Paddling the Other Side of the World

October-November 2004

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Aaron Reedy

Sarah paddling in the warm shallows.

The boy watching me affix my spray skirt to my cockpit can hardly believe his eyes. Not many outsiders pass through this village and even fewer pull kayaks out of oversized backpacks. He and his small gang of friends have stood completely awestruck for the entire hour it has taken me and my wife, Sarah, to assemble our Feathercraft kayaks and load them with the gear for our 3-day paddle. Now, as we launch into the sparkling water, the boy is spellbound. So am I.

Our kayaks are loaded with gear and we are paddling in paradise. Beneath my boat the water is so clear that it induces vertigo looking through it to the sandy bottom 15 meters below. Our kayaks are flying rather than floating.

Undine Bay is teeming with dolphins, giant sea turtles, and tropical fish of every stripe and color. Small schools of metallic Blue Sprat leap towards the boat. It feels like a welcoming gesture. In the distance, the lush hills of the volcanically formed islands rise sharply towards a wide open sky. Coconut palms dot the shores. The whole scene is framed by powder-fine, white sand beaches. You couldn’t paint a picture this pretty. You can, however, paddle it.

Vanuatu sits quietly in the South Pacific, 2400 kilometers east of Northern Australia. Its capital, Port Vila, receives regular flights from several cities in Australia and New Zealand. But until the American reality TV show Survivor decided that it would be a great place to film, you had probably never heard of Vanuatu. Because of that, Vanuatu doesn’t attract the hordes of tourists that neighboring Fiji does. What the crowds don’t know is that this island nation has alluring beaches that rival those of its better-known Melanesian neighbor.

Our boats having a siesta.

For independent and skilled paddlers there are almost endless paddling options among Vanuatu’s 83 inhabited islands. It is possible for even novice paddlers to have a first rate kayaking adventure relatively easily from the main island of Efate. Although the waters of the South Seas islands can be notoriously rough and windy, North Efate’s Undine Bay and Havannah Harbor are reasonably sheltered.

Sarah and I have come to Undine Bay, on the north side of the island, opposite Port Vila, in the back of an open market truck. This is the cheapest way to get out of town with a folding kayak. Market trucks leave for North Efate daily from downtown Port Vila. If you don’t mind riding with mounds of unsold produce and sometimes irritable livestock, the truck ride can be an adventure all its own.

On our first day we put in on a late afternoon high tide and paddle only a short six kilometers to nearby Pele Island. The reception we get from the villagers there is warm and welcoming. They are extremely interested in our boats and are quick to invite us to make camp on their beach. This becomes a common theme at every village where we land. Through these encounters we get a glimpse of the simple island life. Most islanders make their living by subsistence farming and fishing, as they have since their ancestors arrived in sailing canoes during the great Pacific migrations 3,000 years ago. They live in small villages and still build houses of bamboo and thatch. In most places the word of local chiefs is still the law of the land.

As the sun sinks lower on the horizon, we stop in at the northernmost village on Pele. A local chief announces his title and promptly shows us to a beautiful sandy point on the north of the island just across the channel from neighboring Nguna Island— perfect for making camp. The Melanesians are famous for their hospitality.

Paddling is a way of life in Vanuatu..

While washing the dinner dishes in the surf, we are approached by a quiet local boy in his late teens. He shyly introduces himself as Kennedy. We ask him about snorkeling spots and he points out at the water and gives descriptions of sections of the reef as if I could clearly see them. He proudly tells me about his work with the two year old Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area. It is home to a pristine reef and a giant clam sanctuary. Its biggest draw, however, is that the channel between Nguna and Pele is frequently traveled by dolphins and, on occasion, by humpback whales. Kennedy tells me that the dolphins usually move through here in the mornings.

His knowledge of marine mammals proves to be accurate; the next morning a large pod of Pacific Spinner dolphins gathers just beyond the fringing reef. Their dorsal fins and acrobatic games are visible all morning as we cook pancakes on the beach. They even stay around long enough for me to launch my kayak. I am mesmerized as they come up around me, and the sound of their breathing surrounds me until they eventually vanish.

Traveling north along the west coast of Nguna Island, I am continually awed with the tropical landscape of water and islands. At one point I am able to count six islands visible in the panorama. It is a spectacular beauty that is not seen by many outsiders. I feel lucky to be in on the secret.

As we paddle back over the coastal reef to mainland Efate we approach three boys in a dugout canoe. They are immediately curious. Our kayaks are different from the small wooden outriggers with which they are so familiar. They are especially interested in the rudder. They aren’t quite sure of its purpose until I move it side to side by pushing on the foot pedals. At that moment one boy exclaims in Bislama, Vanuatu’s national language, that it works “olsem tel blong fis” (like a fish’s tail). I am struck by his comparison. There still are places in the world where young boys are more familiar with the mechanics of a fish than those of a rudder.

I am spellbound by the idyllic splendor of these islands. They are the absolute picture of paddling paradise. After a few days in these warm and friendly waters I am convinced that there is no better way to explore this archipelago than by kayak. The open seas here are challenging , but the offshore islands of North Efate offer relative protection and as a result, these islands welcome paddlers of any skill level. The paddling alone is worth the trip. Yet beyond the paddling, it is the people and their way of life that make this little corner of the globe unlike anywhere else on earth.

© Aaron Reedy is a US Peace Corps Volunteer and has been living and working in Vanuatu since October 2001.