(try to imagine a Richard Attenborough voice over.....)
“Approximately
twenty five miles south of the
Equator lies a small island of about 21 square
kilometres whose population of ten thousand, for
most of last century, enjoyed a per capita income
only exceeded by the oil states of Arabia.
This rather unique island was, until very recently,
the world’s major supplier of one of her most in
demand commodities – Guano or bird poop!
This then is the island state of Nauru and on this
island can be found the skeletal remains of one of
the strangest creatures ever to have lived – the aptly
named Bulk Fertiliser Loader.....”
Well, here I am in Nauru.
It doesn’t have the culture of the Polynesian Pacific People – these are more closely
related to Asia – their speech and appearance is somewhat different but they are
some of the warmest and friendliest people I have encountered.
It is so sad that their country has been raped and pillaged for so little – successive
governments during the good times squandered all their money – one ex president
actually had solid gold business cards made – this diary entry is to show you how
bad things are for the average Nauruan.
The unemployment rate is 70%, the average wage is $100 per week for those lucky
enough to find work and, perhaps understandably, petty theft is rampant here – so
saying I have not ever felt threatened or unsafe and as I said above, everyone is so
warm and friendly here.
I was at work in Tonga on Monday when I got a call from Melbourne asking if I could
do a quick trip to Nauru – had seen this place on the TV before but never thought I
would get to go here in person and so I said yes expecting in the next few weeks.
Tuesday at four thirty PM I get another phone call telling me I was leaving Thursday
morning to travel back to Australia and get a connecting flight to Nauru on Friday
(technically 1AM Saturday).
So after a brief stop in Auckland, Thursday evening I was on Australian soil for the
first time in several months.
Had to overnight in a Hotel so I actually travelled to the Gold Coast and booked a
motel there – one of the things I do miss is living in Surfers Paradise – too old but
still a party animal.
Spent my time catching up with some friends I hadn’t seen in ages and also my old
work mates before heading down the Rugby Club for a couple of drinks with old club
mates then went to the airport for my flight.
I really was not looking forward to the flight – seven hours in a little 737 seemed to
be an eternity but I have to say the flight was strange and definitely not boring.
We got pushed back at Brisbane and I think the pilot is a racing car driver in his
spare time as he raced out to the runway at about 50 – 60K’s instead of the usual
sedate trundle – the stewardess had not even finished the safety demonstration
when he was throttling up.
He throttled up, we started moving then all of a sudden he throttled right down and
stopped – an airport car had driven onto our runway just as we were accelerating.
So we did a loop around to the top of the runway again and second time lucky.
At about 1.30 AM the crew started handing out 4n20 meat pies! I declined.
I tried to sleep a bit and at about four we landed at Honiara in the Solomon Islands.
Then the fun began – the immigration staff didn’t turn up to open immigration so the
passengers could not board.
They sent a van into Honiara to try to find them but to no avail. After several threats
from the captain (he turned the PA on so we could hear him talking to the airport)
they let the passengers on without clearance at about half past five.
So we took off and he apologised for the lateness and had a rant about how “Bloody
Useless” they were – he said they always had problems there.
Eventually we got to Nauru – it was a bit of a scary landing – the airport runway
starts at the sea and ends at the sea and isn’t that long – so before we got there the
pilot got down to about 500 feet and slowed right down – I am no pilot but I have
never been in a jet going as slow as that – I think he must have been just above stall
and he had his flaps fully extended. He came in at an angle and just before the
runway he turned the plane – I swear the wingtip was about 50 metres no more from
the sea.
We got down OK – I think he’s obviously a very good pilot. I got through customs OK
and met the Director of Health who drove me to my hotel. It’s sad – this is a 139 bed
hotel built during the fertiliser boon years and was really nice – unfortunately there is
no more money so it has been allowed to fall into disrepair – at least the hot water
still works. On one of the travel advisory web sites I researched before coming it
stated that Nauru isn’t issuing tourist visas at the moment and any other visa has to
be approved before you can even get on the plane so there is no one to stay at the
hotel.
Anyhow after a shower and a sleep they brought me the four wheel drive I am using
here and I went on a bit of an explore.
It’s wet season here at the moment and the kids all sit in the water on the road
waiting for a car to drive past and splash them – terrifies me as I am frightened I will
run one over! They all wave and call out as you pass.
The first thing I noticed were the old WW2 Japanese Pill Boxes on the beach
at regular intervals – it’s quite a connection to the war – especially as you can see
they are pretty intact still. Wouldn’t have liked to be in one there is not much room.
This old gun is sitting in bush not
far from the airport
Then I went to the centre of the island to see the terrible mess the strip mining has
made – I had seen it on TV but its amazing close up:
What you can’t see in this picture is
that all the green vines cover
blackened rocky outcrops like this over
the entire island and they are still
mining what little guano is left.
The grey in the
sky over the
fertiliser plant is
actually
fertiliser dust –
it hangs around
the entire plant.
Even the beaches were strip mined as you
can see it’s not a safe place to swim.
Part 2 Follows.......