Vanuatu day 9 - Champagne Beach = PARADISE

I woke up when one of the ‘boys’ knocked on my door, asking me for breakfast. They went to work. They are voluntary workers, they are building a hospital for the locals. That’s something that I would imagine myself doing some day. Spending 3 weeks in paradise is not a bad way to heal the world... I went to Champagne Beach, a 10-minute walk from the resort.

UNREAL. Long beach of the finest and whitest sand that I have ever seen, it wasn’t even sand, it was literally like powder. Crystal clear, pure bright turquoise water. Sun and the palm trees. The most beautiful beach that I have ever seen. And the best part? NOT A SINGLE SOUL ANYWHERE. The sense of freedom! Just me alone in paradise. I was the happiest person alive. It was just breathtaking :) AMAZING. I never even imagined that I could find that kind of a place, a paradise where I could just enjoy it by myself, without tourists everywhere ruining it, I felt privileged. In a few years time it’s probably gonna be ruined.

The Aussies compared it to Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays where I also went, but here the water was clearer, more palm trees and the sand was … Not even sand, it was powder. And, in the Whitsundays, the tourist boats come and go non-stop. MAGIC. I went swimming and snorkeling but mostly just sucked in the amazing scenery. A few tourists came to visit for an hour or two, but mostly I got to enjoy it all by myself…

To add it all? I went snorkeling a bit further above the coral reef. And I saw a turtle! Biiig one<3.>

When the sun went down we hopped in the back of the car, Daniel, this local guy taking care of the resort, had promised to take us for a swim in the blue hole. But before that he wanted us to go and meet the principal of the local boarding school (sponsored by the EU).

Local boarding school

Later when we thought of it, the reason Daniel took us to the Blue Hole was that he could introduce Tony, the president of the Rotary Club, ‘money man’ to the school principal, because they needed a new water tank. Daniel’s daughter went to the school so he had an axe to grind... But the blue hole was beautiful. We couldn’t capture all the blue shades of the water on camera. They are called blue holes because they are more than 200 meters deep. Clear, fresh water, in the middle of the jungle. We saw some huge bats on the way back.

I got back to my bungalow and was just about to go the bathroom when I saw that my enemy, the itsy-bitsy 15cm spider had made its way from the forest back to my bungalow, and was lurking me now on my toilet seat. Very disturbing. I went to dinner and the boys promised to take care of it after dinner. Dinner was interesting, once again…

A few of the guys came for a spider-hunt in my bungalow. Alan found it but the monster got away. They turned the whole bathroom around but it was gone.