As described in my post about Honiara, we spent most of our time in the city preparing for the ferry ride. Buying the tickets in advance is not actually necessary, you can buy them also on the boat, even once the ferry has already left the harbour. However, the crucial part is getting on the ferry much much earlier than the 9pm departure time (think noon-ish), in order to secure a spot for your sleeping mat. More about that in my Honiara blog post.

The MV Anjeanette leaves Honiara every Saturday evening at 9pm and arrives in Gizo around midnight the next day. I took the time from when we left Honiara (9.45pm) to when we arrived in Gizo and it ended up being pretty much exactely the announced 27h. And it was a rather loooong ride! We were super lucky with the weather as the sea was often so calm that we were unsure if we were even moving. However, the temperature in our „1st class room“ (as big as an average living room) was way too high for us to sleep comfortably! I think we managed about 2-3 h each during the first night and maybe an hour more the second night before arrival in Gizo. Everything else was fine actually – our mats were rather comfy, the cabin light on our side was broken, thus it wasn’t too bright, and once settled, most people dozed off so it wasn’t too loud either. But because of the lack in aircon, we were just sweating and it felt like there was not enough fresh air coming in. So we took turns to get outside into the fresh air… The best would actually be to sleep outside, if there was any space. It’s only corridors though, so people will be constantly stepping over you, not to forget all sea sick people who might wanna stand next to you to throw up (hopefully into the ocean then). So unless that aircon is usually working better, I doubt there is anything we could have done better to make the trip more comfortable! There is another boat, MV Fair Glory, which leaves Sunday morning and arrives Monday noon in Gizo – a couple of people have mentioned to us that this one is to be preferred over MV Anjeanette.

The day-time part of the ferry ride was actually quite nice. There are quite some stops where you can see a bit of the local life, offloading and loading of the ferry etc. and also part of the trip leads all the way through Marovo Lagoon which was beautiful to see! The day was rather grey, but still all the little islands were amazing! So much green, so much nature, and in between some little simple huts, people on small boats going there way etc. On one of the stops (think it was Gasini) there were lots of sharks circling the boat, hoping for food waste!

And Mathijs saw some dolphins at one point. In Ughele, there seems to always be a small market popping up when the ferry comes in – and they are even selling fully cooked meals! This would have been a good one for us to know, since we realized it too late and didn’t get to buy anything anymore. On the ferry itself, there is a little shop which sells cookies, crackers, cup noodles and some soft drinks. It’s not even overpriced, pretty much the same as shops in Honiara, but just doesn’t offer a lot of choice. We had bought some bread and jam in Honiara, bananas and boiled eggs at the market and got some cup noodles along the way.

The ferry runs along the following route: Honiara – Bunikalo – Gasini – Chea – Seghe (Marovo Lagoon main gateway though one of the smallest stops) – Ughele (Rendova Island) – Noro (transfer to Munda by bus) – Ringgi (Kolombangara Island) – Gizo. The part Honiara – Bunikalo was during the night, and then it was dark again from between Ughele and Noro onward. The last part was dragging the most of course, since we really could not sleep in our „1st class non working aircon living room type of cabin“ and we were kind of done with just chilling and reading. Also, the toilets became smellier and smellier and the boat dirtier and dirtier. More and more cockroaches came out (wasn’t as bad as expected though). So in the end we were counting every minute to finally arrive at our destination, Gizo!