Manager’s Blog October 26-November 2, 2019

Bilikiki is back after 7 days of travelling into WWII history! What an exciting and interesting week we had! The trip was organised by Valor Tours, led by Professor Anderson Giles and we had guests coming from the USA, the UK and Australia. 

We started our trip in the Florida Islands, stepping ashore at Blue Beach, Tulagi Island, Tanambogho and Ghavutu. We also cruised around the half submerged LST 342 and Kikusuki wrecks and travelled across Iron Bottom Sound to end our first day at Savo Island. 

From there we went to Seghe to walk in the airstrip and snorkel the P38 Lightning and Douglas SBD aircraft wrecks. On our way to Munda we visited Viru Harbor and the PT109 Base in Lubaria, Rendova. We also stopped at Skull Island to see some more ancient Solomon head hunting history and Kennedy Island where John F Kennedy swam ashore after his boat was sunk in WWII.

On the way back to Guadalcanal we stopped in the Russell Islands for a village visit to Karumolun and everyone, as always, was very impressed and happily delighted with the traditional singing and dancing. We spent part of that afternoon in Yandina where the father of one of our guests had served and helped to built a hospital!

To finish this incredible week, we had the chance to also visit the most important sites on Guadalcanal: Cape Esperance, the American Memorial, Vilu War Museum, Red Beach, Henderson Field, Edson Ridge, Mount Austen and many others!

Thank you very much everyone for being such a lovely group of people and for sharing your passions, knowledge and ties with the people involved in the battles that once took place around these islands. Also a special thanks to Professor Giles for sharing all his knowledge of what had happened here. It was just incredible! We hope to see you again soon.

A huge thank you as well to our amazing crew for all their work and help during this trip.

We wish you all safe travels home,

Pato and Fernando