Day 25: Volivoli to Nadi

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After my late night antics of the previous evening I was surprisingly quick to get up this morning. In fact, I was pretty much awake and alert before anyone else despite being the last to go to bed and so I wandered down to the bar/restaurant area and grabbed some lunch before heading back down to the beach to indulge in some sea kayaking. I had half planned to do some diving here but the boat left at eight and quite frankly I had neither the will nor the inclination to get up at anywhere near that sort of time so i had to miss out. So I grabbed a kayak and spent the better part of an hour on my own floating about on the gentle currents in the baking sun over a reef and next to a tropical island; I can tell you it was one of the most strenuous things I've ever had to do! The Chief was the next one down and indulged in a little kayaking himself whilst we both mulled over the possibility of staying on in Volivoli. After much deliberation in that already stressful situation we both decided we didn't really have the time to stay on for another two nights and I have to say that personally my decision was somewhat guided by the fact the vast majority of the bus were on there way that afternoon and I didn't really want to miss out on anything.

My morning strain concluded I went to pack my bag and was certainly not amused to discover that my Lifeventure towel had been taken from my bed. Now, I know everyone out here has them - you'll find two or three in every room you stay in - but nonetheless I was still pissed off because it was hanging on MY bed so one would probably presume it was MY towel, and not theirs. One of the girls had taken it and thrown it in with her washing before she'd headed out on some sort of tour and she wouldn't be joining us on the bus so I had to kiss goodbye to my new towel, a birthday present from my sister, there in Volivoli. I was not best pleased.

So towelless I boarded the bus for what was to be a pretty chilled out and stress free afternoon - seething about towels aside, that is - which would basically involve driving almost straight through to Nadi with just a short stopover at the Sabeto mud pools. I had kind of been looking forward to this for some reason unknown to myself and it didn't disappoint, I got very muddy... and hot. Very hot. Unfortunately I don't have photos myself of this but I might be able to get a couple e-mailed to me so I can add them to here later, but believe me I was really, really muddy. After a quick drop in the hot pools to wash off all the mud (there was a lot) we again boarded the bus for the last time, with improved skin I have to say. The final leg of our journey ended with a quite magnificent sunset as we drove into Nadi, quite fitting seeing as it was the end of the first leg of my Experience journeys and there was a somewhat sombre mood to the whole bus. We drove around, gradually dropping off different people at their different hostels before finally arriving at the Skylodge with just myself, Kev, Sarah and The Chief left. A quick photocall with Te and then the big green bus was gone and the Fiji Family was broken. Sort of in line with the whole day the evening was spent just chilling out in the hostel bar till the wee hours of the morning chatting about what we'd done and generally reminiscing about the trip; that is except for one point when a stubborn Chief had words with a befuddled local about payment methods. All done we trundled off to bed and the Feejee Experience was done.

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Photos

Tomb of Udre Udre
This guy ate more people than anyone else in the history of Fiji. And he ate every last morsel of every one, famously never sharing anything.