A chilled last day on Mana

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6/4/09 = The last night in Mana Lagoon .... and also the end of Lent. No biscuit goal achieved 😊

Woke up at 7:30 hot and shattered. Lack of sleep = nearly created the hangover effect. Really should have gone to bed earlier. Scraped out of bed and trapsed off to breakfast = easily most exciting meal of day…hope is pancakes again. Was only me and Deb in the whole hall at first, which I was pretty impressed with to say I was one of last people up. Strolled straight up to buffet table and got first picks at everything; that made it worth getting up early. Allan soon came to join us, followed by everyone else in turn, Alabama last; he looked as shocking as me. Chatted, ate yummy breakfast = pancakes, bananas and syrup, then all headed to beach, hopefully for a little nap. Turned out to be really hot sun though, too hot to snooze 😞.

Ended up all going out on a snorkel. Our team won at quiz last night, so they all had free snorkels. Out we went. Morning = best time to snorkel because water really calm, but also worst because of low tide. Low tide meant that water only just skimmed over reef, making it near impossible to get out. All had to go down a kind of runway (an area free of coral) and then really breath in as skimmed over rest of coral. Was alright once we were out, in fact, it was really good. All had a nosey round, then ended up snorkelling with Alabama again. He had apparently found some ‘really good fish’. These fish turned out to be one black fish…just one normal, black fish. He was highly impressed with it. The rest of our snorkelling entailed me pointing out fish to him and then him trying to show me fish too, but he spent so long tapping me and gesturing with his hands about how big they were that by the time I looked, they were gone. Although he may have been making it up anyway. He then did his whale calling, apparently to attract fish and spent rest of time laughing. Laughing and snorkelling not really a good combination. Mask steamed up and had to take it off to try and clean it. Moved away from coral and over ledge to make sure could tread water safely, but didn’t account for tide pushing me back in. Next thing felt was a sharp pain as foot banged quite hard against coral. Looked down to see blood and foot really stinging. Oh no. Alabama checked it over - don’t know what he thought he was going to do out in the middle of the sea - but then that was the end of the snorkelling. Most people had gone back in anyway.

Flippered off down runway and back to shore. Foot really hurting despite it only being a cut. Washed it in sea salt - I’m sure that’s supposed to be good for cuts - then laid down, careful not to get sand in it - I’m sure that’s not good for cuts. Freddie came round to take everyone on school visit, which I had planned to do, but now foot cut and still bleeding, decided to give it a miss and try to keeo sand out. Boys headed off on trip and us girls stayed on beach. Drifted in and out of sleep and guys came back less than 30mins later…not much of a trip. Still hadn’t had any look at spotting clownfish on snorkelling trips, so Yurgon took me out to show me. Yurgon = really good at snorkelling. Had to go to other side of reef and quite far out, but fish were way better there. Lots of them and lots of variety again. Coral pretty too. He showed me the clownfish and was v.impressed. Not exactly like Nemo - they didn’t have enough stripes - but they did all live and hide inside just one bit of coral and if you went near it, they all swam out to protect it. Really cool. I’m not good enough to dive down and look closely at things, but Yurgon was really good and every time he went down, all clownfish came out. Cool.

Were right on the edge of ‘the ledge’ at this point and Yurgon spotted some really big fish deeper out to see. He swam off happily to check them out, but I had to think it through before could go out swimming that deep. By time had made mind up, was too late anyway, Yurgon was out of visibility and was now just me, out in deep sea, on my own. Oh no! Had 2 choices, could either swim deeper out to sea, on my own, to find him, or could try and make my way back on my own. Decided on option 2. Swam up and down ledge looking for the runway we had come in on. Couldn’t find it…couldn’t find any gap for me to swim across. All could see was lebngths and lebngths of coral with just inches o water above…not enough for me to try and swim over. Panic. No sign of Yurgon, no way out. Treaded water for a few minutes panicing, then had to do usual of talking to myself and calming myself down. So, no runway, would just have to find next clearest place and swim v.carefully over coral. Didn’t want cuts all down front of body like ones on foot. Found my best option, breathed in as best as could and skimmed over coral. Was a cross between barely moving legs because didn’t want to touch coral, but also kicking furiously in panic. So relieved when saw a patch free of coral. Swam straight for it to catch my breath and calm down. Couldn’t touch floor yet, but could see a safe way back. Swam steadily back in then and back to others beach.

Boys were leaving shortly, so all having last catch up. As a proper farewell, went out snorkelling again, me, Kirst and Alabama. They hadn’t seen clownfish yet and I kind of remembered where they were. Found the runway out this time - sure it wasn’t there when I tried to get back - and found clownfish more or less straight away. Kirtsy got a few coral cuts too; she was worse than me. All swam round clownfish, then Yurgon popped up from the deep and followed him round to look at more fish. He was like a little guide. More laughing with Alabama as Kirst went off with Yurgon, then time to return to beach. Was just in time too, we were just paddling in while Rich was already loading his bags onto the boat. Alabama hadn’t even sorted his bags! Me and Kirst re-joined group while boys got organised. Was time to say goodbye then. Hate goodbyes…especially this time. We had all got quite close as a group and felt really odd to be losing some. Quite sad for all of us. All waving as they climed onto boat and started to pull away, then sadness turned to laughter as Torres popped up and did a full on impression of Daniel San. He whipped off his shorts, whirled them round his head lasso style and did moved the bottom half of his body in a way I don’t want to describe, but I’m sure you can imagine. Luckily, we got the back shot, the poor departing boys got the full frontal! V.funny though and cheered us all up a bit.

It was time for lunch then, so all headed off into the hall. Amazing how regulated you become when a schedule is forced upon you; you eat when you are not hungry and drink orange juice until your stomach is so full you feel like you might burst, just because it only comes out at that time of day. Wasn’t too bad a lunch though; plain bread and rice and the usual bony meat, but got v.good at picking vegetables out now. Just happy not to see spaghetti sandwiches. Ate, chatted, then went back to beach for a nap. Could all definitely feel a difference in the group already…a gap. Went in water with girls a bit, then spent rest of afternoon napping. When woke up, sun had goner and loads of us were sleeping. Decided might as well go to bed for an hour, so a few of us went off at 3:30 for a nap.

Woke up feeling better with prospect of a shower ahead. They are exciting. Was it’s same cold, powerful shoot, but actually getting quite used to it now = another worrying adaptaion. Kirsty came for a chat then, so us girls headed over to hall early. Chatted until dinner time, then were pleasantly suprised with what came out. Chicken in a sauce…possible no bones - wow - and rice again. A lot of rice, but plain rice = one of best options these days. All sitting round table again felt wierd without guys. To cheer us up, Yurgon got us playing a really good card game = Presidents and Ar*eholes. Played that for literally hours; was a really good game. Only time stopped was at 8pm, where all nations had to perform national anthem. Couldn’t dodge this one. Shocking state of affairs for English…we were by far largest group, but also the only group where the majority didn’t even know the words. A guy had to write them all down. Shocking really!

Finally finished playing cards at 9:30, all carded out. Good time for me to stop anyway, had just made it to President 😊 - was an ar*ehole for most of the game! Got really tired then. Chatted for a while, wondered on beach, then went back to Irish girls’ room to chill and listen to music. Had a girlie chat, then went back for midnight bonfire. Was 11:15 and everyone really drunk, especially new English group. We were really tired. Had to decide: drink or sleep. Were v.sensible and went for sleep…just so tired. Didn’t wait for midnight bonfire, me, Deb and Kirst snuck off to bed. Fell asleep nearly straight away, eyes stinging with tiredness. So, that was our last night on Mana.

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Photos

The Farewell song
Sung at the beginning of the night...this is Fiji!

The English national anthem
Note the piece of paper with all words written on...what a shocking nation! Nobody else needed it written down.