Nexus - 1604 - New Times Magazine-pages

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In 1998, at Gold Ridge in centra northern Guadalcanal where the mine was being built, they got going with their bigger type of mining bulldozers pushing in roads and clearing the mine area. The mine borders the Giants’ territory, and i would appear that the Giants are quite territorial. On one particular occasion, one of these huge bulldozers broke down, with one o the pins on the blade attachmen rendered useless. As it was late in the afternoon, they decided to drop the blade there and take the bulldozer back to the workshop to do the repairs overnight so they could continue the next day. When they returned the next morning, the blade had disappeared. All the boys became confused. How could such a heavy object vanish? Mind you, we're talking about 10 tonnes plus! So they started scouting around in the bush and happened to notice gigantic footprints, around three feet {~0.9 metres] in length, close by where they'd left the blade. They found the blade some 100 metres away on a small hill. From further ootprint investigation, they deduced that the Giants had no carried it there but had thrown it or ad got it there some other way. Some years ago, as a retired elicopter pilot/engineer I was asked by the chief helicopter pilot of an American fishing fleet, which had elicopters, to look after their spare parts requirements as Australia is closer to the Solomons than is Guam. The job lasted six weeks and was handsomely paid for my little effort. The office | set up was jus opposite the old Guadalcana provincial headquarters, anda unchtime I would sometimes go across the road and have a few beers here with the then Guadalcana Premier and Victor, the Finance Minister. It was during one of these unchtimes that they told me of an encounter with Giants that they'd ad some months beforehand. Both he Premier, who is now a nationa minister, and Victor, who is again a Guadalcanal minister, had decided © go to Gold Ridge to survey the area of the proposed gold mine. In mid-afternoon they got into their twin-cab Toyota Hilux and drove up there. It's quite a drive and, after passing a few villages on the way, they arrived at the mine area. A bulldozer had carved out a road, but, as it rains frequently, the road around the side of a hill had become slippery and the Hilux slipped off the road's edge and became bogged. They made some effort to get the 4WD vehicle back up onto the road, but then decided to walk back to the last village they had passed and get a bunch of boys to come and help them pull it out. Obtaining 30-odd men, they walked back. As they were rounding the last corner from where the 4WD was bogged, they saw their vehicle back up on the road with two huge Giants standing there, one in front of it and other behind. The first reaction for all of them was to run away, screaming in absolute fear. They told me that when they got the courage up some half-hour later, hey returned to find the Giants had eft. I asked how tall the Giants were. They told me that the taller of the wo was the one that had lifted the ront of the vehicle up onto the road. They said that when they inspected he footprints, they could see that each Giant had picked up the vehicle by putting one foot on the road and he other near the vehicle. Pointing out through the window to a tree, he Premier said, “About that igh"—which | estimated to be over 5 feet [~4.6 metres] and which would be consistent with the three- o four-foot-long [~0.9-1.2 metres- ong] footprints they had described. Apes and monkeys cannot breed with Homo sapiens. So where do | hink the Giants came from? | believe they are a surviving species of hominoid that had branched off Map showing Guadalcanal, the largest of the Solomon Islands 66 ¢ NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com