Queens Birthday Weekend

As soon as we heard that Friday the 15th of June was a public holiday for observing the Queen's Birthday here in the Solomons, plans were underway for a long weekend away. It's the first time in the two and a half years we've been here that we've left the SWIM base for a weekend away. Luxury.

So we headed out to a little place called "Nugu Eco Resort". On the way I was debating whether it was "eco" as in ecological, or as in economical. Banish from your head for a moment the picture of clean tropical seas teeming with coral and fish, a frangipani lei garlanded around your neck, a fresh, cold coconuts for you to sip with a straw. Nugu was a bit more economical than ecological but it was the perfect spot to get away because we were the only ones there so we had the whole place to ourselves. We spent the three days languidly stretched out on the white sand beach, reading in the hammock, eating fish, snorkling and playing pit with the locals.

It was a fantastic little holiday. Anyway, why spoil the story by boring you with details. I'll just give you some photos and say that the best thing, I think, of the whole weekend, for me anyway, was seeing a pod of wild dolphins on the way. We circled them to get a few photos - it was exhilarating to see them jumping up in the water, diving, doing tricks. Such fun! I think they were enjoying it more than me!

It was hard to capture (on camera) the dolphins jumping because it all happens so fast - they would jump, honestly, about 1-2 m in the air, by my estimation when they jumped up vertically like this..