Hurray! Updates and PHOTOS!!!! 29th June - 2nd July

Wednesday 29th June   - A very lazy day followed, apart from a trip into Sigatoka for supper supplies and a visit to the ATM, the girls spent a day by the pool enjoying the day without the usual time constraints! A walk at sunset along the beach ended another glorious Fiji 24 hours.

Thursday 30th June  - The morning was spent trying to book accommodation for Suva and Levuka next week as tomorrow we move on towards the extremely arduous ferry trip to the island of Qamea and Maqai. 

A very short dip in the pool and then we travel into town to visit the bright orange and quite imposing hillside Krishna temple which we have been told has an amazing restaurant attached. We climb the hill only to find it empty and quiet save a couple of Fijian painter and decorators who inform us it is closed and to come back "next time" whenever that maybe. We head back into the town and have a lazy lunch among the locals in the market and spend time people watching! Many seems to bring their own roti and spinach and just order the meat curry or stew. The roti is wrapped in what looks like newspaper all bundled up and the vegetables in another parcel. It is really quite hot today and the market is heaving! After much discussion about what to visit this afternoon - the Tavuni Hill Fort or the Sigatoka Sand Dunes - we head to the bus depot to try and work out which is easier to get to. Of course they are both in opposite directions! The decision is made when we find that the Hill Fort bus will be another 45 minutes - so sand dunes win the day! I think Rowan was secretly looking forward to looking at cannibal artefacts in all their gory detail! We may visit the fort on our way back towards Nadi in a couple of weeks time.

The dunes are a national park and are a constantly changing natural feature. Bones and pottery dating back 2600 years have been found here so it is a site of national importance. 
The dunes rise to 60 metres in places and are 1km wide.

The climb up to the top offered magnificent views of the area, including the wind farm, and the beach section of the hour long walk, complete with distant rainbow, made way for fantastic crashing waves and sand - no coral!

More up and down climbing among the sand hills and then a short section of mahogany forest, planted in the 1960's to halt the dunes swallowing up the newly constructed road, and we were back to the visitor centre.







 Back in Sigatoka town Nicole convinces David that we should take the public bus home on the premise that it would be cheaper! This was not a popular choice as once we had boarded said public bus and paid the saving was found to be 25 cents! Added to which we would have a 30 minute wait before it left and it then transpired to be rush hour. Also the minivan we could have taken would have dropped us virtually to our door- the bus only to the roundabout a 5 minute walk away. Please fill in the gaps yourselves with regards the conversations which ensued!!!

  Friday 1st July  - Our trip continues on towards Suva today. We say goodbye to Jhoti, the housekeeper at Vakaviti and head to Singatoka bus station. 

 We travel along the south coast of Viti Levu to catch the ferry to Maqai. Suva takes 4 hours to reach and we pass through various small settlements and the landscape is greener, wetter and distinctly more tropical! Suddenly we hit Suva and the traffic is everywhere - smoky, hot and built up. It is raining (again) and we are a bit bewildered as we are dumped at the central bus station with all our backpacks with no real idea of how to get to the and shipping office. We duly hail a taxi and are taken to the port - we bump into Stefanie from Germany who is also going to Maqai. The first shipping office directs us to the second shipping office and we negotiate a slightly reduced rate and (thank heavens!) David books us into a cabin in 1st class. There are only 2 classes - 1st and economy. Stefanie will share our cabin and Nicole will share a bunk with Rowan.  

We board the ferry at 4 (in the rain!) via the car deck, down a rusty passage and are checked in and issued with purple wristbands signifying entrance to 1st class.  Eventually we make it through the maze of corridors to the 1st class lounge which is air conditioned and wait for the keys to our cabin. This takes until after 6.30pm!  The cabin is cramped with 4 basic bunks but it transpires is utter luxury compared to the cramped, hot and less than fragrant economy decks where people seem to be setting up camp for the night ahead. The ferry from Suva to the island of Taveuni was no more than a grimy steel container ship converted into a vehicle and passenger transporter.  There are bodies everywhere! Economy has no beds - There is a choice of a stifling grim basic rigid bucket seated lounge room inside on the middle deck or unforgiving 32 coat painted park bench seated area on the top open deck, shielded from the weather by a flat corrugated iron roof.  Plastic sheeting could be unfurled and lowered on all sides if it rained.Many have obviously made this journey before and seem to be well prepared with bits of cardboard box, blankets and pillows.

 Food also appears from everywhere and the smells are overwhelmingly bad - food, damp clothing and cardboard and hot sweaty locals! The first class lounge is a little haven patrolled by a formidable lady who regularly turfs out anyone who has sought temporary comfort! Various stops to outlying islands overnight signified by the ringing of what sounds like a fire bell and not much sleep achieved by anyone. The bathrooms are communal and I will let the pictures speak for themselves! These pictures were taken after the majority of passengers had disembarked at Taveuni!

Saturday 2nd July- Still on the ferry - Rowan throws up! We dock at Savusavu and the majority of our fellow passengers get off. We stay here for an hour or so  - no rain and the island looks beautiful. We head out at around 9ish and continue to Taveuni. David and the girls go to the now more pleasant top deck and meet the Fiji National Police Rugby 7s team who are playing in big tournament on Taveuni.

Finally the bell rings to signify that the 22 hours on board is nearly at an end. We gather on deck with our packs and cars and engines rumble into life below us.

By the time we reach the stairwell the fumes are overpowering! At last we make it onto dry land!

We rendezvous with the driver to the speed boat transfer easily and stop briefly in a small town to shop for a few basic supplies as Maqai is very remote and everything comes in by boat. The road then changes from sealed to unsealed - known as the "Coconut Highway" where the British had created a massive avenue of coconut palms, now dishevelled and overgrown. We weave and bump our way around Taveuni - the driver has to hold the windscreen in place over the worst bumps and potholes. 

We pass through villages made up of collections of ramshackle, tin shacks and the girls are amazed to see local ladies doing their laundry waist deep in the rivers which we  cross over wooden plank bridges! We reach the end of the road (literally)  and transfer to the waiting speed boat wading through the waves, packs aloft and hauling ourselves in over the engine! 

The girls perch on life jackets clinging on for dear life as we zoom away, splashed with salt spray and crashing over the waves. 

 

The sun is shining over Maqai as we approach the beach around the reef. It is about as remote a place as we are ever going to visit and in the dusk half light looks idyllic.