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Living in the physical world - Uepi
August 2006

As I write, a howling 25 knot southerly whitecaps across the lagoon surface. Air temp 28C. Water temp 29C. Blue sky. Sunshine. In the lee at Elbow & General Store, perfectly calm water & clear visibility for the divers. Kayakers are returning from Kajoro Eco-Lodge on Vangunu Island, having spent a couple of paddling days away, sight seeing, visiting villages & climbing (almost) Mt Reku for a panoramic of the Marovo.

With most of our divers coming from a shivering Australia it takes them a few days to acclimatise to the relatively warm climate at Uepi. Just the sight or sound of real rain is enough to keep the breakfast chatter at a high volume; "I wonder if it’s raining in our catchment?". Thunderstorms during the night are always of interest; "I've never heard thunder like this, it was so close". And colourful sunrises & sunsets are constantly digitised. I wonder how many trilla mega monsta bytes of Marovo sunsets exist in the world.
Old habits die hard though & it takes a little longer for some to learn that a bit of rain at Uepi is something to relish not hide away from.

Watching Australians almost 'rediscover' the physical natural world and more importantly ENJOY it, is revealing. Has life in Australia become so comfortable that comfort is valued more than experience? Thankfully divers can so easily stay in touch with nature, just strap on a tank & get amongst it. But with the rest of the population mainly concerned with expanding or upgrading their comfort zone, it is hard to see how looking after 'nature' can be given more than lip-service in Australian society.

In July it was nice to see more of our old friends the hammerheads. In particular a very old large hammer that buzzed us from time to time, appearing out of nowhere above us, gliding stealthily into the deep. Strange but you initially sense his presence rather than see him. The best sighting involved several hammers who kept on coming back and back for closer looks. Again the Elbow was the place to be, but there were a few isolated sightings along other walls.

North Log a site along the outer Uepi wall has been a great spot for photographers. A series of fall-down sections spaced out along a sheer reef edge means that you can see the larger life traversing the walls, with plenty of Eagle Rays & turtles attending, but can also bury your head into diverse invertebrate & fish habitats looking for the harder to find creatures. Rewards for persistence include Twin Spot gobies, various shrimps, many cleaning stations, juvenile fish, all the life amongst the halimeda, gut living crabs on holothurians and much more.

July is also a good night-dive season with good incoming currents at evening. Even when the moon is less favourable crayfish abound. Divers from traditional cray spots like the Vic-SA border are almost driven crazy by the 'look but don't take rule' when say fifty crayfish parade out in the open in front of them. Note we do eat crayfish regularly at Uepi but we get locals from other areas to catch them & earn some tourist dollars for their families. Some bohemian garbed decorator crabs covered in sponges & all sorts of other flotsam have bemused divers for some time as our dive-guides try to 'sight-in' the divers. As we all know it’s easy to see things when you know what to look for, but it can be pretty tricky otherwise.

With changing weather the locals do not wander from home so much. A dug-out canoe paddle of 10 kms, returning home after a day of fishing or spearing, heading into a stiff breeze can be a bit daunting. But the hardier (or hungrier?) still appear regularly & seem to do it so easily. We can only admire their ability, competence & good nature. Perhaps living in a physical world has some inherent benefits. May some of it rub off on us all.

Happy diving Grant, Jill, Lee, Rhonda and all the Uepi staff.

We sincerely wish to thank the following people for use of their photographs in our website:

Peter Lange, Peter Pinnock, Oceania Films/Matt Guest, Eric Cheng, Fred Bavendam, Andy Belcher, Manuela Kirschner, Louise Murray, Roberto Rinaldi, Mark Strickland/Oceanic Impressions, Jill Kelly, Grant Kelly, Wes Kelly and Jason Kelly.