Hi Everyone,
A bit late but this report is all about the “Manbush Walk!” What a stunning time – I am still trying to process it all. I know that whatever I write here will fall far short of doing justice to this experience. What I am going to do is run through the four days in chronological order and then make a few comments about the guide, the porters and the villagers that were so good to us on the way ……
We didn’t leave on time but then the time was only an arbitrary standard which was only ever going to be a starting point so we weren’t worried and in any case Robert, our guide, kept in touch with us to let us know where he was. The truck ride was as far as Unua and then we started walking. There were two porters, Kevin and Alan, who carried nearly all of our gear – we were left with sleeping mattresses, food for eating while walking and our water. We started off with a couple of river crossings – nothing too scary as you can see by the photos and in fact the water had a lovely cooling effect. Robert decided that the river was “strong tumas” for us to follow the valley route so we were taken up over the hills – a good taste of what was to come later. We walked into our first village, Melken, just on dusk and were taken to a Nakamal. (A special place of cultural significance) Here was our first surprise! Robert had arranged for a special Kastom ceremony and we stood waiting, not knowing what we were waiting for. After a few minutes we heard a noise and detected movement in the bush on the edge of the Nakamal. Out came this masked figure completely covered from head to foot with fronds and branches. He was carrying a heavy bamboo pole. This figure made threatening movements towards us and then without warning struck our guide a very solid blow with the bamboo pole. It clearly hurt Robert and, quite frankly gave us cause for concern. Fortunately the figure retreated into the bushes and we discovered that Robert had taken the blow on our behalf. By now it was dark and we walked for the next 40 minutes by torchlight to Lambure village, our destination for the night.
When we arrived at Lambure we were each given salus salus and invited to have a “snack” before “resting smol” until kaekae. The snack was more pomplemouse and bananas than we could eat and coconuts that had been prepared with bamboo straws – very welcome. Time for a swim – in separate areas – and then a short time later it was Kaekae which consisted of island cabis, manioc laplap (Maryann’s favourite) and as many freshwater prawns as we could eat cooked inside bamboo. A very impressive end to a great first day.
The next morning it was up to a breakfast of coffee and freshly made bread – again more than we could eat. After breakfast we packed up, returned our gear to the porters and prepared to leave but we weren’t allowed to leave without a speech from the village Chief thanking us for stopping with them and helping them earn some money – very humbling. The walk started with us walking through the same river about seven times before we hit the hills. What made the hills more challenging was that much of the track from “place blo gliss” – bloody slippery! As we walked Robert was all the time explaining the use of various plants, picking various fruits and nuts for us to eat and clearly had an incredible knowledge of the bush. After about a 5 hour walk we arrived at the mountain top (up antap) and discovered that Robert had climbed up the previous week and built an amazing shelter out of branches and banana leaves for us to sleep the night in. Not only was there a shelter but also a young Chief, his wife and baby who had prepared lunch for us and wait …. There’s even more – the Chief had chased down a wild pig with his dogs and it was being readied for our evening kaekae. Then Robert showed us the “small house” that he had built for us – quickly dubbed the office. This was a couple of large logs over a pit with a solid stake to hold onto so you didn’t fall back into the pit. The privacy was provided by a wall of banana leaves – quite the flashest toilet I have seen in the bush! So then it was rest smol and then down to a nearby stream for a swim swim. It was woman first, then men. Of course the women took an age but when they came back up the porters had organized a surprise – one of them had gone off and made himself a Kastom small namba outfit – penis sheath and some fronds strapped around the back. Naturally the women were very impressed and insisted on photos with this small namba warrior – check the photos! We made our way back to camp and after another smol rest it was kae kae and kava that they made using traditional methods. A terrific, terrific day and the sight of the shelter as we walked into the clearing was highlight of the day for me.
We slept OK in the shelter – I think we’ve got a bit too used to comfy pillows and spare clothing stuffed in a nylon bag isn’t quite the same . The night seemed quite chilly – probably got down to 18 or 19 degrees celcius – and in the morning it freshly baked bread and coffee for breakfast and off we walked to our next village. The hardest part of walking this day was managing the slippery surface as we walked down quite steep hills. What was frustrating for me was watching Robert and the porters dancing down without slipping in their bare feet and jandals while the white people in proper shoes were slipping all over the place. Robert was very good and was always there to help us through the areas that were , in Bislama, pleis blo glisse.
At one stage we lost sight of the porters and Robert said they had gone ahead to have a small rest. Well we came down a steep bank into a river and there was a very impressive waterfall – made even more memorable with the sight of Kevin the porter in small namba dress silhouetted against the spray. An unexpected sight and Robert’s ability to manage these surprises was certainly a feature of the adventure. Kevin and Alan combined to present a magic trick involving a coconut and a flower – still not sure how the trick was done but how lucky were we to be in this amazing environment watching some people showing off their culture. We had lunch at a village called Lambongbong. They had obviously gone to a lot of trouble and prepared a Kastom dish called Nissawon – made of wild taro, bananas and cocnut milk – very nice. The school children from this village walk about three hours through the bush to go to their school on a Monday, stay there and return on Fridays. From there it was a relatively short walk – about two hours to Leono for the night. Again the villagers went to a lot of trouble – the children went down to the stream and caught fresh prawns for our dinner. Again we took gender turns for our bathing in the stream and retired to prepare for a big final walk to South West Bay the next day.
Day four – an early start – up at 6am, fresh bread for breakfast and on the track by 7.30am. We faced a 9 hour walk with two big hills to climb. Lunch was on top of the first hill at 12.30. Robert produced yet another Kastom dish – tulak – wrapped in banana leaves. After 5 hours of climbing the food was still hot. Those banana leaves are incredible. We didn’t rest long and soon after starting off again we were treated to a thunder storm and heavy rain. This lasted for three hours and made for an interesting afternoon. Robert and the porter made bush umbrellas for themselves and offered us one each as well. The umbrellas were huge leaves and I’m not sure why the others turned them down but my reason was that I needed both hands free to manage the terrain. Finally at about 5pm we walked out onto the coast at South West Bay at a village called Lawa. The villagers had been expecting us the previous day but didn’t seemed phased by us being slightly late. The swim in the sea was the best sea swim I have ever had and we just lay in the water feeling pretty bloody good – we had knocked the bastard off!
That night we ate with a local family with many picaninnies. They cooked snapper and octopus along with rice and pomplemouse – another terrific feed. Then Maryann sang a couple of songs to the family and the rest of us did our best to follow along. The family sang back and it was just a perfect ending to an amazing experience.
Some facts:
Maryann, Diane and Kristy are the first white women to complete the Manbush walk;
We were the first white people to sleep up on top of the mountain;
We walked for a total of 25 hours;
We crossed rivers 19 times (Maryann was counting so it could be right, who knows)