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Uepi Island Resort - Marovo Dreaming

If you do not 'like it hot' then this is the time to dive at Uepi. With the night temperatures plummeting to 25 degrees, the day air temperature depressed to a balmy 28 degrees & the ocean chilled out to 28 degrees you really need to pack your thick pyjamas, wind cheater & thickest wetsuit. But some people just don’t appreciate we are in the middle of winter: They skip around in shorts & the thinnest of T-shirts, wear the same clothing for diving, frolic in bikinis & I can only imagine what their night-wear is!

Along with the SE trade-winds, locally called "Hetcha" (translation: "Wind from the Volcano"), come the afternoon incoming tides & this month has seen a slow but steady build up of fish life at the Uepi Point area. Those of you who have dived Uepi Point, Charapoana Point & the advanced dive Point-to-Point, where we swim across the much deeper channel 'amphitheatre', will know just how good it can get. Mark Green from PRO DIVE Milton was initiated to Point-to-Point this past week & still had that stoked look on his face as everyone headed for bed (the high nitrogen loading & the chilled Solbrew might have helped a little too!). And with these & another 6 top dives within 2 minutes of the Dive-shop we have to say "and the diving is easy".

Nautilus live at about 300m depth, rising up to about 200m at night to feed. We raise our trap & bring two or three nautilus to the Dive-shop so divers can see & photograph these magnificent cephalopods before breakfast . After a quick 'snorkel with' & photo shoot the animal is safely returned to the deep.

During our recent renovation period the quantity of food available to feed our family of sharks was limited. We feed at the Welcome Jetty with observers on snorkel tucked just under the jetty. We prefer using snorkels in preference to SCUBA as it puts the observer on the same level as the sharks & it is interesting to hear the squeals of terror & interpret just what is being muttered as a rampaging whaler whips around decimetres from the jetty face. As experienced spearfishermen know sharks are very attuned to the chance of a free feed & can come from seemingly no-where for a snack. I was interested to see how a prolonged ‘food drought' might affect their feeding. Well, I need not have worried. They were as in-tune as ever, arriving almost instantly the first morsel was cast in. With a reliable food source the pregnant look is popular.

The view from the Welcome Jetty is always spectacular & lately with some fantastic viz & plenty of sunshine I am getting some great digital images by just lying on the jetty shooting downwards. Shooting after the shark-feed produces shots with slowly cruising sharks, schools of Scad, Trevally, Black-spot Snapper & Damsels, along with individual Maori Wrasse, Red Bass, Mangrove Jack, Greasy Rock Cod all against a bright coral, white sand & blue water background. Using a wide-angle lens also captures the glassy surface, the green jungle clad islands behind & that brilliant tropical sky with dramatic clouds building up. One recent shot shows Bob Holloway from Frog-Dive, 15m below gazing at some critters. If only you had looked up & smiled Bob it might have been your definitive portrait.

Again Deku Dekuru, our unique cave dive, has dazzled the divers. The Dark Cave, Open Cave & Hidden Cave combination all within a 200m wall is something different. Even the basic point & shoot digital cameras are getting great shots with foreground corals & fish, coral reflections in the water surface, rainforest background set against a blue tropical sky.

Our Bapita day trip is becoming so well regarded that we do not have to tell divers about it - they already know. Someone has let the secret out! I guess a magical 'Sink-hole' dive in a true life HD wide-screen setting, followed by unrivalled coral viewing at the pinnacle Penguin Reef (throw in some turtles, rays, fish schools & sharks), then a 37m pole-fishing tuna boat resting stern down bow up up against a vertical coral face, finishing with a couple of WWII plane wrecks, complimented by a picnic lunch & unparalleled tropical scenery is worth telling diving buddies about. Sometimes our Solomon Dive Instructor Peter spears a crayfish or fresh coral trout for the BBQ & even lights the fire by traditional means (especially if he forgets the matches). With the SE trades blowing, this area is mostly in a lee both from wind & rain & is providing a magic get-a-way day.

With good surface viz the snorkelling has been so popular snorkellors have been squelching as they get back on dry land & suffering from the “cauliflower look”. The area immediately adjacent to the Dive-shop ranging from Uepi Point to Inside Point is looking really good. But snorkellors often accompany divers to many dive sites with Billy Ghizo Point, Elbow, Landoro, General Store, Matiana, Deku Dekuru & Bapita all snorkelled regularly in the last month. The reef tops are great for digital photos with plenty of light & hence colour. Snorkellors often see the very large Bump-head parrotfish, turtles & often rays & spinner dolphins just love riding the bow waves.

Now for a bad dream: In recent times the Solomon government has lifted its ban on the exporting of live dolphins. This practise is reprehensible in our opinion & is due to the influence of a Canadian dolphin 'expert' who heads an operation cynically called "The Dolphin Education Centre" or similar. He obviously knows how Melanesian politics works & has successfully exploited this knowledge. The reaction from the international community has been very negative as you might imagine. But negativity is often not the answer & whilst most of the many responses have been very constructive some can only be seen as counter-productive. In particular another Canadian dolphin 'expert' in a letter to the Solomon Star newspaper, addressing the Solomon PM, threatened to conduct a personal international campaign to close down the tourism industry to the Solomons. Wow! Not that I imagine he could, but going off half-cocked like this will only antagonise the political leaders as has proven to be the case. Just as the opposition to the logging industry & fur seal slaughter in Canada only hardened the Canadian government's resolve & means the Canadian taxpayer heavily subsidises those damaging activities. In this case to close down the Solomons tourism industry will only damage the most ardent supporters of the environment in the Solomons, the tourism operators. As a result the foreign loggers, foreign oil palmers & foreign fishing operators will only have more dominance. So if you are outraged or dismayed at the re-authorisation of dolphin exports, as we are, please respond sensibly & remember to hassle the Canadians & other internationals involved in this.

A light breeze is barely rippling Marovo. The sky is almost as blue as the water. The current of ocean water is just beginning to flow into the lagoon from the depths of The Slot. I can picture the myriad of fish gathering in the stronger currents. The huge fans in Fan City & the crinoids on the reef crests will be starting to extend their feeding mechanisms. Sorry I have to go .................
Uepi Dreaming is not your normal dreaming. It’s the best kind. You do it when you are wide awake not asleep.

Leana via, Grant, Jill & the Uepi Dive Staff

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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.