Dillons Bay / Erromango

Early morning on April 30, we left Port Resolution and motored in calm weather ca 50NM to Dillon’s Bay outside the lovely village Unpongkor on the Erromango Island.  We easily found a good holding, since we were the only boat in Dillons Bay. Shortly after we dropped the hook, and elderly many paddle his traditional styled outrigger canoe, once upon the time crafted by his father. He came on board, and brought us gifts: Bananas, lemons, a grapefruit and a snake bean.  He was David, of which we already heard and who started and built the very nice little Yacht Club many years ago. He is now 73, but very fit, super friendly and speaks good English. We invited him for a “Swedish fika” -a cup of coffee and cake and he happily accepted and stayed with us, playing the guitar and singing some songs and invited us to come ashore tomorrow for a walk in the village and if we wanted we could also make a trip to a cave with skulls. We didn’t want to disturb the dead, especially since cannibalism was common a hundred years ago on Erromango and declined the offer.

The village Unpongkor

The next day we met David at nine on the beach and he showed us the impressive yacht club that he has built. A beautiful house, built with the rocks he has found. Flags from almost all countries of the world decorated the room, even the World ARC and Oyster rallies had stopped there several times.

We followed him on a tour through the village and met the builders of a house, starting with making all the bricks by hand. Some of the men cooking local food like laplap  for the other men.

Three little girls, Rose, Mary and Elena, followed every step we made and sung with us on the way meeting 85 year old Priscilla, David eldest sister, who was blind and so kind and welcoming. Further on the road we passed teenagers relaxing and playing  football at the school.

It was first of May, which is a holiday in Vanuatu and the children are in boarding school from other islands or villages. We continued the path, David had not been there earlier this year, so sometimes he had to cut the path through the thick rainforest with his machete.

Erromango is famous for its sandal wood trees and kauri trees. The European union support the protection of the trees. We followed the river up to an amazing freshwater basin and could take a splendid refreshing bath and just frolic in the cool and clean water in the gentle stream. The three little girls were happy playing along.

Many friendly villagers stopped and talked to us and Nilla was happy to practice some Bislama, one of the official languages of Vanuatu. The way to express connection, possession or belonging is to say for example “mobil blong me” which means my car. So Birk was presented: “Boy blong me” –  my son.  The locals were very happy to hear that we tried to speak their language. We had another wonderful day in Vanuatu and thanked David for the refreshing walk and learned to say thank you in the language of the village in Upongkor: Kompalong!

 We are very happy that times have changed and that the people of Erromango no longer pile up sandalwood to lure traders to com ashore and then be killed and eaten like in the 18th hundreds.

Just before sunset we continued to the next island, Efate with the main capital; Port Vila.