Relaxing in Shades of Blue . . .

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Yesterday morning, after a swim with the sharks off Wayalailai, I again boarded the Yasawa Flyer and travelled further north through the Yasawa Islands. I’m now staying on the island of Nacula at Oarsman’s Bay Lodge. It’s now my second day here and I’ve got three more nights here ahead of me.

It’s pretty quiet at Oarsman’s. Not too many other people. And generally, there’s not much to do. But that’s okay. I am here for the beach! I’d read and heard a lot about the beach here, that it is one of the best in Fiji. I’ve been to many beautiful beaches in my years working on the cruise ships so I was eager to see just how good the beach here is.

It is pretty awesome. I can see what the hype is all about. I’m not sure I could put it in my number one spot of all beaches I’ve been to, but it’s up there. There’s not a lot of shade here and the sun is baking hot. The sand has lots of leaves and little nuts from the trees scattered in it. But the water . . . it is stunning. I keep staring out at the water in awe. Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve looked at it, I’m still in awe. The water is so clear, so bright, so sparkling, such a vivid colour of blue. When you look out from the beach and across the water to the horizon, you see so many different shades of blue - all bright, all sparkling, all vivid. It’s awesome.

After I arrived yesterday, I didn’t “do” anything except for relax in a hammock on the beach. I still was feeling a bit sick with the air conditioning cold I’d caught, so I wasn’t up for anything else. I’m reading a lot again. I need to say again how happy I am that I purchased my Kobo (electronic book reader) because I’m tearing through books on this trip!

Today I started the day again in the hammock. Other than walking along the beach, that’s all I did with the morning. But by this afternoon I was feeling a bit restless. And hot. It is so hot. So I went into the water for a long swim. I’ve seen other people snorkeling off the beach so I decided to take my snorkel out with me and see what I could see.

I had no idea how much was in the water right off the beach!

There are a lot of white fish that come right up in the shallow water at the edge of the beach. I’d seen these while wading in the water. They’re what I thought most people were looking at when they were in the water. But as I swam along, I discovered that there’s a actually a reef just offshore and there are so many fish there! And some of them are huge! There was also this one school of fish, it was absolutely massive. There had to be well over a hundred fish in it. And the fish themselves were fairly large, close to a foot long each of them. They were all silver. And it was very obvious that they were feeding. The whole group of them would just swish around back and forth in the water, their mouths gaping open. I am rarely fearful of the fish and things I see in the ocean, but something about this school, how massive it was, how they were feeding, had me kind of creeped out. I tried to avoid them and explored the rest of the reef area.

Another beautiful thing about where I’m staying are the sunsets. The beach the resort’s property is on facing west. So we have perfect views of the sunset. I love it. I happen to have the bed in the dorm right by the porch door so even while I relax on my bed before dinner, I can watch the sunset. And in the morning I wake up, roll over and see the incredible blue of the water.

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