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Published: November 28th 2006
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Last weekend my family stopped over at Takalana Bay Beach Resort Nataleira Village about 40km North West of Korovou Town in Tailevu after attending a church function in Rakiraki on Saturday. It was a 2 to 3 hour ride through the hills of Ra (Nakorotubu Road). A bit of a rough ride, but the country is quite isolated and very beautiful.
When we got to Takalana Bay Resort it was dusk. Takalana is located on a hill by the sea. We enjoyed the last moments of light looking down over the ocean and enjoying the cool breeze. In the horizon you can see part of the Lomaiviti group of islands Ovalau, Motoriki, Makogai and Nairai.
We had lovely dinner and retreated for the night in the simple but very comfortable and clean accommodation.
We woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning. It’s quite therapeutic to wake up and see the ocean (and my island Nairai in the distance!!).
After breakfast the cook/housekeeper/receptionist packed a container of bananas, sweet goodies, water and juice and we set off down the hill to the beach. We put our lifejackets on and all climbed onto the fiberglass boat to start out
journey to Moon Reef, a 20 to 30 minute trip out to sea. There was myself, Ilisoni the hubby our 4 children (2 to 13 year old) and a family friend (10 year old Grace), the owner of the Resort Josefa Bau and two lady visitors, an English and an Australian, Naomi and Rachael. (Note that Moon Reef, I was told got its name because of its shape, its rounded in shape. If you look at the reef from Google Earth you can see it looks like the moon!)
Just when we thought it was getting really hot and wondering when we were going to reach our destination we saw action in the water. Before we knew it we were surrounded by dolphins. There were dolphins diving under the boat, racing on ahead of us swimming around. The children were beside themselves with excitement. I had to keep an eye on my 2 year old incase he decided to join them in the water.
These dolphins are smaller than the ones you usually see in books and movies, but they are just as beautiful and performers by nature. They did some fancy twirly dives out of the water
and swam around the boat. When the boat moved around faster they swam close by in twos or threes at the same speed. Not all the dolphins there came close to the boat. We could see some in the distance closer to the reef playing and diving around. We had brought a small rubber green ball and threw it in the ocean thinking they would play with it (Why did we think that????) but they kept well away from it.
But I would have guessed there may have been 30 to 40 dolphins that were swimming around that day. These dolphins, the resort owner said are wild dolphins. They have had exposure to humans but are in their natural habitat and are not the touchable kind like you have in some parts of the world. I was relieved to hear that. Why would they want to be touched by humans?? Okay swim around them but no need to get all cuddly with them. It’s not like they dive over onto our land and ask for a hug!
We moved away from where they were concentrated and had a swim. None of them came close to us. I had
a feeling they had a snigger at our expense at our attempts to keep afloat in the water.
After our little swim we all clambered back on board and moved closer to them. Again they started their performance swimming quite close and diving around. They were just an absolute joy and beauty to watch. It was time to go back to shore. Some of them swam by the boat until we moved too far from their home and they followed us no more.
As adults we were thrilled watching these beautiful creatures, the children……………. I’m sure this experience will surely beat many video and computer games and will really make them appreciate nature and God’s beautiful creations. Even my 2 year old kept saying ‘doofins’ in between his mumbo jumbo the rest of the day. It was an absolutely beautiful day because of the dolphins.
I have attached some photos of our day. Hope you appreciate it.
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Will
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Nau!!
Nau did you write about us in In Takalana Bay!!!