Fiji - Takalana

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One of my weekend trips away recently was to Takalana, which is about 2.5 hours north of Suva. We had two car loads of people, the unfortunate group were in front in the rickity old van, the lucky ones (including me!) were in a brand new 4-wheel drive....aahh, I do like to travel in style. And the 4-wheel drive was necessary, from about half way the tar road ends and the mud and gravel roads take over.

Our destination was a small backpackers place up on a hill overlooking a black sand beach. It’s rather unusual, it feels like sand except it’s really dark (but not muddy). After we’d arrived and had lunch in the sun, followed by a nap on the ground, we followed the local children to a water fall. The walk wasn’t very far but we’d worked up enough of a sweat that we were all looking forward to a cool swim. However, according to the children, the rule was that if you were going swimming you had to jump in off the ledge. The kids had no fear but I was a tad nervous looking over the edge, but I couldn’t let on, so I closed my eyes and jumped in. The water was as anticipated, fresh, perhaps a little too fresh but enjoyable all the same. Once we got out the kids set about building a fire, which they seemed pretty practised at, so us adults stood around and watched while this group of kids aged between 5 - 12 years old collected wood and lit the fire. Once we’d all warmed up we got ready to set off and the kids just started to walk away from the smouldering fire. At this stage our responsible side (and aussie ways!) kicked in and we all worried about leaving a lit fire in the middle of the jungle. The kids assured us that it would be fine and that they do it all the time. So we hesitantly walked away as one of our friends said ‘Well, if they kids say it’s ok, then it must be ok’. So the kids led the way and convinced us to go a ‘short cut’ back to Takalana. Turns out the way home wasn’t so much of a short cut (try 3 times longer) but conveniently took us past the village so all the kids could race inside and change into dry clothes. We all had a good laugh at ourselves later for blindly following the lead of the kids.

We got home and tucked into a big serving of Lovo, which is a traditional Fijian style of cooking. The fish and other yummy things are cooked in the ground wrapped in banana leaves on hot rocks. After dinner the kids had us all up dancing to a local song that involved a lot of turning and spinning and laughing. Afterwards we positioned ourselves around the fire to listen to our hosts sing and play and then our French friend bought out his guitar and we had a sing along under the stars.

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Photos

Up on the hill
This is the view from our accomodation. It was situated up on top of a hill/cliff overlooking the beach and ocean. Great view.

Fire safety
Us 'adults' just stood by while the children built the fire to warm everyone up.

Comments

[Mum in Hanoi]

Having tooooo much fun!
Nice to see you are finding the out of the way places. Love Mum