Ah, holidays...there's nothing quite like them. People often think that travelling is like one long holiday, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The last week, spent in the beautiful Yasawa Islands off north-west Fiji, is the closest thing to a 'beach vacation' that I've had in a while. And boy, did we make the most of it!
Poor old Nadi...it's certaintly been through it this year. Nadi-ites (or whatever the term is) have only just gotten over the January floods; it's not fair that they had to go through it all again so soon. A drive through Nadi on Easter Friday revealed the shocking extent of the damage: the town's main street was closed, the bus station looked like a swamp, gates and fences were leaning at scarily precarious angles. Children were climbing over strewn wire to get to some swings, which were curiously in tact. The whole of people's interior belongings- rugs, sofas, tables- were outside in the gardens, next to a washing line full with sodden clothes. One week later, and the town was up and running once more; full credit to Nadi's inhabitants for pulling together. However, it was clear that the other damages- the fences, the bridges- were going to need a little more time, not to mention money, before they could be restored to their formal states. It's crystal clear that a long term solution is needed for Nadi's people; fingers crossed that one is suggested sooner rather than later.
So, here's a little photo snapshot of what we got up to this week at Blue Lagoon Beach Resort. Cannot recommend this resort highly enough, by the way...fantastic managers, smiley staff, and the first dorms I've ever stayed in with daily maid service! And the food...oh, the food! Lovely seafood lunches, three course dinners...it was a big (but lovely!) shock to the system.
After our four hour catamaran-ride from Nadi, with beautiful views of the other Yasawa islands from the sun deck (as well as cooling winds that ensured we got burnt before we even arrived!)...
...we were greeted by the Blue Lagoon staff in true Fijian style...
...and got into the ocean as quickly as we could!
We went for a walk down the beach and, deciding we fancied a coconut, started thinking of ways to get them down from the high trees...
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| Unfortunately the big stick wasn't so successful... |
We encountered a few of the Blue Lagoon staff walking home to Nacula village...
...and one, called Isoa (or Joe for short), offered to get some coconuts down for us!
Inspired by Joe's success, Patrick decided to try grabbing some coconuts himself- and, as the song goes, the only way is up...
Great success!
Quick smash of the coconut against the nearest tree trunk...
...then drinking up (and coating ourselves in) the delicious coconut milk!
With the backdrop of a beautiful sunset...
...newcomers to the island celebrated their arrival with a good ol' kava ceremony; we refrained this one time...
The next morning, I asked Justin, the enigmatic Aussie manager, about the paddle boards that had arrived overnight. He told us that the new owners had just brought them, and that 'you can try them out for free if you like?' Why not, eh?
Naturally, Patrick was a natural...
...whereas it took me about half an hour to build up the courage to stand up on the thing!
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| One of my half attempts near the beginning. |
As Patrick looked on bemused, as stable as a..well, a professional paddle boarder...
...I kept going up, down, up, down like a jack-in-the-box, falling in once for good measure (no photos of this, unfortunately!)
But I got the hang on it in the end...just about! Am definitely keen to try it again- maybe at Natadola in a few weeks?...
It was Easter Sunday, and just before we tucked into our massive buffet dinner, a church choir from the local Nacula village came to sing some haunting accapella Fijian hymns. Apparently this choir has not missed a single Sunday, even in cyclone-weather; they take the 2-3 hour walk to the resort if they have to!
Monday- cave day. One of the big activities at Blue Lagoon is to visit the Sawa-i-Lau limestone caves, which contain natural freshwater pools. Bit of a shock stepping into that water after the bath-temperature ocean! While one of the caves was open at the top, with cascading trees overhead, another could only be entered by a metre-long underwater passage. We were cheerfully informed by our guides that it was "extremely high tide"; in many visits to these caves, they had only seen such a tide twice. Comforting words, obviously!
This was my expression after just coming up from the underwater tunnel (which, by the way, wasn't actually that bad) into the pitch black cave...
Not my prettiest.
Very cool experience; I'd highly recommend it to anybody visiting the Yasawas.
Later on that afternoon, we decided to explore the deep sea- or the slightly shallower deep, for the deep deep would come a little later on. So, we donned our snorkelling gear and went out to explore. And guess who we found?...
Nemo!
A few Nemos, in fact!
They were feisty little devils, looking you straight in the eye as they fiercely guarded their territory. As pathetic as it sounds, I was actually a little scared, which didn't bode well for the following day's shark dive...
Shortly after our stand-off with the clown fish, I...erm...managed to get myself stuck on a bed of shallow coral. I was obviously following Dory's philosophy to "just keep swimming, just keep swimming"...into shallow waters where the coral scraped my stomach. There is a huge emphasis in Fiji- and rightly so- on not destroying the thousand-year-old coral...which is exactly what I did in my lame attempt to escape. Not that it actually got me anywhere...in the end, a man in a boat came to get me, and I had to wade through the shallow waters in a kayak. Just a tad shameful. It was only small consolation when our new friends- USP students- told me over lunch: "We saw that someone was stuck out there from the beach, but don't worry- we couldn't see that it was you."
Anyway, here are some more great pics that Patrick took from that eventful snorkel...
Undeterred from my traumatic day-snorkelling experience, I decided to join Patrick, and a few of our friends, on a night snorkel. Just armed with a torch, I only saw a few fish and an eel- but the whole experience was still fun.
Tuesday seems to have been a chill-out day- no photos from there. So swiftly onto Wednesday, probably the highlight of our week- the 22m SHARK DIVE! It sounds crazy, but I was actually more scared about the prospect of diving again after a year and a half (if you can't remember why, take a look at my experiences of
learning to dive in Thailand). Luckily we had a trusty rope to guide us down, down, down...towards the shark arena! We weren't actually feeding them ourselves; Apo, the Divemaster, did that from a rubbish bin full of fish heads. Us divers just knelt behind a piece of white rope and enjoyed the show in front of us. Who came to entertain us? A few white-tip reef sharks, some lemon sharks- oh, and two big, brutish bull sharks. I know what you're thinking- and yes, there were a few moments when the sharks looked like they fancied some tasty humans. But they didn't really; they were far too interested in the fish heads being thrown to them! Not only the sharks turned up for the show; schools of colourful fish kept surrounding us, as clear as day, and trying to eat my bracelets- cheeky gits!
So, all in all, a very successful dive in every respect...unlike my next one the following day. Upon learning that Neptune's Tomb did not have a line down to the bottom, I started to freak out a bit; the prospect of just sinking into the deep blue was, frankly, terrifying. That shark dive had unfortunately done nothing to cure my inherent depth fear. The time came when I had to sink...and after gesturing madly with my thumb (the 'up' signal) to Patrick, and breathing like a mad-woman, I accidently ended up floating back to the surface. After a brief paranoia that I'd given myself the bends by coming up so quickly (I didn't realise that I'd only been about 8metres down), I signalled to the boat to come get me. What a palava over nothing!
The two dives on Friday- well, three, if you count the practice dive with Apo- were much more successful. I HAD to go diving again; I wasn't about to let it beat me! We even managed to take some pictures on the last 12m dive with Patrick's underwater camera...
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| Just about to head down... |
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| The site was called 'Cabbage Patch'; I think you can see why... |
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| Me trying to 'OK' Patrick...and getting it wrong...again (it's meant to be the pointer finger, not the middle one!) |
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| Finally got it! |
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| Patrick showing me how it's done... |
So, I think- that's THINK- I've gotten over my diving hump. I really enjoyed the last 12m dive we did at 'Cabbage Patch'; for the first time, I felt comfortable underwater for most of the dive, focusing on what was going on around me, and the cool sensation of being deep in the ocean. Controlling my breathing also helped- meditative, rather than hyperventalitive! Hopefully I can take that feeling with me when I go diving next time!...
There were a few more picture-less events. Hand-line fishing: I only caught a few tiny fishes, and one 'rock-fish' (that's just a rock), whereas the two children on our trip caught at least 10 between them. They were in a better spot, obviously...ahem. Relaxing on the beach with our books: reading my own, and listening to interesting tidbits from Patrick's read,
The God Delusion.
You've probably got the picture by now, so I'll end it here. A much needed escape from Suva and our work; I'm planning the next weekend jaunt already, which may or may not include more diving. If I declare it enough on here, then that means I HAVE to do it!...
