Solomon Islands
Mount Popomanaseu
The country's highest ground, 2,335 metres up through Guadalcanal forest with no trail infrastructure.
Mist hangs in the moss as the route narrows to a machete-width line through cloud forest. The air cools with every hour of climbing, in a country where cold is nearly unknown.
Popomanaseu is the highest point in the Solomon Islands at 2,335 metres, deep in Guadalcanal's interior. The route runs from Gold Ridge through Nanala village and climbs hard, with rain able to reshape the plan at any stage. The land is customarily owned, so landowner permission, guides and porters are settled before anyone starts walking. Nights at the high camp turn genuinely cold, in a country that barely knows cold. What the climb delivers is the sheer size of Guadalcanal's interior, felt one ridge at a time.
Solo
Permission and guides are arranged in person whatever the group size, and one climber is easier for a village to host on the way through.
Friends
Multi-day forest expeditions with river crossings are safer in a small group, and permission and guide costs stay the same however many go.
- Popomanaseu is the country's high point at 2,335 metres.
- The route runs through Gold Ridge and Nanala village and is genuinely demanding.
- The land is customarily owned, so the climb is settled with landowners, guides and porters before anyone walks.
- Weather, river levels and fitness decide the summit, so no timing or view can be promised.
Water drawn from bamboo on the climb, the route's old canteen.
Where village hosting is agreed, a simple plate of root crops, greens and fish is part of the journey, not a restaurant stop.
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Isole Eolie — Vulcano
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Canyon Guartelá
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A river that refused to go around cut Brazil's longest canyon dead straight for thirty kilometres.
Vangunu Island
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A giant rat known to Zaira's forest for generations, and to science only since 2017.
Ghizo Island
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A 140-metre Japanese transport lies just seven metres down, a tank still in her holds.
Iron Bottom Sound
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So many warships sank here that the sound was renamed for the iron on its floor.
Tulagi
Solomon Islands
The old capital's harbour still holds the flying boats the war left on its floor.