Around the world: Annelien Pattyn - Week 11

Hi, you there!

Actually, I shouldn’t laugh with the fact that most of you are sitting at home (some of you in our own home country: the rainy (?) Belgium), but actually, it’s stronger than me so I still do… SORRY! Hopefully, I can cheer you up with my story and let you dream a little bit…

Yes, we’re still in the Solomon Islands and I amuse myself very well here, just like my other travel friends. I can’t describe this place any better than Anne has already did: “A place with a lot of sun, palm trees and pearl white beaches.” Unfortunately, it’s our last weekend here L. Actually, I want to stay here a little longer but there still is another country on our planning that we have to see: Perth, Australia! One thing I know for sure is that I’ll ever come back again to this beautiful place for a longer time!

Wednesday, Manderley wrote about that we wanted to do an excursion to the tropical rainforests of the Islands but then, there were no guides available. Glad as we are, today there were some(!) guides available to show us the rainforests. I repeat: “some guides” so, we still could choose a guide… I agreed with the other girls that it would be Ricardo ( see photo ;-)). Although there also were girls available to guide us, Jeroen had nothing to say on our choice J.

Ricardo told us that around 80 % of the Solomon Islands are covered with tropical rainforests and that they are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and fixed carbon. Of the 163 land birds that breed in the Solomon Islands, an astonishing 72 species (44% of Solomon Islands land birds) are found nowhere else in the world, while another 62 (38%) are considered unique subspecies. the Solomon Islands rainforests also support numerous endemic amphibians, reptiles, molluscs, insects and several endemic plant groups reflecting unique patterns of speciation, isolation and dispersal. I found this excursion very spectacular because I’ve never had seen a rainforest in my life. Now, I got a different view on nature… It’s so beautiful!

After this trip, we were so one with the nature that we decided to go to the Kwaibala Waterfall. Ricardo joined us because it’s on private land and difficult to find. If you need to refresh yourself (and that’s what we did), nothing can beat this Waterfall. It’s about 3 km from the centre, but we took a taxi to the Kwaibala River, from there we had to walk 25 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our swimwear with us…

After a long day, we returned to our hotel. I don’t know yet what we are going to do this evening, but I’ll see. Maybe, we are going to a restaurant or a pub…

I will write you next week in Perth, Australia!

Hugs & kisses from the oh so beautiful Solomon Islands!

Annelien

Sources

http://www.illegal-logging.info/approach.php?a_id=110

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/biologicalsci/staff/details/d.burslem

http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5416/

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/solomon-islands/things-to-do