Another stupidly early start as we are collected from the Friendly North Inn at 4.30 a.m to wait on the pavement outside the shipping office which shut 10 minutes before we reached it yesterday. We pay the bargain rate of $17 FD (not $45) for our 5 year old twins (how many times have we been asked if the girls are twins?????!!!!!) and start another bus journey to Nabouwalu. Although Savusavu is closer there is no bus service or passable road so this is the only way. Some of our fellow passengers from yesterday were hitching or taking a "carrier" truck across country but said this was not something we should attempt! We opt for the 4th bus of 4 - which is almost empty and unlike the sticky plastic seats of the previous day we travel in a modern(ish) coach. Our driver is obviously on a mission and drives quite quickly with no regard for potholes!
There is nothing like a Fijian scramble to get on the bus/boat/ferry! Fijians do not queue! They just move forward en masse and wave their bits of paper at the checker and hope for the best!
We make it on board the ferry, which is a thousand time better than our previous experience when we travelled from Suva. It is clean (ish) and well maintained (ish) and the girls enjoy their first TV for 3 weeks.
We make it to Natovi Landing and remain on board. Some trucks,buses and passengers leave here to go to Suva but we stay on till the next stop - Ovalau and Levuka. It is 6pm and nearly dark by the time we arrive at the oldest hotel in Fiji - The Royal. However we do not stay long - we almost feel like we stumbled into a Fijian version of Fawlty Towers by mistake! Instead we change our arrangements and relocate to the warm welcome of Auntie Pa and the relative luxury of New Mavida Lodge just along the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment