We had a long drift snorkel on both sides of the bay, the coral on the one side was in much better condition, quite a few fish, some dramatic big structures again. The one area had a massive cliff fall into the water. Rowan spotted a huge turtle which I was very happy about. There was some unusual intensely blue coral.
A few boats have left, and there is lots of chat about weather windows to go back to NZ. One of the boats has an American solo sailor, Nancy on Aldabra. We met her in Savusavu where she was waiting for her crew to arrive, her friend’s husband! They took off to the beach in the morning, with another boat to go to the nearest village to do Sevusevu. It is an hours walk in this heat and no shade. We plan to move PolePole to the next village along tomorrow and do sevusevu there. We were also not so keen to leave the boat for so long in this wind, or the dinghy on the beach. Nancy was gone for hours, that showed real dedication..
In the cooler part of the afternoon we went for a nice long walk to the end of the beach. It is a beautiful wide white beach. we followed a path from the beach and found the abandoned resort we had read about. Really shocking how it was abandoned half way through the build. Some metal structures have completely rusted, There are piles of expensive looking building materials just lying about, including solar panels. We think Covid must have hit it, such an enviromental disaster on such a beautiful beach. Hopefully someone will rescue it, but it will take a lot of money and effort. Water is scarce and there is no easy access to the area.
Walking on Champagne beach
Such a beautiful beach
The abandoned resort being taken over by acacias
A path cut through the acacia
Dry river bed
Wondering it the water ever goes over the top or just seeps though the sand
Far end of the beach
We had left JeldiJeldi on anchor, the tide had come up and Rowan had quite a swim to get her back
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