Buada Lagoon
Nauru's one true lake, a brackish oval of 3.8 hectares in a hollow of the interior, circled by gardens, fruit trees and a road.
- Arrival
- Nauru International · INU
- From the airport
- About 1.6 km in a straight line
- Private jets
- Into INU, on the coast below
- Best time
- March to October
The city
A lake with no way out.
Rain is all that feeds Buada Lagoon. Nauru has no rivers, and the lake has no outlet: it sits about 1.3 km inland in a swampy karst hollow, some 280 metres long and 140 across, its greenish water about two per cent salt. In dry years the surface can sink as much as five metres below the level of the sea.
Around 660 people live on the shore, in the Arenibek community, on private land planted with vegetables and fruit. Behind them stands some forty hectares of woodland, mostly tamanu, with kapok, coconut and mango among it. Milkfish were once raised in the lagoon, the work shared between families, until tilapia brought in around 1960 crowded them out.
- The lagoon road A road that runs right round the water, past the gardens and the lakeside forest.
- Command Ridge The highest ground on Nauru, at 71 metres, rising to the north-west of the lagoon.
- Topside The mined plateau above, where phosphate digging left coral pinnacles up to fifteen metres high.
Arriving
Down from the plateau to the runway.
The island's single airport, Nauru International, is in Yaren district, about 1.6 km from the lagoon as the crow flies. It has one asphalt runway of 2,150 metres, with VOR/DME and NDB approaches.
- Nadi 3 h 15
- Brisbane 4 h 40
- Sydney 5 h 35
- Tokyo 6 h 40 long-range jet
- Los Angeles 11 h 25 long-range jet
When to go
March to October.
There is no cool season and no dry one. Highs sit at 30 °C all year, and rain falls on 19 to 22 days a month, from about 163 mm in September to 264 mm in January. The months from March to October have the north-east trade winds; November to February belong to the westerly monsoon.
- 30° J 264 29°
- 30° F 226 29°
- 30° M 213 29°
- 30° A 201 29°
- 30° M 183 29°
- 30° J 165 29°
- 30° J 211 29°
- 30° A 170 29°
- 30° S 163 29°
- 30° O 170 29°
- 30° N 175 29°
- 30° D 241 29°
Elsewhere in Nauru
More reasons to come.
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