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Published: October 16th 2008
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Today Matt woke up feeling terrible. He’d had a dodgy stomach all night so I left him in bed and went down to breakfast.
By the time that I’d come back up to our room I also felt quite poorly again. Neither of us was looking forward to getting on the boat to move to Oarsmans Bay, but at least I was pleased that I didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as when I’d been ill earlier in the week.
We checked out at 11am and within minutes were told our water taxi was already here (an hour early!). At least it meant that we didn’t have to hang around waiting. In ten minutes we were being greeted by shouts of bula from the staff at Oarsmans. Unfortunately as we were early our room wasn’t ready yet so we sat in the shaded bar area and looked out across the lagoon. This is the most beautiful places we’ve stayed in Fiji so far. The white sandy beach swept around the bay and the lagoon really was the proper turquoise colour we’d seen in Bora and the Cooks. There was a snorkelling area marked out in the water, and the
rest of the lagoon looked deep enough to swim in, even at low tide.
We hung around checking out their library for new books when lunch was called. Again it was 20 minutes earlier than it was supposed to be but we’re getting used to that now. Matt couldn’t face anything and I wasn’t going to, but felt that as we’d paid a lot for our accommodation and food package here I’d give it a go. It was pretty terrible but it was nice chatting to other people at the big table and everyone seemed really friendly.
After lunch our room was ready. We had a detached bungalow with a great view over the beach.
Once we got in our room we spent the afternoon laying on our beds reading until it was time for afternoon tea (which was a plate full of cakes that within seconds were covered in flies, and an urn of water and a tin of Nescafe/box of teabags). While we ate, we sat on the steps to the beach. It was 3pm and it was boiling hot, probably one of the hottest days we’ve had so far. After about five minutes of
A lovely schooner yacht
The guy who owned this had been moored there for two months! It must be a hard life! looking at the kids playing in the water, we headed back up to the bar to enjoy some shade. Ten minutes later we were back in our room under the fan again.
Although we’ve loved Fiji, neither of us have felt quite right since we arrived and we’ve repeatedly had dodgy tummys. I don’t know whether it’s to do with the filtered water - maybe it’s still not quite as clean as the water we’re used to so the slight difference is what has been upsetting us. Who knows. Whatever it is I’m looking forward to getting over it!
I persuaded Matt to try to eat some dinner as I could tell he wasn’t keen to eat here not because he felt poorly, but because the food wasn’t great. He reluctantly agreed and we headed out for a walk along what was left of the beach. The tide had come right in and directly in front of the resort steps the whole beach was underwater. Further along past our bure there was still a small strip of sand left so we walked that way instead. The sun had gone down behind another island and the sky was streaked
with faint orange and purple. The air was warm and completely still. The sand was soft beneath our feet and everything about the evening felt just right. We walked up to the archway where the weddings take place, even the legs of the palm coated ach were being lapped by the waves. I thought back to how awful the beach weddings looked in the Caribbean - taking place on beaches full of sunbathers with no privacy. This spot looked perfect. It would be your own private beach ceremony. Nothing fancy, just a beautiful location with the waves lapping at your feet.
As dinnertime was approaching we headed back up to the bar, got ourselves a drink and pulled a couple of chairs up to the edge of the decking overlooking the lagoon as the last bits of sunlight faded. By the time the dinner drum sounded it was completely dark bar the tiny lanterns on each of the tables set out in the open air. We grabbed seats on an empty table for six and waited to see who would join us. At one point it looked like we were going to be on a table on our own
as everyone seemed to have sat down, but then running late a family came and joined us. He was Dutch and she was from the US and they had two small very American sounding kids. Dinner wasn’t actually as bad as I’d expected. First was some kind of soup - we have no idea what it was but it tasted ok. Then came a bowl of raw vegetables coated in some kind of dressing. Matt tasted the raw cauliflower and then looked at me. I could tell what the look meant - he’d had enough already. He excused himself and went off to bed. I was pleased that the other couple had come and sat with us at the last minute, otherwise I’d have spent the evening sitting on my own listening to all of the other tables having fun.
The next course was chicken leg, cabbage, carrots and a roast potato. It was actually ok. Not great, but ok. Pudding was a round of the usual sweet dough baked and swimming in paw paw and strawberry coulis. We all gave that one a miss after having a little taste.
After spending the evening chatting, and watching the
The coral reef
This photo was taken from our bure balcony couple take turns chasing after their two kids (who it seems spent their evening tying to feed the various dogs who live at the resort with bread on a fork!) I was actually quite exhausted.
Matt was feeling much better by the time I got back to the room. He said that he was going to eat as little as possible at this resort. I pointed out that he’d have liked the chicken dinner but he wasn’t convinced.
Luckily we’d brought earplugs as we were right next to the bar and there were a bunch of backpackers in the dorm who were intent of staying up and playing drinking games all night.
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