, one anchors in shallow water as close to shore as the tide and your vessel will allow.

The Chief of the village will come to the shore to meet you. You can tell him apart from the other villagers as he will be the best dressed. When you request permission to dive on his reef, he will tell you how much Kastom fee you need to pay per diver. It is a good idea to keep your cash hidden until you actually pay, as the fee requested may increase if you appear to be able to pay more.

Don’t try to cheat and dive for free. The village has several canoes, and the Chief and the village men will come out to ask for the money. There is no industry on tiny Kombuana Island, and the rare diving party is one of the few sources the village has for earning cash to buy things they cannot make, and must buy in shops. Cash is needed for relative luxuries as kerosene to light lamps at night.

The dive is worth the effort of this little side track.

The dive starts with a wall, at whatever depth you plan. The wall is covered with fan corals, soft corals and small, brightly coloured reef fish. Ensure you look out into the blue, as curious black tipped reef sharks will cruise past to see what strange creatures have invaded their domain. The crevices in the wall are home to numerous sea creatures and provide many opportunities for underwater photographers with their macro lenses set.

Divers usually use the time for their safety stop to spend a few minutes exploring the reef shallows. With this dive it is recommended to keep half your tank to explore the coral garden in the shallows between the wall and the shore of the island.

As you ascend above the wall you are met with a view of picturesque coral garden as far as the eye can see. You can drift slowly above the coral, exploring the coral and sea life for over half an hour and still have more coral garden to explore.

The coral appears to have been arranged as in a formal garden, with large expanses of corals from the same family clumped together, separated by a shallow valley from the next clump of corals from a different family. Hidden in the valleys and between corals are numerous giant clams, their shells open to reveal the almost neon coloured molluscs inside. As you raise your head from the corals to look around, large hump head parrot fish saunter slowly past, parading their brilliant blue and green livery.

At the end of the dive, you will have a large collection of photos to add to your dive log, and to share with your dive buddies who were not lucky enough to enjoy this unique dive.

Diving the Twin Tunnels

The Twin Tunnels are actually two lava tubes which start at the edge of a wall and rise up through the wall to the plateau at the top. One is wider and shorter than the other, but either can be comfortably dived with all gear on even sizable divers.

Twin Tunnels is a fascinating dive. The site is located south offshore from Tulagi. The dive starts at about 20 metres and is about 30 metres at the bottom.

The divers choose the tunnel and descend through the wall, then explore the sea wall, fish and corals. It is usual to turn right as you exit the tunnel, as that is in the direction of the dive boat mooring bouy, and slowly ascend as you explore the wall and then the plateau. However, I have found the swim to the left is more interesting.

At the entrance to the smaller tunnel there are two live giant clams. One is white and is well camouflaged against the sand. The area is adrift with fish of a large number of species, including the neon spotted queen fish. There are numerous gorgonian fans, the favourite home of the pygmy seahorse, but I have never managed to spot one - anywhere. I must get brave enough to dive with contact lenses one day soon.

This is one of my favourite dives, for the unique experience of descending through the tunnels, as well as the beautiful marine life.

This dive can be reached by day trip from Honiara, as part of a stay at Tulagi, or on route to other dive sites further west in the Florida Group.

Japanese Sea Plane Near Tulagi

This is a good dive for when the conditions are too rough to dive from Tulagi in more exposed waters.

I have done this dive twice. The second time there was a 30 knot gale blowing. Not pleasant to be on a boat anywhere. However, this wreck is in the lee of a small island between Tulagi and Dolphin Island, quite close to Dolphin Island. We set off from Dolphin Island to "have a look" and see what the conditions were like. To our surprise and joy the sea was flat as a pancake. We quickly donned our gear and jumped in.


The plane is lying upright on the sand, with relatively little damage. Part of one wing has separated, but is still close by, and there is a large hole in the starboard side. This hole is a great spot to see baby fish hiding from predators. A couple of coral trout cruise in and out of the plane openings. A bright blue starfish is perched on the nose of the lane, in stark contrast to the green-grey-brown surface of the wreck.

An interesting feature is the seating of the pilot and co-pilot. The Japanese pilots must have been tiny - were they kids? One can't imagine how a grown man could fit in the small spaces between the seats and the controls.

Visale

There is a lovely beach in the backyard of a village just past a larger village called Visale. It is also the beach entry point for what is known as the Visale Submarine Dive, even though it is not actually Visale.


The villagers are Catholic, so if you visit on a Sunday, please respect their Sabbath and try not to be too intrusive.


They are very friendly and hospitable. The man in charge of taking care of visitors to their beach is named Anthony. He is from a village on the Weathercoast, which suffered violence for different reasons, but during the same period of time, as the the Ethnic Tensions. He married a woman from the village which owns the beach and they have a number of lovely children.


Before the Tensions, Anthony met an Australian man who catches and exports live fish for aquariums when Anthony was working as a driver in Honiara. The man asked Anthony to be his guide and gave him the opportunity to try scuba diving when they went to Western Province to obtain fish specimens. The man seemed to appreciate Anthony's dedication and willingness to try scuba diving, and took Anthony to Cairns where he undertook a PADI scuba diving course. This man returns to Honiara periodically and Anthony helps him on those occasions. Having said that though, I wouldn't expect Anthony to be a dive guide to the sub. Not only haven't I verified his diving qualifications, but Anthony does not have scuba diving equipment.


The village children are charming. On one visit to their beach the girls tried to teach my son (then five) to paddle a traditional wooden canoe. They eventually gave up after much instructing and laughter and took him for a ride in the canoe around the lagoon.



Sorry for the photo quality - it was a very overcast day.




Where is it and how do I get there?



Visale is west of Honiara. There is a large Catholic church and a school. To get to the small village where the beach and the submarine are, you keep driving until you pass the second white cross. Very close after the second white cross is a village with a large clearing on the right. There is usually also a sign attached to a tree saying "Sub Dive".

How long it takes to drive there depends on the condition of the road. When I first came here two years ago the road was incredibly potholed and the drive took two hours. Just after the road was mended and some new bridges were completed, the drive took 45 minutes. Allow about an hour these days. You can also get there with the operators of guided dives either by boat or in their vehicle.

First trip to Maravagi

I first went to Maravagi about three or four months after I first came to the Solomon Islands. It was my first trip out of Honiara, so I was really looking forward to seeing some of the "real" Solomon Islands. I was totally taken by the pure beauty of the place.

We left Honiara on a boat called Invader II, a large boat with a beautiful large open covered deck on top to sit and chat while enjoying the sea breeze and the view of the islands of Central Province on the three hour trip across Iron Bottom Sound. The boat left at dawn from the wharf at Point Cruz in Honiara. The wharves were packed with people and their cargo heading to other islands.

On the trip over a large pod of dolphins played in the bow wake of the boat and jumped and surfed in the side wash. It seemed as though they were competing with each other for which one could stay in the bow wake the longest and which one could do the highest or fanciest jumps. My reflexes were just not fast enough to capture the show on camera.

During the weekend trip I swam and snorkelled and watched the fish cruising around the coral from the restaurant. I took these photos looking through the restaurant "windows" - the water is beautifully clear. This is what I was to later learn is called "great vis" by divers.

The snorkelling was great. My son, then four, expressed an interest in learning to snorkel, so I got a child's set of mask, snorkel and fins sent over later. The water is sooooo warm and clear you can stay in the water for ages exploring the small reefs within walking or swimming distance of the resort. The clarity of the water and the vivid blues and greens and whites of the scenery was breathtaking. I vowed to go back again soon.

Another incentive to go back was scuba diving. I remember as a young child my father, who was a travelling salesman, talking about the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, and I used to beg him to take me. Later, when I was twelve, a cousin put his scuba gear on me so I could try it out in very shallow water in a bay in Moreton Island. Scuba diving became one of my "must do" things. It took a few decades before I actually got about to doing it.

On this trip were a few learner divers. I watched them gearing up for their lessons, and noted with envy the rapture with which they talked about their first adventures underwater. I decided I was finally going to do it! After all, I was in one of THE best places in the world for diving. I would only be experiencing half of the Solomons if I didn't explore underwater. I am soooooo glad I "took the plunge"!

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