Paddling the Marovo Lagoon

I am thinking of buying a canoe and paddling in the Marovo Lagoon for a week or so, maybe a trip from Seghe to Nggatokae (or vice versa) and have a few q's:

1. I will be traveling by boat from Honiara, so where is the best place to buy a canoe + supplies - Seghe or Nggatokae?

2. How much should a canoe cost?

3. Are the islands in the lagoon all surrounded by mangrove forests or are there beaches on which I could camp? I will be aiming for towns/villages on inhabited islands, but I have a tent + camping gear so am planning on a few nights on deserted islands if possible.

4. I assume that since lagoons are sheltered then water currents and roughness are not an issue?

5. For anyone who has kayaked the lagoon, any advice is welcome!

Thanks in advance.

There are fibreglass canoes available in Honiara, from BP fibreglass. Otherwise, you would probably be looking at buying a dugout in the villages, and the are not readily available. There are people somewhere in Western province who hire out canoes or kayaks, though.
Munda, Gizo and Noro are the only towns in the Western Province with any sort of shops. Otherwise you will be very limited in what is available in village stores.
Wherever you are thinking of camping, you will need permission form the landowners. Islands may be uninhabited, but they all belong to someone.
You seem to be leaving it very late to be researching this for the first time.

1. I assume that since lagoons are sheltered then water currents and roughness are not an issue?

Don't know about Marovo but certainly an issue in the lagoons of Palau, Bora Bora, Tikehau, and Aitutaki.

Tides create currents and the wind can cause swells. I even experienced surf within Palau's lagoon. Had three foot high waves in Tikehau.

A canoe out there might not be the type of canoe you are thinking of, all small boats are called canoes and the closest thing to a real canoe I've ever seen there are local dugouts, nothing along the lines of what we consider a canoe. However I've not done any boating in Marovo so I don't really know for sure. Anyone else know ... Ozzie?

Thanks all for the advice. I was thinking of a dugout, but if they are difficult to come by then i may opt to buy a kayak in Honiara and take it with me - I hear storage on the ferries is possible. I know I can hire one from Uepi, but for the cost of that it seems like I might as well just buy one of my own.

I have since downloaded "Treks and Adventures in the Solomon Islands" - extremely useful - and there is a section on kayaking the Marovo lagoon in there, but what it doesn't say is how to get hold of a canoe other than hiring one at Uepi.

Ps better late than never!

You probably won't find a kayak in Honiara - just very basic, open Canadian-style canoes. Where did you download "Treks and Adventures" from?
Probably the most up-to-date site about what you can do in Solomon Islands is in the site in my sig line.

Good old Google. It came up as a word doc actually accessed from exploringsolomons.wikispaces.com - second one down.

Treks and Adventures in the Solomon Islands

It appears that this website is largely cut and paste from that document.

Wow Ozzie, I've never ever seen a Canadian-style canoe out there (other than dugouts); I must be blind :-))

Please post a trip report afterwards. I would love to hear about your adventures.

In fact the Exploring Solomons website was started by poeple with actual experience living for some time in the country, and using their local friends to access parts of the country most tourists miss.
As a Wiki, it is available for others to add to.
There is a lot more to the site than the Word document you refer to. If you are really being adventurous, I would recommend areas of the country other than the Western province. which is the most tourist-oriented part of the country.

Thanks for your advice OG - if i am able to buy myself a canoe then im sure i will heading elsewhere in the country for some more paddling.

Trip report in T minus two months.