Well I left Manila on Thursday on an eight hour overnight Qantas flight to Sydney, Australia. We arrived around 7:00 a.m. and by 12:30 p.m. I was on a Fiji Air flight to Nandi, Fiji. We arrived about a half hour late and by the time I reached the Bedarra Beach Hotel on the Coral Coast it was 9:30 p.m. on Friday evening. Oof. It was a long one.
Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Once I got up, I went out onto my deck and took stock of my surroundings and damn it was lovely. A kind of throw back, small locally owned hotel overlooking its own beachfront. It was perfection. And nearby there were a couple beachfront restaurants within walking distance.
By 10:00 a.m., I had a driver taking me into nearby Sigatoka Town (about 10 minutes drive time away) to check out the local Saturday market. The town was packed with market goers who were buying up all the local produce for sale, including pineapple, sugar cane, tomatoes, limes, cucumbers, oranges, ginger and a variety of squash.
I walked around for a bit taking in the sights before stumbling across a row of handicraft sellers. Now these folks were relentless. You buy from one and they expect you to buy from everyone. And sadly most of the sellers were selling virtually the same thing: a few hand carved statutes, shell necklaces, earrings and bracelets and pearl and semi-precious stone necklaces, earrings and bracelets. I bought a few things, but was striking out on the Christmas ornament front. I ended up walking down Main Street and found a couple souvenir shops and low and behold I found one shop that had some Christmas ornaments in the back and quickly bought one I liked. No shutout on this trip!
So after the trip around the market, I called the driver and had him bring me back to the hotel, changed into my bathing suit, ordered a fruity drink from the bar, and walked to the beach and pulled up a lounge chair and did nothing for the rest of the day.
On Sunday, it was more of the same except this time I headed over to the beach took a walk and then grabbed a snorkel and mask for a little fish viewing. Unfortunately, I had waited a little too long and the tide was starting to go out so the water was pretty shallow. I had to walk a fair distance out before I was even waste deep and that included walking around and trying to swim over some massive mounds of coral. At one point, the waves took me into the coral (since the water was so shallow) and I ended up with a small cut on my leg.
Now the fish viewing was not too bad (and I suspect it will be much better when I hit the beach before the tide starts going out). I spotted a blue starfish on my walk out to the snorkeling area and saw numerous colourful fish once I put on my snorkel gear, and in particular I saw some spectacular bright blue and yellow fish and some lovely black and white striped fish. Gorgeous.
By the end of the day, I decided it was time to figure out where to eat. I had read about a small spot about 800 meters down the road called the Crab Shack. I didn’t really know what to expect, but thought I would give it a try. Turns out it was pretty spectacular.
The restaurant was more like a food truck/ large shed surrounded by picnic tables and lights strung up around the place. The menu was pretty extensive, with lovely tropical drinks and a large selection of seafood. However, I opted for their specialty, the Mud Crab. Now they had a variety of methods for cooking, but the recommended method was the chili garlic so I went with the chili garlic, a side of corn on the cob and a side of garlic bread along with a “sunset lagoon drink. And I can tell you that this meal was as close to perfection as they come. The corn was roasted in butter and absolutely delicious. The garlic bread was grilled and very tasty. The drink was fabulous. But the star of the show was the Mud Crab. Now I have eaten a lot of crab in my life and always thought nothing could beat Dungeness with melted butter. However, I have to say that the chill garlic Mud Crab was utter perfection. The chili flavour was spicy, but not too spicy and left a lingering spicy taste on my lips that kept me wanting more. The staff kept asking me if I was enjoying my dinner and all I kept saying was “Oh my God this is so good”.
And while I ate, the sun set (spectacular) and they kept playing 80s and 90s music over some nearby speaker. At one point they even played the Macarena. Now if the food hadn’t been so spectacular, I probably would have left. Who plays the Macarena these days? Ha! (And no Cora, I did not dance.)
Anyway, I wandered back down the street to my hotel and called it a day. On Monday, I was up early to meet the minivan taking me on all day trip south for a visit to a local village, a swim under a waterfall and a tubing adventure on the Navua River. Now the trip to get to the river was an adventure in and of itself as we drove along the coast through a myriad of little villages making three stops along the way to pickup other folks. All told, the trip took approximately two hours. Yikes!
Once at the launch site, we were fitted with an inner tube, life jacket and water shoes. We then set off in small skiffs that took us 17 km upstream to the Sabata Village where we were going to first visit the village. Now in Fiji the tradition upon arrival in a village is that the village chief greets you with a Kava (welcoming) ceremony. However, we no sooner arrived than we were told there would be no Kava ceremony because the size of the village was so small (only 50 people) and the chief and other men go out fishing to sustain the village. Well I get that, but I was pretty ticked there was not going to be a ceremony. The one reason i booked the trip was because I wanted to see a Kava ceremony.
And the village visit was really short. We were given a brief overview about the village, allowed to walk around for ten minutes, then given a tour of the gardens and then back in the skiffs. Gesh. For an hour long trip upriver, you would have thought there would be more.
Anyway, once back in the skiffs we travelled a short ten minutes downstream to the waterfall docking area. From here, it was about a five minute walk up and down a series of stairs and ramps to reach the gorgeous waterfall.
We stripped down to our swimwear and … damn this water was cold. I got in, but didn’t spend more than ten minutes floating around before I found it just too cold, climbed out and dried off.
Once back at the skiffs, we were taken less than five minutes down river to our lunch spot. Lunch was absolutely terrific. Salad, fruits, noodles, fiddle fern (a local wild green that was delicious), grilled chicken and sausages and OJ.
And once lunch was done, we were given a briefing on the ins and outs of inner tubing and then we set off. Now one thing I was not prepared for is that we had to actually paddle. We floated backwards and used our arms and hands to propel us through the water. (I guess since it is the dry season, the river was a little low so the current was slow.) And with a 6 km trip, my arms got tired pretty quickly. Every now and then I would have to rest and one of the guides would come along and have folks grab on to on another and they would propel us down river.
The float was actually quite nice as we passed waterfalls, the occasional bird and lovely tropical palms. We even were serenaded by the guides as we floated down the river, although they sang in native tongue so no idea what the songs were.
Howevere, the highlight of the float was when we floated through (or perhaps the better term is flung through) three sets of rapids that were an absolute blast. On the final set, I ended up being pushed into one of the guides and a young boy he was helping along. The guide actually had to grab me so I wasn’t hurtled on top of them. It was a riot.
Now once we finished tubing, the skiffs picked us up and we began the twenty ish minute trip back to the starting point. Unfortunately, the sun disappeared and it began to rain. And travelling in a skiff downstream at a pretty good clip with rain pelting you is not a lot of fun. By the time we reached the starting point, folks were pretty cold so we certainly did not need AC on the ride back.
I ended up being dropped off at 5:30 p.m. and was done in. I grabbed some dinner at the restaurant and called it a day. Tomorrow, I was supposed to go on a snorkeling trip, but they are projecting some stiff winds out on the ocean so the tour company cancelled the trip. Fortunately, they were able to rebook me for Thursday when the winds are predicted to be much, much better. So day off to do nothing. Then on Wednesday, I am heading north to Nadi for a day tour of the town.
