Trip to Guadalcanal

[Mark VII]

Thought you guys might be interested.

During the first two weeks of June, my wife and I spent 2 and a half weeks in Oz and Guadalcanal. Most of our time was in Australia which included visits to the RAAF Museum at Pt. Cook(courtesy RaverDave), the Australian War Memorial in Canberra(which I considered better than the Imperial War Museum in London), Blue Mountains, Sydney and Brampton Island on the Great Barrior Reef where we did alot of walking, hiking and some snorkeling.

The highlight(for me) was four days on Guadalcanal. Great view from our hotel room overlooking Iron Bottom Sound with Savo off in the distance.

[Mark VII]

On Wednesday, our first full day we headed out onto Iron Bottom Sound to scuba dive a couple of Japanese ship wrecks. The ride out was very smooth and incredible. Hard not to think about the brave men(both sides)who ventured out into these waters fighting for their respective countries.

Photo shows high ground near Kokumbona which was Japanese held till the final phase of the campaign.

[Mark VII]

Still enroute to Bonegi River, Savo off in the Distance. Canberra, Atlanta, Cushing, Takanami all sunk near this spot with many more in the distance to the right.

[Captain Ed]

Cool pics more more[:D][:D]

[Mark VII]

Near the Bonegi River is the Hirokawa Maru and the Kinagawa Maru, better known to the locals as Bonegi 1 & 2. On the night of Nov 14-15, Adm Tanaka ordered them beached since half his convoy had already been sunk by the Cactus Airforce and he believed they would not last if they tried to unload them in the normal routine. This was the same night when Washington destroyed Kirishima. Both Maru's were relentlessly attacked on the 15th and destroyed with little supplies being saved.

Hirokawa is totally under water, Kinagawa still has portions above the surface.

[Mark VII]

part of the engine

[stretch]

more more more more.

[Mark VII]

You could see it just under the water. My under water camera was a cheap instimatic and have not yet exposed all the frames yet as it is film. Was the second underwater cam I had, the first was used at Brampton Island and the camera did not operate very well and I only got 2or3 good pics there. I have low hope for the under water pics here since I could not get the flash to work.

[keeferon01]

the Australian War Memorial in Canberra(which I considered better than the Imperial War Museum in London)

wow real nice pics, my buddy told me the same thing he loved the war memorial in canberra, he said the maps there was awesome

Ron

[jwilkerson]

Very cool pics ... as they said more more more !

Also did you happen to hear anything about the economy in the Solomons ? My understanding is things have gone very sour in the past decade ( or so ? ) and I wonder why they can't grow rubber ? I worked for a chemical company for awhile several years ago and we were still getting all our real rubber from Malaysia - it was our longest lead time material ... Solomons are roughly same latitude ... what gives ?

[Mark VII]

Looking back in the direction of Lunga Point. Mt Austen is somewhat center in the distance, you really can't see Lunga.

[Mark VII]

Both ships were in bad shape. Back in the early 60's they(along with every other ship that could be dived)were ravaged by salvage operators taking mostly the bronze props and what ever other steel they could get. This is part of the hull allmost at the surface and you can see some of the coral growth that covered much of both ships. There was also alot of just rusted parts. Large amounts of fish now call both ships home.

Each ship was a different dive. We left Honira around 0930 and headed back 1330ish. Round trip on boat was around an hour with 30-40 minutes each dive and then a long rest/safety period in between dives.

[Brady]

WoW, what a Trip that would be[:)]


I asume you had to get a full batery of shots before traveling to this part of the world?

How was it thier, very comfortable? Did you feal at ease?

[Mark VII]

OK, this pic is taken from a Dive wesite showing some coral on the Hirokawa Maru. Best I can do for under water views.

[Mark VII]

The economy is in shambles and it is mostly self inflicted. Not sure of all of the details, but 3-4 years ago was what they call the Ethnic Tensions. Any one who knows better, please correct me but here is my best go at it.

Many people from the Island of Malaita, I guess the Malaitians??? had migrated over to Guadalcanal because there were better and more jobs, so a better standard of living but still not near ours. After becoming independent, each government(after a good start by the first government) became more and more corrupt as the people in power figured out they could take more for themselves. That was part of the problem. I guess at some point the Malaitians wanted more for themselves and tried to take over the country. They pretty much controlled the country side and the government controlled only the capital Honiara. There was alot of killings(no visitors) but not to the extent made out in the media. Still, a scary place to be.

For some reason they took it upon themselves to loot anything not tied down or to outright destroy what they could not take home with them. So, there was all sorts of industry present before the Tensions(alot from Australians) but not much after as the out of country people left or their property was ruined. So, much of the locals have no work and many of the males spend most of the day semi-stoned on some nut that they chew which makes their mouths red(very nasty looking).

There are some efforts to try to get the economy going again but it slow going.

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

Very cool pics ... as they said more more more !

Also did you happen to hear anything about the economy in the Solomons ? My understanding is things have gone very sour in the past decade ( or so ? ) and I wonder why they can't grow rubber ? I worked for a chemical company for awhile several years ago and we were still getting all our real rubber from Malaysia - it was our longest lead time material ... Solomons are roughly same latitude ... what gives ?

[Mark VII]

I wish I had a couple of more days there but this was a vacation shared with my wife. Yes, we took anti-malaria pills starting two days before arriving and did not finish till two weeks after our trip.

Poverty is rampant, I was a little surprised to the extent. I have been to Jamaica and the Turks&Caicos but this was way worse. We did walk around some the downtown area of Honiara but we were never threatened. Out in the 'outback' it seemed a little scary but that was self induced and everyone was very friendly....terry

ORIGINAL: Brady


WoW, what a Trip that would be[:)]


I asume you had to get a full batery of shots before traveling to this part of the world?

How was it thier, very comfortable? Did you feal at ease?

[Brady]

Thanks for the info, I read a travel warning to the area, or rather after reading some about the Solomons it seamed a tad shakey their.

[Raverdave]

Mate, those pics come out just great ! But knowing the type of ppl that haunt these posts, you will never get much rest until you feed them some more pics.

[Titanwarrior89]

Thanks for the Pics and the Tour. Nice![;)]

[Mark VII]

After landing from our scuba adventure we retired to the hotel and had lunch. John Warden picked me up and off we go for the land adventure. We drive up to the American Memorial which was dedicated in the mid 90's.

View from nearby ridge(I think Hill 78). The Memorial is on a ridge,(Hill 73)west of the American perimeter on what was the Japanese side of the Matanikau River.