Thursday, January
21th 1999
The rain started
again at 7.00 p.m. on Thursday night and kept coming down all night
. I knew I wouldn�t be going anywhere much today (sigh) .
Milay and
I went off to see Michael Ben at 9.00 a.m. . One look at the Matanikau
told me I would not be wading across . It was a raging brown torrent
and a lot of huts on the West Bank were flooded . Milay said he had
been flooded a bit too . We drove down to Tuvaruhu and the 1-foot trickle
of water on Monday was now an 8-foot flood .
Luckily
they were not flooded . I cursed myself for not seeing Michael earlier
.So
we stood on opposite sides of the river and yelled across to each other:
P;����������� �..Michael , I don�t
think I am going to wade across that!�
M;����������� (laughing) �No�me neither
!�
P;�������� �I guess I will see you next
time I come over��
M;����������� �Yeah�you still have to
walk Seahorse.!.�
It was a pity there is no access road to
the village on the West Bank � oh well ,� it would have been flooded
anyway . There was no point trying Edson's Ridge or Gifu again � they
would have been seas of mud . On the way back to the hotel we stopped
at the market and I bought 3 more Coca-Cola bottles . I thanked Milay
for all his driving and assistance during the week . I would not have
got to a few places without his knowledge of the roads .
I
sorted my clothes and relics and packed my bags . I had use of the room
till 11.00 p.m. , then the hotel minibus went to the Airport at midnight
. It was light rain now ,so I went down to Customs to say thanks and
goodbye to Timothy . He took me out to the tip of Pt. Cruz (Customs
property) for a few last photos .
I
went back and saw Lawrence and picked up my permit and then down to
the Mendana Hotel , where I had lunch (the only time I ate lunch
while I was on Guadalcanal) . Buying a few T-shirts on the
way I returned to the hotel for another swim , then went downstairs
for dinner . The food is good at the King Solomon and all week I ate
a �Marine meal� of fish and rice .
No
doubt tastier than the 1942 variety with spice and fresh vegetables
. One lesson I learnt � always bring a bottle opener with you � there
is no such thing as a screw top drink in Honiara ! During dinner they
always used to have Honiara Radio playing songs in the background .
As I sat there tonight they were playing; �I�m leavin� on a jet plane, Don�t know when I�ll be back again..�
I couldn�t help thinking how appropriate
that sounded .� Waiting in the foyer for the bus that night it was cooler
than usual and no bugs were flying about . Driving to the airfield was
the first time I had seen Guadalcanal �after dark� . Now I appreciate
more how pitch black it can be in the tropics when you get away from
an electric light . I am sure night landings would have been fun . The
plane departed Honiara at 2.20 a.m. on Friday morning and we got in
to Brisbane at 4.20 a.m. I got a connecting flight to Melbourne at 5.10
a.m. and was home by 9.30 am
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