Tuesday 16 August Vaga Bay, Beqa or Vanga Mbengga

Our shark feeding dive is booked for Friday morning. OK it's an artificial experience where the dive operator chums the water (loads it with bloody fish guts) to attract the sharks that prowl the deep water channel between the big island and Beqa reef but where else are we to see 15 to 20 bull sharks and the chance of a tiger? More to follow if we return from the dives....
We're hoping the weather is better. It might be this is typical August cycles – a low trough passing over once a week and bringing low cloud and rain. It rained on Monday and Tuesday and cleared log enough for us to motor around from Maluma bay to Vaga bay on the west of the island. Another large open bay with boat crunching coral around the periphery and a small village called Naiseuseu at the head.
We went ashore to do sevusevu with the most cheerful chief we've met. Chief Johnny is a small wiry man with a neat little grey moustache and a beaming face. He made us very welcome in his house and gave us a pumpkin as a gift. Since then I've discovered many ways of using pumpkin; roast pumpkin, spiced pumpkin soup and marinated fried pumpkin. We've still got half left so considering the next three easy ways to prepare it.
The little children love palangis (white people) and wouldn't leave us alone; David and I both had children holding each of our hands and others trying to touch us. No fear of the nasty white man hear though we were told many yachts visit the bay and perhaps bring sweets and treats for them.
Later in the afternoon we went out in the dinghy to check a likely dive spot for tomorrow and then onwards around the corner to a dive resort where we met a lovely bunch of holiday makers from Los Angeles. There was Bill from Hollywood Divers with Mark with one group and Anne and her daughter also from LA. They were going on a night dive or we could have stayed and chatted for longer.

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