Through the Tassili N'Ajjer to Djanet Oasis

Recently I reread Philippe Diolé’s  1955 book, The Most Beautiful Desert of All, translated from the French Le Plus Beau Désert du monde and rather unimaginatively published in America as Saharan Adventure.

I had found this book in a second-hand bookshop not too long after I had returned to New Zealand from travelling through Africa.  Diolé had been one of Jacques Cousteau’s offsiders during many of his diving expeditions around the world, but he also spent time in the Sahara which he loved, and in the introduction to this book he draws certain parallels between the tranquillity and fascination of the deep, with similar sentiments in the vast open reaches of the Sahara Desert: The sea and the desert gnaw equally at the wrecks lost upon their surfaces: the stranded truck eaten away by rust, the ship aground on the sands, prone on its side. In the solitude of the sea, in the silence of the desert sand-hill, there is some anonymity, the same melancholy of things dying rather than dead, given over defenceless to the sands of the sea bottom, to the sands blown by the wind.

I had travelled across much of the area that Philippe Diolé had traversed twenty years earlier, albeit by lorry rather than by camel. But on rereading his book, it brought back vivid memories of my own fascinating journey in 1973.

Coming out of the desert at Ouargla

Three days after we had passed through the interesting little desert town of Ouargla, also the starting point for Diolé  - although he had flown from here, we reached a little settlement now called Ilizi. In Diolé’s day it was still known by the French name of Fort Polignac. Diolé describes it thus: 'Fort Polignac, now Ilizi can only be described  as the most drearily uninviting of all the Saharan posts.  Polignac is stark emptiness.' I had scribbled in the margin ‘couldn’t agree more!’ He goes on: 'It is nothing but a dot on the map. Before the French took over and built the blockhouse , it was not even a native village.  There is not tree, no bush, not so much as a tuft of drinn, that woody plant growing in clumps that can withstand the aridity of the Sahara.

 Yet it is with tenderness , with nostalgia, that I think of that extravagantly spacious esplanade …  For Polignac is the gateway to the Tassili of the Ajjer. It is even more a port than a gateway. It is where one embarks for the silences of solitude.’  I had also noted the ‘extravagantly spacious esplanade’, during the hour or so we spent in this godforsaken place. It was laid out straight for possibly a kilometre. There were pavements and street-lighting standards but as I also noted in the margin of my copy of Diolé’s book: ‘street lights with no globes or tubes.'  

There was just one small shop, and while our drivers reported our intentions and our planned route to the Mairie, I bought, from memory a loaf of bread – surprisingly good – and a small tin of sweetened condensed milk. I used to love this as an after school treat as a youngster.  Just out of town there was a small settlement of basic scrub and thorn huts, with a few lethargic inhabitants, probably Tuaregs, sitting or standing around.

Basic desert huts at Ilizi (Fort Polignac)

From Fort Polignac/Ilizi, after first having to push our two vehicles through a sand drift, we headed into the rocky, steep vastness of the Tassili N’Ajjer, a barren mountain range that cuts across this part of the Algerian Sahara. Diolé crossed this area by camel looking for Neolithic paintings in the remote valleys of the Tassili. I noted in my diary at the time that the Tassili N’Ajjer was: 'one of the most barren, desolate regions on earth; a region of broken, shattered rock, chiefly sandstone, strewn as far as the eye can see. The area is very hilly and the road a mass of corrugations, bumps & rocky outcrops. We are climbing all the time at the average speed of 12 mph. The odd tree & clumps of vegetation can be seen & we saw several gazelle during the day. We are camped tonight fairly high up in the Tassili, presumably miles from anywhere.'

The road through the rocky terrain of the Tassili N'Ajjer in Mid-Sahara

The following morning we drove through what I described as even  'more spectacular with rocky mesas, canyons, cones etc. a true lunar landscape.' Before we eventually descended to the desert and skirted around the base of the mountains on the road to Djanet. At the time the spectacular scenery gave rise in my imagination that this must be what J.R.R. Tolkein had envisaged the Land of Mordor to look like in his Lord of the Rings Trilogy which I had read for the first time just before I left Britain.

As we drove through the Tassili N'Ajjer, virtually devoid of vegetation, I felt that this could be what J.R.R. Tolkein envisaged the dark land of Mordor, in his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, would have looked like. 

On our last day’s drive into Djanet we passed a camel caravan of around 30 camels making their way in our direction. This age-old mode of transport was even then fast disappearing from the desert. Perhaps they were bringing salt from the salt pans of Bilma Oasis in Niger!

The camel caravan, maybe bringing saly from Bilma Oasis, heading to Djanet

I liked Djanet right from the minute I arrived, as did Diolé: "Djanet is a smiling place, and I really think it is the most beautiful oasis in the world; but it remains inscrutable, reserved rather than hostile, very small and very deeply rooted in its own long-enduring life. In the houses with their walls of very white clay, and in the gardens, silent men work with a seriousness which belongs to another age, and which is scarcely Arab. We have little knowledge of what an inhabitant of Djanet really is. … Perhaps he is the descendant of a Neolithic shepherd or farmer, issue of a stock as old as the grain he grows – that grain of the oasis which is not related to any grain ever known, unless it is to the grain of a prehistoric era.'

I had scribbled in the margin: ‘couldn’t agree more’. I awoke on my first morning in this beautiful oasis to see, in the early morning sun, the spectral figures of Tuaregs leading yesterday’s camel caravan through the oasis date palms.

Tuaregs leading their camels through the date palms of Djanet Oasis

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

Read the full story of my travels in my books published on Amazon

One Foot in Front of the Other - First Steps & One Foot in Front of the Other - Full Stride

Mykerinus Steps Forth

Assertive and confident, from deep within the hazy mists of time, escorted by the mother goddess Hathor and Anput, his local district goddess, the pharaoh Mykerinus (Menkaure) steps towards us, out from the hard greywacke stele which has withstood the ravages of time. An imposing figure, handsome, determined and very much a leader of men, he now stands just a few kilometres from his most imposing monument, the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza. The world he knew was a one of opulence and innovation, a remarkable civilisation encapsulated within the narrow confines of the Nile Valley. 

The Three Pyramids of Giza, That of Mykerinus (Menkaure) is on the right

The great sepulchral monuments of the vast necropolis of the Western Desert has inspired mankind's imagination throughout the millennia -

                              "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

                              Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

                                                                                [Shelly 1818]

Mykerinus' immediate predecessors, Cheops (Khufu), his grandfather, and Kephren (Khafre), his father, built the much larger Pyramids, but this fine sculpture, in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, brings a human face and character to these rulers from the beginnings of recorded history; rulers whose mystical reigns inspired funerary monuments of such awe-inspiring, gargantuan proportions. 

The greywacke stele of Mykerinus & the goddesses
Hathor & Anput, in the Egyptian Museum

Elsewhere within the Museum are the seated figures of the high priest Rahotep and his wife, Nofret. Rahotep, High Priest of Ra, the sun-god, was half-brother of the Pharoah Cheops (Khufu) and consequently would have been the great-uncle of Mykerinus. The most striking feature of these ancient figures are their realistic eyes, finely wrought from rock crystal. Rahotep and his wife look quizzically at us as we walk towards them, seemingly gazing into our very souls with the wisdom of four and a half millennia. It is hard to believe the incredible age of these beautiful painted sculptures.

Rahotep, High Priest of Ra & Nofret, his wife. Egyptian Museum, Cairo

It is from admiring such images as those of Mykerinus, of Rahotep and Nofret, by seeing the massive Pyramids of Giza and the earlier Stepped Pyramid of the Pharaoh Zoser at Saqqara that we can begin to appreciate the amazing splendour and technology of this far distant age. It was an age that persevered, through the vicissitudes of invaders and weak rulers for almost 3000 years, assimilating the ways of the various invaders who entered the Nile Valley. It was an age that reached its apogee in the New Kingdom some 3500 years ago, best illustrated by the amazing treasure from the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamen.

          In a special chamber in the Egyptian Museum we can only gaze admiringly on the exquisitely worked solid gold funerary mask of Tutankhamen. The delicate gold, silver and inlaid scene of the boy-pharaoh and his queen on the back of a royal chair describes a scene of domestic harmony, while the beautiful protecting goddesses who guard the gilded-wood shrine containing the king's viscera show that he was well accompanied in his journey through the after-life, while an alert wooden jackal, Anubis, eternally guards Tutankhamen's sacred mummy.

The solid gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun & the pharoah with his wife on the royal chair,
Egyptian Museum, Cairo

It is only after viewing these exquisite treasures by ancient craftsmen that we begin to realise just how skilled and advanced the ancients were. It is frightening to think that what we see today in the Museums of the world is just a very small fraction of the riches of this ancient world. All the great tombs were well-plundered by grave-robbers thousands of years before modern Egyptologists even began their investigations, less than two hundred years ago. But in spite of these depredations, a wealth of knowledge has emerged from the ancient hieroglyphic texts, painstakingly deciphered by the 19th century work of the Frenchman Champollion, and the ornate, detailed and colourful frescoes of scenes of everyday life, of military campaigns and trading expedition that decorate the later tombs of the pharaohs and their courtiers. A wall-painting and relief in the Mastaba tomb of Princess Idut, daughter of the 5th dynasty Pharaoh Unis, at Saqqara shows an ox being slaughtered, another wall-painting shows a fishing expedition on the Nile. 

Butchering an ox, from the Mastaba tomb of Princess Idut, daughter of 5th dynasty pharoah Unas at Saqqara      

Each year further exciting discoveries are made from this fascinating era, and who knows, perhaps Egyptologists will one day find an unknown tomb rivaling that of Tutankhamun. To house these new discoveries a brand-new state-of-the-art Egyptian Museum is due to open, within view of the Pyramids in 2020.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

My travel books are available from Amazon: One Foot in Front of the Other

One Foot in Front of the Other - First Steps

One Foot in Front of the Other - Full Stride

A Photographic Appreciation of Castles

The ancient mudbrick Citadel of Bam, Iran

"The castle has always been a formidable image, a powerful intimidating fantasy of the human imagination. The fortress, the citadel, the craggy tower dominating the landscape: it is older than history, as natural to man as the eyrie to the eagle. To defend oneself, to attack others, to live in guarded pride: these are its laudable aims. Until they are ruined, no one but their owners and those who live under their protection has liked them; once they are shattered and dismantled, admiration supervenes; they become pets, the most esteemed ruined objects in a landscape, curdling the blood with awe, delighting the soul with majestic beauty." 

Castles have always inspired the imagination,  evoking images of medieval armies carrying scaling ladders, supported by ballista, mangonels and boar-headed battering-rams, charging up to crenellated  battlements, braving arrows, spears and boiling-oil, to hopefully scale the walls, and breach the gates. Such visions have, in recent years, been promoted by movies such as the 'Lord of the Rings', and 'the Hobbit' trilogies and the lengthy 'Game of Thrones' TV series. While these movies and TV series are fantasies, the 'real' castles of the North Hemisphere have a history just as exciting, if not more so, as any Hollywood can produce. I have detailed here just a few of the castles and fortresses that I have visited.

Ancient Troy has always stirred my imagination, ever since I first read Homer's Iliad. I have visited the ruins a number of times over the years, and each time archaeologists have uncovered more of this ancient fortress. While not a castle in the true sense of the word, Troy was a fortified city dating from the third millennium BC, and rebuilt many times. To look upon this place of legends, across the plains of the River Scamander to Aegean Sea where the Greeks left the famous 'Wooden Horse', or to walk beneath of walls where Achilles pursued the Trojan champion Hector three times before killing him, has always inspired my imagination: 

The massive walls of ancient Troy, around which Achilles chased the luckless Hector

'While Hector stood engrossed in inward debate, Achilles drew near him, looking like the god of War in his flashing helmet, girt for battle.  Over his right shoulder he brandished the formidable ashen spear of Pelion, and the bronze on his body glowed like a blazing fire or the rising sun.  Hector looked up, saw him, and began to tremble. He no longer had the heart to stand his ground; he left the gate, and ran away in terror. But the son of Peleus, counting on his speed, was after him in a flash.  Light  as  a mountain  hawk,  the  fastest thing on wings,  when he swoops  in chase  of a timid dove,  and shrieking close behind  his  quarry, darts  at  her time and again in his eagerness to make his  kill, Achilles  started  off in hot pursuit;  and like the dove  flying before her enemy, Hector fled before him under the walls of Troy, fast as his feet would go.'  Homer - The Iliad.

In the UK, after the Norman invasion of 1066, castles sprang up throughout the countryside, often dominating a town such as the castle in Ludlow, Shropshire. Often the home of the local lord, the castle provided protection to the town's inhabitants, usually in return for various services the townsfolk would provide their 'local lord'.

The remains of the 11th century Norman castle dominates the Shropshire town of Ludlow 

Castles and fortresses are scattered throughout Europe and Asia and one of the most spectacular I have visited is the Mehrengarh Fort in the Rajasthani city of Jodhpur in India, which dates from the 15th century. The stark, sheer, impregnable  walls dominate this desert city. Within the fort is the Palace of the Maharajahs of Marwar, now a Museum. The fort was constructed on the hill aptly named the 'mountain of birds'.

The massive Mehrangarh Fort dominates the city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India

The Middle East has many interesting castle ruins which date back to the First Crusade, particularly after the capture of and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Crusaders established other feudal Kingdoms in the Middle East, most notably that of Oultrejordain, based in the great castle at Kerak (Crac des Moabites) in modern day Jordan. A small subsidiary castle of Oultrejordain was Montreal, in the small town of Shaubak. The castle sits upon a hill overlooking the semi-desert countryside and is a fascinating place to explore. 

The battlements & the ruins of Montreal, Shaubak, Jordan

One of the most romantic castles I have visited is the small 12th century Armenian castle near the Turkish town of Silifke on the Mediterranean coast. This is Kızkalesi, or the Maiden's Castle, and sits on a small islet just offshore.

Kızkalesi, the Maiden's Castle, in the Mediterranean Sea near Silifke, Turkey

There are very few fortified cities now remaining intact, but two of the best examples are La Cité, the old town of Carcassonne in the Languedoc region of France, and the hilltop fortified town of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, India. Both are well preserved and are fascinating places to explore.

The towers of the French city of Carcassonne & the fortified town of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan

While most castles and forts have a history dating back over centuries, Fort Saumarez on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel was adapted to serve as a defensive position by the German occupiers of the island during World War 2. This latter day Martello Tower. with its machine-gun slits, dominates a section of the Guernsey coastline, but did not see any action.
  

Fort Saumarez on the coast of Guernsey, Channel Islands

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

Travel books by the author, available from Amazon

The Native Flowers of New Zealand

It has often been said that New Zealand native vegetation lacks colour; is just a mixture of many shades of green with no distinctive flowers, but although there might not be so many of the large, showy flowers of the tropical rainforests, there is a large variety of delicate, colourful and interesting flowers which extend from the coastal plains up to the extensive alpine regions of both islands.  Over 80% of our natives plants are endemic, which means they are unique to these islands. Many of New Zealand native flowers are white, catering to the numerous night-flying moths which are among the main pollinators. New Zealand only has around 15 butterfly species, but over 1500 species of moth!

In this photographic essay I highlight a few of the unique and beautiful flowers found in the various environments of this isolated land.

Kowhai ngutu-kaka, or kaka beak; kowhai & rewarewa

Perhaps New Zealand's most showy flower is the rare, at least in the wild, kowhai ngutu-kaka, or kaka beak (Clianthus puniceus) which is classified as critically endangered by the Department of Conservation. Fortunately this plant grows well in a controlled habitat and is popular in gardens. The yellow-flowering kowhai (Sophora tetraptera) is distinctive throughout New Zealand when it flowers in the spring. This small tree is semi-deciduous and the yellow flowers - kowhai is the Maori word for yellow - is regarded as New Zealand's national flower.  One of the more unusual, and frequently overlooked flowers of the New Zealand bush is that of the rewarewa (Knightia excelsa). This tree can grow up to 30 metres in height and although sometimes called the New Zealand honeysuckle, it is actually a protea, and is the first of the larger trees to reappear with the bush regenerates.

Puriri, kiekie and kamahi flowers

Found only in the North Island, the Puriri (Vitex lucens) tree is a hardwood related to teak. The showy flowers can be found on the tree all year round, a popular food-source for the nectar-feeding  tui, and the berries are popular with the kereru, or native pigeon. The climbing kiekie (Freycinetia banksii) is a member of the tropical pandanus family and can be seen clambering over larger trees throughout the country. The leaves were used by the Maori for weaving and the large flowers of the male kiekie consists of beige-coloured stamens, surrounded by white bracts, a delicacy to the pre-European Maori. The prolific, candle-like flowers of the kamahi tree (Weinmannia racemosa) produces excellent honey.

Taurepo; toropapa & kotukutuku (tree fuchsia) flowers

Some of the lesser known flowers of the New Zealand forest include the attractive red flowers of the taurepo (Rhabdothamnus solandri) shrub, also known as the New Zealand gloxinia, found only in the North Island. Like the puriri, the taurepo can flower for much a the year and its main pollinators are the nectar-feeding native birds.  The long tubular flowers of the toropapa (Alseuosmia macrophylla) emit a strong sweet very distinctive perfume noticeable in the forests in late spring, early summer. Particularly common in the forests of South and Stewart Islands is the kotukutuku, or tree fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata). This tree is the largest of the fuchsia family and is one of the very few New Zealand trees which are totally deciduous. Flowers are small and can be hard to see, unlike their more showy South American counterparts. The fruit produced, known to the Maori as konini, is sweet and certainly not unpleasant, if you can get to them before the native pigeons!

Greenhood orchids, veined sun orchid & spider orchids

New Zealand also has an interesting array of small orchids, not always easily identifiable. One of the most common is the tutukiwi, or greenhood orchid (Pterostylis banksii) which can be found alongside forest tracks throughout the country. This veined sun orchid ( Thelymitra venosa) looking rather like a pixie was photographed on Stewart Island, as were these ground-hugging spider orchids (Corybas macranthus).

Mt Cook lily, or giant buttercup, giant spaniards, New Zealand eyebrights

The Alpine regions of New Zealand have many showy flowers but perhaps the best known is the so-called Mt Cook lily which is really a giant buttercup (Ranunculus lyalli). This large-leafed plant flowers prolifically in Mt Cook National Park and in other alpine areas of the Southern Alps and Fiordland. The giant spaniard (Aciphylla scott-thomsonii) is a speargrass and is actually a member of the carrot family. There are many species of speargrass found throughout all islands of New Zealand.  The New Zealand eyebright (Euphrasia cuneata) is another showy flower found  alongside tracks and stream beds in both lowland and alpine regions, particularly in the North Island.

Poor Knights lily & tecomanthe flowers

Two of New Zealand's rarest flowers, although both now found in gardens, are the Poor Knights lily (Xeronema callistemon) which originally grew only on the Poor Knights Islands & Hen Island off the coast of Northland, and the spectacular climber Tecomanthe speciosa, one of the world's rarest pants, which is known from just a single specimen, discovered in 1945, growing on Great Island in the Three Kings group off the tip of Northland.

The spectacular red mistletoe growing on a southern beech at Lake Ohau

To finish this photographic essay I feature the endangered (popular food for possums) red mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala). Like its northern hemisphere counterpart, it flowers spectacularly in limited locations in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

My travel books 'One Foot in Front of the Other' are available in paperback & ebook from Amazon Books 

A Walk in the New Zealand Rainforest

The bush grows dark, dank and mysterious. Trees and shrubs tumble around, over and under each other in an impenetrable barrier. This is the typical New Zealand native bush, which is in fact rainforest, quite different to what the Australians call ‘bush’.

New Zealand has many different types of ‘bush’, as the country extends from the sub-tropical to the temperate zones of the Southern Hemisphere.  In Orewa, just a few hundred metres from where I am writing this, is Alice Eaves Scenic Reserve, a small relic of the original coastal rainforest near Auckland city. The forest here is primarily of stands of nikau palms, large gnarled hardwood puriri and small healthy stands of young kauri, the giant tree of North Auckland which was decimated for its excellent timber in the 19^th and first half of the 20^th centuries.  

Nikau palms & ancient puriri trees in Alice Eaves Reserve, Orewa

In Northland there are still a few areas of the original dense rainforest where the giant kauri trees still flourish.  Te Matua Ngahere, a forest giant with a girth of over 16 metres, resides almost unseen in the dense sub-tropical Waipoua Forest.

The ancient giant kauri tree, Te Matua Ngahere, 'Father of the Forest', Waipoua

On the West Coast of the South Island there are the swamp-forests where the predominant tree is the kahikatea, the New Zealand white pine, often referred to as the dinosaur tree as this species is said to have changed little since the age of the dinosaurs. The swampy vegetation surrounding these trees adds to the primeval atmosphere.

Swamp forest at Ship Creek, Westland

In the higher more temperate country of the South Island are the beech forests, the ancient nothofagus species whose ancestors had colonised much of primeval Gondwanaland, and now exist naturally only in parts of Australia and South America. These are no relation to the beech trees of the Northern Hemisphere - fagus spp.

Southern beech trees in the temperate rainforest at Makarora, Otago

With the lack of browsing mammals, the New Zealand forest can grow extremely dense, with clumps of the twisted liana vines known as supplejack, making the bush all but impenetrable. The bright red summer berries of the supplejack, along with those of the karamu, were a source of bush-food to the pre-European Maori. The karamu is of the Coprosma species whose Latin name means, to use the vernacular,  'smells like shit' ... or dung in polite society, which shows that some botanists did have a sense of humour!  One of the species, Coprosma foetidissima, known to the Maori as hupiro, was called stinkwood by Europeans, hence the name for the entire family.

A tangle of supplejack - Ripogonum scandens - an the red berries of the karamu -  Coprosma robusta

While the New Zealand rainforest lacks mammals, with birds and insects also being very scare, there is an abundance of interesting smaller plants which the average bush-walker can easily overlook. Flowers can be small and many are white, catering for the large numbers of night-flying moths - native butterfly species only number around 15. 

The beech forests harbour some interesting specimens. In some areas a thick black sooty mould covers the bark of certain beech trees. Closer inspection will reveal thin tube-like apendages protruding through the mould, secreting tiny droplets of honeydew, These are the anal tubes of a primitive scale insect which feeds on the sugary sap of the tree. The sooty mould grows on the discarded honeydew. Other insects, particulalrly the introduced wasp and native birds in turn feed on the honeydew, an important link in the forest food-chain.

Also in the beech forests, particularly in the Spring or early Summer, the so-called beech strawberries appear. These are a parasitic fungus, Cyttaria gunnii, that appear on some of the smaller brachlets of the beech trees in temperate areas. They are not always obvious, except when the yellow honeycomb-like fruiting bodies have fallen to the forest floor.

Scale insects anal tibes with droplets of honeydew, & the fruiting bodies of beech strawberries.

While the New Zealand rainforest is normally regarded as being benign to human intruders - no ferocious mammals, snakes, scorpions, and even a lack of biting insects - there is a lurking hazard for some of the lower insects. This is the stuff of nightmares, something out of a Kafkaesque dream. Several species fungi take over the bodies of living insects, feeding on or altering the structure of the victim. Best known is probably the awheto, or vegetable caterpillar - Cordyceps robertsii - in which the fungus will perfectly retain the shape of its victims. This unfortunate was also used as a tattooing pigment by some Maori tribes. While I have never found the awheto in the forest, I have come upon its close relative, the vegetable cicada - Cordyceps sinclarii. This fungus will attack a buried cicada nymph, feeding on its tissues. An indicator is white, powdery fruiting heads in the forest undergrowth and when uncovered, the remains of a cicada nymph becomes visible. Another of these parasitic fungi is the sugar icing fungus that will attack living cicadas, stick insects, mantids, and wasps, coating the vunerable parts of the body with 'icing', while it feeds on the unfortunate insects internal organs.

The vegetable cicada - Cordyceps sinclarii - fruiting bodies among liverworts, & an exhumed nymph

Finishing on a less macabre note, in certain areas of the forest is found the giant moss, Dawsonia superba, which is one of the world's largest mosses. The first time I found this, was in the Coromandel rainforest. I was with an American botanist. She looked at the plant, stood back and said: "it can't be." I looked at her, somewhat puzzled. She said "it looks like a moss, but is far too large."  A few days later I received a fax with the moss identified as Dawsonia superba.

The giant moss, Dawsonia superba

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

Travel Books by the author, available from Amazon

Capt. James Cook & William Hodges in Vanuatu

Sparkling waters push a coconut further up the coarse, reddish sands. Pink-tinged Barringtonia flowers add a splash of colour to the leaf debris flotsam of the high-tide mark. Palms sway in the gentle tropical zephyrs that blow in off the blue Pacific.

Barringtonia flowers on the beach at Malekula

The beach is deserted except for a couple of figures at the waters edge at the far end of the beach. All is serenity, so far from the hustle and bustle of the modern world. The coconut will, perhaps, sprout & eventually add to the swaying verdant fringe of this pristine shore.

Sanaliu Beach, Malekula

This is a scene that would be recognised by Captain James Cook, as he sailed down this coast, on his second voyage of discovery, in the Resolution in 1774. Cook was in need of fresh provisions and no doubt his men looked longingly at the pristine beaches, seeing the natives who waded into the warm waters waving green branches, a sign of greeting, to the European intruders. Eventually a safe anchorage was found in what Cook named Port Sandwich, at the southern end of Malekula.  The British sailors’ first encounter with the Malekulans was tenuous to say the least. Initial tolerance soon turned to intolerance: the Malekulans believed the Europeans to be the ghosts of their ancestors, who could sometimes be malevolent, and in return the Europeans did not understand the Malekulans attitude to private possessions. Tensions became strained and the uncertainty of Cook’s landing was accurately captured by his onboard artist, William Hodges, in a colourful canvas entitled ’Landing at Mallicolo’. Firearms are displayed by Cook’s men while one or two Malekulans brandish spears.

Landing at Mallicollo by William Hodges  1744-1797

          William Hodges is, perhaps, the most under estimated landscape painter of the 18^th century. As he was on Cook’s 2^nd voyage of discovery he was under contract to the British Admiralty, so many of his magnificently coloured paintings of the 18^th century Pacific remained, for many years, in the Admiralty archives. For that reason,Hodges was relatively unknown even in his time, a sentiment admirably described by his friend, the poet William Hayley, on his epitaph:   
                       

 “Ye men of genius, join’d to moral worth,

                           Whose merits meet no just rewards on earth.'

                             “ To active Hodges, who with zeal sublime

                                 Pursued the art, he lov’d, in every clime;

                                 Who early traversing the globe with Cook,

                                 Painted new life from nature’s latent book.”

          As Cook sailed on through other islands in Vanuatu,  which he named the New Hebrides, Hodges conscientiously recorded the landings. On Erromanga, Cook’s reception was hostile and led to the death of several locals.

Landing at Erramanga by William Hodges

The Williams River on Erromanga, named after the Missionary John Williams who was killed her in 1839

Cook did not stay at Erromanga and as he sailed south, passing Aniwa, he and his men noticed what seemed to be a large fire on an island to the south-west. By the time Cook sailed into the bay he named Port Resolution, he had realised that what they had seen was, in fact, the volcanic fires of Mt Yasur.

A recent photo of the eruptions on Mt Yasur, island of Tanna

As on other islands, Cook’s reception on Tanna was initially tense, and the ship’s cannon had to be fired several times to warn off the natives. An added complication was the realisation by Cook’s men that the islanders had several distinct languages and that there was little relationship and co-operation between each tribe. There are 110 distinct languages in Vanuatu and 3 extinct languages.

          William Hodges detailed Cook’s landing at Port Resolution in a canvas utilising magnificently the atmospheric effects of bright tropical sunlight & the dark brooding smoky fires of Mt Yasur, which forms the backdrop to Cook‘s confrontation with the Tannese.

Cautious Landing at Tanna by William Hodges

 If Cook was to return to Tanna  today he would immediately recognise the fires of Mt Yasur, which still dominate the southern area of the island, periodically blowing mineral-rich volcanic ash across the island, adding the  natural fertilizer which nourishes  the excellent Arabica coffee trees that  grow on Tanna, producing one of the world‘s best coffees.

William Hodges was also to paint the first images of Easter Island and some of the first oil paintings of Tahiti and New Zealand.  Hodges story and photos are admirably illustrated in the book, William Hodges 1744-1797: the Art of Exploration published by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. 
 © Neil Rawlins  text & photography

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