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Published: September 20th 2010
Relaxing in a hammock
Drinking a nice cocktail with loads of tropical fruitsBula,
So after sleeping for about 12 hours, I had a lovely breakfast of bread and orange juice and had to run to catch the bus transfer to the Yasawa Flyer (the big yellow catamaran that would take me around the islands). Passed the time to Octopus Resort (on Waya Island) with Rajni and Amit, who, upon arrival, were very jealous that they weren't going to be staying there - the resort was picture-perfect - beautiful beach, turquoise water over amazing coral, hammocks hanging up on palm trees. The dorm that me and Ben (backpacker I met on the transfer) were in was in a beachfront Bure, with only 5 beds, of which only me, Ben and one other guy were staying in. The whole atmosphere of the place was made even nicer by the fact that there are no cars in the Yasawas, meaning that the main sounds were of Fijian guys on the guitar, and the birds. The Fijians did a traditional welcome ceremony for us and gave us an amazing fruit cocktail on arrival whilst the guys carried our bags up. Spent the day chilling with Ben (28yrs old, who has so far been travelling for 4
The winning quiz team
Celebrating victory with a champagne breakfast years), snorkelling, reading under a palm tree, more snorkelling - it's a hard life 😉. We then went to sit with the Fijians to drink Kava and listen to them play their music on guitars and ukeleles before having freshly caught Walu fish for dinner. Then the other people on mine and Ben's table went to bed as they had Jojo with them (only 3yrs), so we had to find some more people for the pub quiz - ended up as me (UK), Ben (OZ), 2 german girls, a couple from the USA, another 2 from England and Ireland. As it turned out we were an awesome team - we won a shaker in the 2nd round, got 35 points for our "talent" despite the fact that all we did was spell out the letters in "BULA", and won the competition - resulting in the awesome prize of a champagne breakfast the next day. **
Woke up nice and late as we decided we wanted our breakfast at 9am, and went with Ben to find the others. Our table was set up on the beach by the sea, with fresh pineapple, papaya, watermelon and peeled orange, cereal, muffins, tea,
fresh-squeezed juice, champagne, scrambled egg, toast, bacon, tomato and salad. We followed this hardship with a Lomi lomi massage in a bure next to the sea so you could hear the waves crashing, it was very oily and very naked but otherwise really nice and relaxing. Spent more time reading I Shall Wear Midnight, snorkelling, bracelet weaving witha fijian girl, using palm leaves, and generally doing nothing strenuous, before a BBQ dinner, and party on the beach. For the party we all went down to the coconut bar on the beach where they had built a bonfire, had some music playing, and were giving out free shots of tequila mixed with vodka and fresh-squeezed lime juice, which involved leaning back on the bar and having it poured into your mouth until you put your hand up to stop.
The next day I got back on the yellow boat to go Barefoot Lodge (on Drawaqa - Dra-wa-rr-wonga), where it turned out that there was only me and one other guy Mark (plus the staff) on the entire island. Drawaqa was about 1.9km long, and width-wise you could walk from one side to the other in about 3 minutes. Also, the
weather was amazing - on the sunset side of the island where my "dorm" (a private bure with a double bed) was, it was beautiful and sunny and really hot and calm, whereas on the sunrise side of the island, it was beautiful and sunny and really windy. So if you got too hot or too cold, all you had to do was go to the other side of the island. Also, looking out of the dining hall at the sea was pretty cool as on one side it was calm and turquoise, and the other side was deep blue and wavy. Also, all the staff were really friendly - when I mentioned I was thirsty, one of the guys cut a coconut down from a tree with his machete and cut it open to drink! I had a quick snorkel before a lunch of Barracuda caught earlier by Bono, one of the staff, then me and Mark decided to walk up to the top of the hill that made up most of the island. It was quite a short walk, and easy to follow as the locals had marked out the path with white stones, and a a fairly
easy climb, although really hot to begin with as the trees and plants blocked the wind. As we walked up we went past loads of plants, some of which looked like brown runner beans, and some of what Mark called "yams", as well as water storage tanks as the islands don't get their water from the mainland. At the top the views over the other islands were amazing, but unfortunately we couldn't walk all the way to the other end of the island as it was blocked off by loads of trees and bushes. When we got back we did some more snorkelling on the sunrise side this time, which wasn't as good, but we did see a stingray, and after coming back ashore we watched the sunset, had dinner, and joined the Fijian staff in drinking Kava as there wasn't much else to do. After about 3 bowls of Kava, and I have no idea how many cups, we went to bed - where sleep came easily seeing as Kava is a sleeping drug, anti-depressant, and very mild hallucinogenic.
Even after a night of Kava abuse, I managed to get up at 6.30am to watch the sunrise, and
then went straight back to bed! When I woke up for the second time, I just about finished my book before Bono took us out into the channel to search for Manta Rays, which unfortunately weren't there. We went snorkelling anyway, which was very strange as we jumped off the boat, and then all we had to do was lie face-down and the current pushed us along. We could only go one way down the coral reef, then had to be taken back upstream by the boat as the current was too strong to swim against. On the first run downstream we saw a 4-5 foot brown banded bamboo shark, which made up for the lack of manta rays, and then at the end of the second run, we swam cross-current back to Drawaqa, which was still suprisingly hard without flippers. Once we were back, I had to quickly gather together my stuff to go and wait for the yellow boat as Bono wanted to go out in the transfer boat (basically a metal square with a motor) early so as not to miss it. As it turned out, once we got out there, Bono and Mark spent half an
hour handline fishing before the boat came - going out early for the boat was just their excuse - and they managed to catch a few white snappers.
After I left Drawaqa I headed up to Nacula (Na-thu-la) Island to stay at Oarsman's Bay Lodge. Went out snorkeling as it was very hot on the island, and although I couldn't go over the reef (it was low tide), I swam all the way out round the edge and still saw some amazing fish. Then I met up with Jeff and Katrin who were doing research for Monash University about the effects of tourism on the islands, and we went over to Blue Lagoon (the nicer, more expensive resort next door) to have a drink with their other researcher Richard. That evening we did some hermit crab racing, which me and Jeff both failed epically at, with ours crabs getting through to the 2nd round, and then apparently getting bored and wandering off rather than racing. We finished off the evening with a bonfire on the beach and some Kava with the Fijians.(*2) The next morning everyone in the resort got cornered after breakfast by Jeff and his survey, and
Gecko
Chilling out in the corner of the dorm then me and Mathias walked along the beach and a tiny path to get to the village (others took the boat), where we looked around the school and church, and decided rather than getting the boat back with the others, we would hike back over the mountain. At this point the field we chose to walk across first turned out to be covered in spiky bushes so I actually had to put some shoes on (a rare thing in the islands). Then for the long walk up to the top which turned out to be on a very narrow, dusty path that had no grip whatsoever so it took quite a while to walk up as we kept nearly slipping and falling to our deaths 😊. When we reached the top it was 100% worth it though as it was a lot cooler with a nice breeze, and the views over the islands, the village and honeymoon island were amazing. After we had chilled at the top for a while, the sound of the drums signalling lunch reminded us that we had to go back down, although it was further back than we thought so we were quite late. Later
that afternoon me, Jeff and Mathias were chatting with Onniee (the owner) about the lack of Fijian food (i.e. Mongolian buffets), and so she went to their secret storeroom and brought out a load of fresh-picked, really ripe mangos which were really juicy and tasty. We then headed off to play volleyball with the Fijians (a sport I am very gradually improving at), and generally chilled out, going to bed really early as there was nothing much to do.
On my final day at Oarsmans, I went on a tour to the Sawailau Caves, a series of underwater caves about a 30 minute boat ride away from the resort. To start off, we had to climb down a steep set of stairs into the first cave and jump into the water - in the end it was just me and the Fijian guide in the group from Oarsmans as Pedro was too scared (he is only 4). We then had to join up with a group from Blue Lagoon, and climb up the slippery rock to reach the passageway through to the next cave. Once up, we had to squeeze through a tiny passage to where it opened up
just enough to fit the 5 people remaining in our group (one girl had a bad ankle and couldn't climb, and one guy was too fat to fit). Then, we had to sit down and climb down the other side, feet first, into cave #2, which was quite cool but not very big, and a quick dive down let us swim out to the cave we started out in. The next cave we visited was much bigger and the main cave, though you still had to duck underwater to get in. We swam through to the end where we then stopped for to take photos and for the guide to tell stories about how swimming in the water would give us good luck forever etc etc, then it was time to go as I had to catch the transfer to the final island I would be visiting - Tavewa.
On Tavewa the resort I was staying at was called Coral View Resort, so I thought there would probably be some cool coral, an assumption that turned out to be massively wrong - there was lots of coral but unfortunately it was mostly dead or dying. Later on, at "afternoon
tea", Jeff, Katrin and Richard came over from Oarsmans to get more surveys filled in, so I gave them a hand, and was rewarded with chocolate cake 😊. Then, after they left I played cards and had dinner with 3 backpackers from England, followed by some truly terrible party games organised by the resort - Bula Dancing, Musical statues and "Suck and blow" which involved passing a playing card down a line of people, using only your mouth. When we finally escaped, I went outside to hang out with Terezia and her husband, 2 girls from Brighton, Joe, Amelia and 2 guys with very strong French and Italian accents, claiming to have met on a pineapple farm and to be from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. As the night went on lots of alcohol was consumed, and tales of adventures on pineapple farms dominated the conversation until about 1am when we got bored and went to bed. Then it was up nice and early for the 5 hour yellow boat ride back to Nadi with the idiots from France and Italy, Joe and Amelia.
Katie x
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GDM
non-member comment
Wow!
..what a great time you seem to be having. Love the piccies. Thanks for writing such a vivid account and letting us in on your 'freedom'. Life very routine back here. Keep safe, have fun. xx GDM