Fri 13th-Sun 15th Feb: Uoleva Part III

Breakfast at Daiana's was alwys a highlight but on Friday morning it was the best yet. Kelafi's fishing trip last night yielded 9 lobster so the table, on this occasion, had a rich array of freshly baked scones and two kinds of lobster. Where would you be going?? Lobster for breakfast on a tropical island!! We were spoiled. Breakfast was at 7am. All of us were heading for Lifuka this morning. The couple from Prague had a flight around midday back to Tongatpu while Kathryn, Kaari and myself were heading for the wharf at Pangi to meet up with Dave and Ruth and catch the ferry whenever it showed. Jim the boatman was to collect us at 9am.

Jim had actually arrived before we got up but stayed on his boat sleeping until it was time to collect us. We said goodbye to Kelafi and Daiana, loaded out gear on to the boat and waited while Jim had his customary struggle to start the engine. As usual it did after a number of minutes. We looked back at Daiana's as we pulled away from Uoleva and gave Kelafi one last wave before he disapeared through the trees. Jim was a keen fan of rugby and, knowing I was from Ireland, was happy to tell me that the boys in green had beaten France last weekend in their first match of the Six nations at Croke Park. It wsa a great result. Sweet revenge for 2yrs ago. I don't think I've ever recieved sports results in such an exotic location before. Chugging on a small boat in turquoise seas between two tropical islands!!

Jim dropped us at the wharf and we made our way to the Mariner's Cafe, the local watering hole in Pangai. We decided to base ourselves here until we found out when the ferry was due. I walked down to the main wharf to see if I could find anyone who knew what the situation was regarding the ferry. I found a lad in an office who didn't know but he made 3 phonecalls to try and locate the ferry. The upshot of these calls was that th e ferry would not be arriving today. I would have to call back tomorrow to find out when it would arrive. Perhaps it would be here on Saturday evening but it would then have to stay until midnight on Sunday as public transport is prohibited on Sundays. I thanked him and, as I left, he asked me for some cigarettes. I told him I didn't smoke so then he asked for some money for cigarettes. I gave him some coins and said that was all I had on me and legged it before he could say anything more. Cheeky fecker!!

Back at the Mariners Dave and Ruth were up and about. They had stayed last night in the adjouning guesthouse after kayaking to a neighbouring island, north of Lifuka. With the news of the ferry we all had to reconsider what we were going to do. I knew what I wanted to do. If itwas true that there would be no ferry until Sunday night I was going to head back to Uoleva. It was still early. Low tide would be late in the afternoon so we had a few hours to see if the news would change. In the meantime we had a couple of beers to cool us down. Kaari and Kathryn wanted to go snorkelling. They'd been told about a good spot about 20 mins from town. This sounded good so I hired some snorkelling gear from a local dive shop run by an Irish lad from Tyrone. The dive shop had just opened. He and his partner had worked in Tonga for three years with a different dive company and when their contracts expired the decided to start up their own outfit.

We went snorkelling for a couple of hours but it wasn't great. We had been promised big fish, Tuna, barracuda etc but they didn't show. We were left chasing small fish around mostly dead coral. Still, it was good to be back in the water. It was a week since I'd last snorkelled due to the sunburn. On this occasion I made sure to wear a t-shirt. My back was peeling heavily so I didn't want another layer of burn on the new skin. Back in town by 3.30pm there was no further news on the ferry. Dave and Ruth had made enquires at the wharf and were told the same as myself. So it was Sunday night or Monday morning. Until then? All five of us were resolved to go back to Daiana's for the weekend. We crossed the causeway and marched down the beaches catching Kelafi on the hop who burst out laughing in his surprise at seeig who had returned. The huts were quickly prepared and we settled back into our idyllic surroundings for another two days. Uncertainty still hung over the departure of the ferry. If it hadn't left by 10am on Monday we would miss our flights back to Auckland. However we wouldn't have to worry about that until Sunday night. We were delighted to be back.

My feet ahd begun to recover. The swelling had gone down and the skin was now beginning to peel. At least there was no itch. My back, by contrast was was a mass of peeling skin and itching severely. It was difficult not to scratch.

The weekend brought some relief from the heat. The winds, which had been blowing from the north for most of the time changed and a stiff southerly breeze brought lovely cool air. The sun still beat down but in the shade it was lovely and fresh. I now swam only in the morning or evening. After all of the pain of the past week I was almost afraid to go into the water during the full heat of the day incase I burned. So while the others swam and snorkelled I kept to the shade, reading or strolling along the beach in the full uniform of the Irish on a sun holiday - Hat, t-shirt, shorts.......... and socks!!!! Compared to the others who had such deep tans I looked comical, a mass of peeling, pale skin. On Saturday we had a game of cricket courtesy of Dave and Ruth. It was a good laugh but we sweated buckets. Ruth was a bit of a revalation in this game. She's a slim, demure lady but, by Jaysus, when she took the bat in hand she fairly pinged the ball around the place. I was fielding and she had me running all over. It was certainly a lesson for us lads. Later on I foolishly joined in to kick a ball around with the lads but my feet were still too sensitive. By the evening my feet had swollen up again.

As I was spending most of my time sitting in the shade. I decided to find out as much as I could
about Kelafi's life. I had realised some days earlier that with all the tales Kelafi had told us over the 10-11 days since we'd first arrived on Uoleva, if you pieced them together the different strands you got a picture of his life story and it seemd very interesting. I decided over the weekend totry and flesh out some more details of his life so I sat down with for some hours on Saturday and Sunday asking questions about his life, his family etc and made a note of his replies. Hopefulyy the notes I have taken and the account that follows does justice to his story.

Sunday dawned and, barring some catastrophe with the ferry this would definitely be our last day on Uoleva. It was a little sad but at least we would have most of the day here before walking back to Lifuka across the causeway. Low tide was set for around 5pm. I spent most of the early part of the day with Kelafi. In the afternoon Daiana served us dinner. This time I tasted Parrot fish for the first time and it goes down as one of the most delicious fish I have ever tasted.

We left Kelafi and Daiana with our final farewells and took our last stroll along the beaches to the causeway. The tide was fully out so it was an easy crossing to Lifuka through shallow waters. 40 mins later we were sitting on the wharf at Pangai watching a beautiful sunset. We made enquiries at the wharf to find out what news there was of the ferry. We were told it would be most likely to arrive tomorrow afternoon. This was bad news. We couldn't afford to wait until then as we'd miss our flight to Auckland. Back in the mariners we had a couple of beers as we mulled over the situation. Magda, the Polish lady who runs the place suggested going to the airport in the morning. There is an early flight to Tongatapu. Perhaps we could get on that. It was a long shot but our only hope of getting off the island in time to make the international flight. In the meantime there was nothing left to do. We had some more beers.