Saturday 17th November.

23 days to go.

When Spud Cod, Squeaky and Plunger were here I joined them on a tour of the Eastern Battlefields. Today I went on the tour that I wanted to go on. The person taking the tour was not in the Solomons at the time and we were unsure of the date of return. So rather than miss out we went on the previous tour. The first tour was more expensive and less informative than this one.

John Iley(unsure of surname) is an amateur historian, with a passion for WW2. (His description, not mine). He knows the Guadalcanal battle in detail, including all the Units and names of many individuals who were involved in some action. It was absolutely brilliant. It may seem to my reader that I am into war. This cannot be further from the truth. While I cannot claim to be a pacifist, I am more interested in the personal story. The outstanding acts of individuals and how they came to take that action is more where my interest lies. Part of that is in understanding the situation. I would recommend anyone take this tour. Tweety and Nemo were both on the tour.
We were accompanied by some Kiwis and other people here with RAMSI.If my reader would like to hear more, (By the way the earlier information I supplied in the blog is about 95% correct) I will accept invitations to expand on the information and also supply photos. When I return to a proper broadband connection I will place all the photographs on Photobucket.

The only down side was the Kiwis forgot to lock their car at one point and lost some items to some thieves.

More on the Solomons....

The pedestrians have the same spatial dysfunction as the drivers. They will see you coming and just walk out in front of you. They make no allowance for the speed you are travelling. They do not plan that far ahead. In Honiara there are 2 pedestrian under passes and 1 bridge. They are located near popular bus stops, they are hardly used. You have to climb either up or down steps to use them you see. Much quicker and easier to run out in front of the moving vehicle, they will stop or at least slow down to let you cross!

Local food includes rice and fish. Many villages rear chickens and pigs as well. There are several types of vegetables available. There are leafy greens, taro, yams and pumpkins and squash. Coconut, mango, banana and pawpaw (papaya) make up the most common fruits. There are stalls set up on the side of the road. They are more commonly used to sell produce, such as the fruit and vegetables. Some more enterprising ones sell cooked food. Freshly caught and cooked fish is popular. There are also fast food shops. They mainly sell combinations of local and “western” food. One popular dish is a roti. A flat bread wrap with a curry flavoured filling. The most common being lamb, tuna or vegetarian. Also popular are Chinese style stir fry meals with rice for lunch.