We visit the island of Pentecost primarily for the Naghol (land diving). But there are so many other wonderful reasons to visit this beautiful island barely touched by modern civilization.
While walking along the beach we came across a man assembling a canoe for his nephew, Sampson. It took him 3 days to hand carve the canoe and then he brought it to the beach to lash the rope and alma to the canoe. The super cool thing was he took what looked like a twig with a pointed end and hammered it (with a rock) into the wooden alma. I could not believe how easily it went in and stuck forming an “X” to hold the long stick to the alma.
Elleen, our spokesperson in Wali Bay also introduced us to some local weavers who showed us how they expertly weave these beautiful hand bags. The dye (middle bottom photo) some of the strands with color (left bottom) to eventually make the stunning bag (top right). They sell for $1000VT ($10 usd). The only problem is that the dye rubs off on your clothes…
A few of my favorite local photos. The top right are men from the Ratap Kastom village (and a friend from another boat). Top left is a dancer from the Bunlop Kastom village and the bottom is a man from Londot village – all on southern Pentecost.
And then here is my tribe of girls that followed me around each day. I gave them sparkly nail polish and big heart rings.
Home Bay
Homo Bay is the main bay cruisers anchor at when they want to go see the Ratap Kastom Village Naghol. The bay was beautiful as the clouds danced around the edges of the mountains.
The Bonfire
After the Naghol, we were all way too excited to go back to our boats. So, we decided to have a beach BBQ and we invited a few of the locals. It just happened to be the most perfect evening with clear skies peppered with the constellations.
My Pentecost tribe of women, made me a sand gift out of white rocks.
Waterfalls: Maduit Waterfall
After the Naghol ceremony, we head for Waterfall Bay which is a short 8nm north from Wali Bay. There were so many cows lounging on the beach – it made for such a funny photo. Our friends on Moana (Rena, Chris, and Helena) came with us.
This beautiful bay is known for two very distinct waterfalls. The Maduit waterfall which can be seen from the anchorage and the Rell Cave Waterfall.
Two rivers flow gently into the anchorage making a very refreshing fresh water plunge.
Maduit Waterfall
Pentecost is a bit of a rainy island so it is no surprise that they have lots of waterfalls. We decide to hike to Maduit waterfall first as we can easily see it from the anchorage. On the way to the main road we stumble across Glen who generously offers to be our guide. It is a good thing that he came along as the trail was a little tricky to find. But once you find the entrance, the rest of the trail is easily followed.
You’d think the water would be freezing, but it wasn’t. It did take your breath away as you jumped in, but then you quickly got used to it. Bottom right is our guide, Glen. We ended up paying him $1000VT ($10 USD) for the 2 hours he spent with the 5 of us. He did not ask for the money, we offered it to him and took it gratefully.
The two pools at the bottom of the falls made the most wonderful bubble bath!
It was a truly refreshing afternoon at a stunning waterfall. Super easy access and beautiful.
Rell Cave Waterfall
The next waterfall was much harder to find. We searched all over the internet trying to find a location or a person who might guide us to this cave waterfall. We asked several locals and they had no idea what we were talking about. So, we went back to research some more.
Finally, Matt found a document from 2015 that had a short mention of this waterfall. Sweet as! We contacted the person and his phone still worked. He told us to contact his wife, Venneth at Noda Guesthouse or call her +678.594.3287. She was so nice. She walked us to the next village, introduced us to Michael who became our guide for the day.
It was a super muddy, slippery path that we would have never found on our own. You truly need a guide to show you this spectacular waterfall inside a hidden cave! We walked into the forest, up a hill and into more forest. Finally we came to the mouth of the cave.
You walk down a very shallow river, then you crawl under the opening of stalactites to get to the waterfall cave.
It was obviously very dark and super hard to hold my iPhone, without dropping it and the flash light while balancing on the slipper rocks. but here you go. The waterfall was probably 3-4 meters tall as it originated behind the stalactite.
Of course we had to get wet and man it came down with a lot more force than we anticipated. We had lots of company with little bats.
We did the Rell Cave Waterfall with our friends from Trinity, Kirsten and Stephan. Here is a photo of their trimaran and Sugar Shack at anchor in Waterfall Bay.
Super fun bay with lots to see and do. But alas it was time to move to our next adventure.
Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events. This blog post occurred during the end of June. I hope you caught our 2 part series on land-diving. If not, be sure to visit here and here.
