The pass into Fulaga is very skinny with coral heads all
over the place. So I had to be on watch to look out for reefs. But of course we
made it safely (well, I mean with such a great first mate!) and found a lovely
calm anchoring.
The landscape here is
very similar to Vanua Balavu, with little limestone islands growing out of the
water looking like ships with a head of hair. It is amazing to see trees and
Palms growing out of this limestone rock without having any earth. And
everywhere where you look are gorgeous white sandy palm fringed beaches. Taking it easy in the morning, with a yummy
lunch of Kokonda, we decided to go and have a look at the village.
We took our Kava for sevusevu, but we already thought, it’s Sunday, probably not happening today. Well,
where do I start? These are the most welcoming people you have seen! As we
arrived, a church service was on and we were straight away invited in to take
part and met quite a few lovely people, like Bill, who introduced us to Sena
and Simon, our host family straight away. Every yachty gets assigned to a host
family, who will look after you for the time spending on the island and
village. So, so nice. The next morning we went back for sevusevu with two other
yachts, Mark from Wavelength from the US, with Teri from Mexico on board and
Rob and Barbara on Zoonie from the UK. After the ceremony we went back to Sena
and Simon’s house and had a chat with them before Bill showed us around in the
village.
Bill and Pete
The wood carvers, amazing work, we bought three
No running water, no power (just a bit of solar), this is the wash station
The list of Priests from the village. Religion here is Methodist, with four church services on Sunday
Finding the wasabi plant (or raddish), it is so yumm, I felt like a cow that couldn't stop grazing
When we came back, Sena had prepared Tea and pancakes for us! They are so nice! Rob and
Barbara joined us for some nice morning tea.
Lovely Sena
And of course some Kava...
Late that day, we went for a snorkel along the pass. Really
fun. You go with the incoming tide and just pull the dinghy behind while you
snorkel. It was like a ride, the current took us soooo fast. Lots of lovely
coral and fish.
Tuesday we had planned just to go quickly into the village
and buy some of their beautiful wooden bowls and then go snorkelling again, but
the day turned out so different… We did not have our radio turned on, so we
missed that it was Barbara’s birthday! And it was party time! After buying our
bowls, we first went for a great explore. (Pete stayed back with the village
men, who were playing drafts and drinking kava, as his knee was giving him a
bit of trouble on the day.)
But us other five went with Bill and Tui on an
explore, up to a lookout. First stop: A cave with human skulls and bones.
Creepy…
The boys reckon they were probably from warriors who had attacked the
village and had been killed and eaten! Yeah! That was the live in the Pacific…
Glad these times are over!
With Teri, Mark, Barbara and Rob at the lookout
Next a lovely outlook and then I was brave and we
went up this steep rockwall to get to the peak. Just trying to find little
footholes (and mind you I was wearing Birkenstock thongs…) and roots to hold on
to. And I am so bad anyway with heights. But it was worth it. The view was
magnificent!!!
Bill and Tui
This is the peak we went up to!
And then dreading the climb back down. But the boys were really
helpful, put your food here next and so on. I was just a bit worried too, that
I was going to lose my sarong, as I am not the best at tying them around me and
poor Bill would have had my underpants right in his face. But all went good, we
made it fully dressed, safely and unhurt back down the mountain and back in the
village. I had a big drink of Kava, which I think I really deserved!!! After
that was party time. Barbara and Rob’s host had put on a party lunch for her
birthday!! So cool.
Now this is the next step from having environmentally friendly straws! These ones are from the paw paw plant. Best idea. And I love the coconuts. They seem to be a bottomless pit, there is so much water in it.
Mary made Barbara a birhtday necklace
Great, yummy food and lots of it. We had of course also
birthday cake and some dancing and then of course we had to start again with
some more Kava.
So out of a little walk turned out to be a fantastic and fun day,
which we finished with some cocktails on Havachat with Barabara and Rob.
Wednesday was a rest day. Lots of baking and cooking for the
next few days, lots of things happening in the village. Thursday is Bring and Buy
day, to fund-riser for the school. And Friday is picnic day at the beach with
all the yachties and the people from the village. But Pete still had an
exciting little outing on Wednesday, he had convinced Alfred, the village crab
expert, to go mud crab hunting with him. So Alfred had lunch with us on the
boat and then the two of them were off mud crab hunting.
Alfred and Pete playing a game of connect four...
...and a came of checkers before lunch.
A little red and blue crab
There you go, they are back. And of course one poor mud crab had to give his life, So sad. But Pete is so happy. And Alfred came back onto our boat and it was so interesting to have a conversation with him over a few beers.
Well, tomorrow and Friday will be big days with the give and
buy and the picnic. We will have to bring lots of the villagers around to the
beach on our boat. See how that will go…. More later….
Bring and Buy was fun, I made a banana cake (you never have
a shortage of these in this part of the world and they are delicious, but
sometimes you can’t eat them fast enough so they have to be used in baking) and
a bread.
Picnic day was just the best! Four or five boats (including
Havachat) waited in the morning to pick the villagers up to ferry them to the
picnic beach. We ended up with the lot of people, it was great!
Off we went,
making our way slowly and carefully through the coral heads, so not to hit them.
At the beach,we were busy making table tops and plates out of palm leaves.
It is amazing! These people need nothing, the whole set up was done there and
then without creating any rubbish! And it was really cool to learn how it is
done.
Bill, my teacher
Barbara and Tui
Well done, Pete!
Teri
Lunch is being set up. Everybody brought a dish, so we had a feast. Yummy, yummy!
Table construction
I think this is the most people we ever had in our dinghy - 12!
On the way back, when we were anchored up again, we got rid of the kids and then the adults had fun!! We had so much fun! Barbara and Rob came over as well, the music got turned up, we danced and laughed a lot. They are just such beautiful people in this village, so much fun to be around with. And they enjoy their time with the yachties as much as we enjoy our time with them.
Saturday we went back to the anchorage at the beach were the
picnic was and spend the day with Barbara and Rob and
Mark and Teri going on a long snorkelling trip, then a very
yummy soup made by Teri, which we had on their boat, and then we ended the
night on our boat with just a little bit too much partying…
Teri and Pete making custard
So Sunday was a
write- off, being hangover and reading all day. But we had that much action, it
was really nice doing nothing for a day.
With Monday our second last day arrived at this beautiful
island, where our host family had organised a good-bye party for us. We would
have liked our host family to come on our boat for dinner, but Simon has a bad
leg and couldn’t walk all the way from the village. So instead, we made food (I
made a roast pork with baked potatoes and pumpkin) and they made also lots of
great dishes. The biggest smile Pete had, when he saw, that they went the night
before to catch a coconut crab for us to eat!
Sena's kitchen
Coconut crab - and then I ran out of room on my phone to take any more photos...
Besides all this fantastic food
we had of course lots and lots of Kava as well. And Simon’s sister made us some
placemats and serviette rings as a good bye present. They are just the nicest
and most welcoming people!! We were soooo sad when we had to say goodbye…
Tuesday morning we snorkelled again the pass (we did it Monday
morning with Teri and Mark), this time with Barbara and Rob. The reef there is
so healthy looking with an enormous amount of coral in different shape, colour
and type. As Barbara said, it is not just a coral garden, it is a coral forest!
The pictures just don't really do it justice!
Havachat
And the reef looks so healthy, with the
healthy looking coral and lots of reef fish. We also saw some White tipped reef
sharks, some big groupers and big turtles.
And after lunch it was finally goodbye! Sail back to
Savusavu to pick up Bo and Tina there, to spend a couple of weeks with us on
the boat. The sail back to Savusavu was calm and uneventful.
