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Published: November 8th 2008
Dusty Journey
Taken out of the back of the truck to Bobo's FarmBobo and the Bats
7. Bobo’s farm, Rukuruku, Saturday 1st November 2008
The journey here was a test of nerves and quite uncomfortable. The scenery however was superb, although we only caught glimpses of it out the back of the covered truck since we were seated midway along facing inwards. The truck was rammed with too many people, shopping, oil cans and a large box of ice. The road was an unsealed track winding up and down some steep gradients. It was just a case of hanging on and sweating! Yet again, we were the only travellers; our fellow passengers were locals going home from shopping in town. The truck was only due to go as far as Tavea village, quite a few bumpy kilometres short of our destination but we spoke to the driver and he kindly took us on to Rukuruku (for just a couple of dollars more) and delivered us at the top of Bobo’s track.
Bobo’s farm is quite a strange place despite its natural beauty. It is a small farm, seven cows and vegetables, set in the forest above Rukuruku village. Bobo is Fijian and his wife, Karen, is German and they let out
Main Road
Road to Rukuruku a small two bed bungalow in the grounds to guests, mostly German. We are sharing the bungalow with Karsten and Vera, a nice young couple from Dusseldorf. They’ve gone off to hike to Lovoni today so we have the place to ourselves. Bobo and Karen are extremely welcoming; last night Bobo held a Kava ceremony to welcome us to the farm and this was followed by a good dinner. So there is nothing wrong with either the accommodation or the people here, it is just that the farm is set in quite a deep hollow above the village and there is little air, just jungle and I feel rather claustrophobic. The mosquitoes are rampant and the fruit bats are big. We were told to ignore loud banging on the tin roof in the night; it is just the fruit bats knocking down papaya fruit from the trees for their midnight feast. It was so loud at one point we thought WW3 had broken out and nobody had told us. Frogs and toads prefer to croak loudly at night also. One has to be careful not to tread on them in the dark because they are so numerous. The jungle can
Terrace View
In the jungle at Bobo's be deathly quiet at times and also very noisy. Pretty exciting though!
Maybe if the rain stops it will feel more airy. The rain started early this morning and is set in for the day. This is the first we have had since leaving Coli-I-Suva rainforest, probably because we are now on the western side of Ovalau Island and near to eastern Viti Levu which is known for its high rainfall. The Germans are blaming us for the rain because we are English! Yeah, right, OK. We were going to hike down to the beach today but we’ve been told that it is very steep and gets muddy and slippery so maybe we’ll try tomorrow. We might, however, walk to the top of the hill out of the hollow, just to catch some sea air. It is very hot and humid and there is no electricity here so no electric fans to cool us down. Oh for some air con! We charged up the batteries for the camera, laptop and phone before we left Levuka, so luckily I am able to write this and download the photos ready for when we can next get online. I’m now going to go
Birdwatcher's Paradise!
Occupied John for hours and stand in the rain to cool down a bit!
Sunday 2nd November 2008
We discovered last night that Bobo has electricity in his house (solar powered) as well as Sky Pacific TV so last night we watched the All Blacks beat the Wallabies. It was quite surreal, having not seen any TV for weeks to be sitting in the middle of the rainforest watching the rugby on a little portable set. Today the rain has stopped but everywhere is still very damp and humid. I don’t think the clothes will dry so we’ll have to pack them wet. We leave here at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning (in the dark so the rucksacks have to be packed before the sun sets today at about 6 p.m.) to catch the 6 a.m. ferry back to the mainland. Today is Sunday, nothing stirs in Fiji on Sundays, so we are just lazing about and chilling out.
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