Getting Around
p. 105 · Read in the full issue
The Gilberts
The traditional method of getting about in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands is by smallship. If you want to go ashore at an island, the ship rolls about outside the reef while you take to the ship's whale boat which is paddled frantically through the passage trying to keep ahead of a surging wave. The result can be a duck ing or a wet bo:tom. Our top picture, taken, by Capt. Peter King, off Beru, shows how it's done.
But these days you can also travel by air to a number of the islands by the GEIC internal service operated by Fiji Airways with Heron aircraft. Tarawa and Funafuti are also linked to Fiji and the world by international Fiji Airways flights using DH 748 aircraft like the one shown here at Tarawa where the Bonriki airstrip has recently been undergoing resurfacing.
Photo by John Squire.