Blogs from Coral Coast, Viti Levu, Fiji, Oceania

Our last day in Fiji is uneventful. The old man is burnt from his much anticipated dive and vows never to expose his skin to the sun again. He spends the day on the lanai playing candy crush and moaning alternatively about the sun, heat and mosquitoes. I take a swim then devise a way to read without being troubled by the aforementioned. I sit on the bottom step of the pool exposing only my head and one hand. One last thunder storm, one last sunset walk along the beach and our wet week in Fiji is at and end. ... read more

On today’s agenda – nothing. So far we have covered over 13,000 miles. Today is about R&R. I wake at dawn when the parrots start to sing in the palm trees. We start with breakfast at the hotel restaurant. It’s all local produce. Lots of tropical fruit and fish, which is a luxury after 2 weeks in the USA where junk food is king. Also, local produce does not appear to include nuts. It’s a revelation to be able to pick what I want from the menu without poring over it checking what may or may not kill me. I eat my fruit platter and eggs Benedict whilst contemplating emigrating to Fiji. We decide to take a long walk along the beach but the tide’s in and there’s not much beach left so we settle for ... read more

Australia; a country which, for two months, had shown us an immense level of impressive beauty, a great deal of fun and a much different way of travelling to the first three months of the trip. I have spoken more than once about expectations and I think perhaps the biggest of all of these is that of "travelling" as a generalised term. Not just your own expectation but the expectations of the people standing outside and looking in; the friends and family conducting everyday life as normal or the ex-colleagues left behind in the jobs that you were once a part of. In all honesty, South East Asia probably conforms in the most idealistic ways, to the mass visions of "travelling"- those images of riding on silhouetted elephants against a backdrop of longtail boats and burnt ... read more

After a really great sleep we popped our swim stuff on and headed down to the reception to pick up the kayaking gear. Because of the shallow reef you can only kayak at high tide 8-11am to ensure you don't damage any coral. We had a relaxing kayak along the coast, out towards the reef and back to shore again. I was very excited to see that when we'd gotten out of the water the horses had gone for their own little paddle (cue hundreds of photos)! After breakfast we went for our complimentary foot massage at the spa, a nice little touch on Valentines day! We then got the local bus into Sigatoka to visit the Sand Dune National park, unfortunately we'd picked a really bad time of day and the sand was too hot ... read more