Still …… Island hopping in the Yasawas – Part 3
Friday 30 September – Geoff, Nick and Mike finished their golf and arranged to meet us at the Sheraton for lunch. Have to say we were a little bit sneaky and got out of the taxi and just walked in to the hotel and found ourselves a set of sun loungers around the pool, the kids were in the water in no time and we had a very nice lunch and a delightful afternoon relaxing and enjoying the Sheraton hospitality of complimentary ice-blocks and fruit kebabs (very cheeky I know!). We ended the day with a casual dinner at the Golf club where we had a table full of pizzas and the boys had a lot of fun chasing the frogs around the gardens!
Saturday 1 October – An early breakfast together at Mike’s hotel before we said our goodbyes to them and headed back to the boat to get away by 10.00am. We have sailed for over 5 hours and once again reached Mantaray Island where we stayed for the night in the bay. Kate and I felt we needed to dress up for our cocktails and make the most of our floral tiaras which sadly are starting to wilt a little bit.
Sunday 2 October – en route to Long Beach today, we stopped so the boys could finally get to use their new toy, a foiling board. Once in Long Beach we went to visit a family that Geoff has been helping out for years. We knew that Sala was in Suva, but we hoped to see her husband, Matia. Unfortunately, his son Junior, who was visiting from Suva, told us he had gone off to the well to get water, but when we walked through the palm forest to find him, we were unsuccessful. We’ve now sailed round the bay and back to Nanuya Levu where we have anchored for the night and it’s lovely and peaceful.
Monday 3 October – we’ve had a very adventurous morning; we went over to the island as there is a walking track over the top to the other side of the island. It was fantastic to be out in the sunshine and doing some much-neededexercise. And such a beautiful walk too, through canopies of coconut palms and past some plantings of yams and taro and always with a heavenly view of the blue Pacific.
We followed the sign to Lo’s Teahouse which is on the beach on the other side – so pleased we didn’t miss this treat – home-made lemonade accompanied by delicious home-made crispy donuts with hot chocolate sauce (that quickly cancelled out all the good that the walk was doing us, but it was worth it!). We walked along the beach to Sunset resort and along the way would you believe, we happened on Junior who was visiting the island with Matia, his dad! So Geoff was finally able to catch up with him, small world. And even smaller, as when we got back to the boat along came Rattu in a long boat, also visiting the island from Yasawairara. He was our fisherman guest from last week. He was delighted with the rugby ball that Mike had bought for his daughter and thrilled with the money Geoff gave him to fix Miriyama’s solar panels.
Tuesday 4 October – we anchored off Sawa-i-Lau Island last night so that everyone could go and swim in the caves first thing this morning. Off they went to the shore at 9.00am (minus one cowardly passenger!) – the deal is you swim in and then hold your breath and go underneath a rock, following the light of a torch being held on the other side, and then up into a pool in the cave.
Everyone loved it - I joined them for the browse around the market stalls afterwards – much more to my liking, especially as I found a beautiful purple necklace made from coconuts – couldn’t be more perfect, my favourite colour and a lovely memory of my trip. We sailed back around to Yasawairara where we anchored, and everyone went snorkelling while I prepared dinner. Whilst on the beach they met up with some fisherman who agreed to go out and fish late at night in the hopes of getting some good fish and lobster for us.
Wednesday 5 October – up early this morning to meet the fisherman at 7.00am and see what they have caught us for dinner. Sadly, no fish but some good lobsters so everyone will be happy to have a very tasty dinner tonight. We also caught up with Miriyama and the boys played rugby with the kids on the beach. Still in fishing mode we got back to the boat at 8.00am and the lines are already out,and we are heading for the same spot by the reef as we went to with Rattu and Leon last week. High excitement from the boys, it’s been a very lucrative morning – 5 blue fin tuna have been caught – Nick has gutted them all it’s looking a little like part of the fish counter at Countdown on the starboard deck. Geoff cooked the lobster up so that’s been eaten (I’m not doing the washing up after lunch today!)
We’ve had a terrific afternoon, Nick, Kate, the boys and I went back into the village as we had been offered some ripe bananas which we were keen to get as the ones we bought in the market last week still haven’t ripened properly. Off we went and Miriyama took us to Lucy’s house – she looks after the vegetable patch where the bananas are! Out she came with a big basket and a machete, and we followed her to the gardens, about a 15-minute walk away.
By the time we got there we had about 10 other kids with us, some of whom had climbed a tree and picked off some pawpaw en route and were using them as rugby balls passing them to each other as they tagged along! It was a great walk, and we were very happy with the “hand” of bananas that we bought (see the photo!). What with them and the ones on the boat we will be getting our fair intake of potassium this week. On the way back, Nick was walking along like the Pied Piper with more kids who had joined in and we all walked down to the other end of the beach and the wharf. En route we passed Moses who was grating coconut and his wife, Mary, who was busy making coconut bread for their dinner, we had a lovely chat with them both, the Fijians are just so friendly.
The kids had great fun joining in with us – they were just so happy I sang some nursery rhymes with them, and we had a few tickles too. They were a joy to be with, they have no material things in their lives but were happy and playful and can amuse themselves so easily.
Back on the boat and Nick picked up some of the tuna to take back to Miriyama for dinner for the family and Kate is preparing the rest for dinner here. The boys are going back in the morning for more rugby with their friends before we leave for our next island stopover.