Friday 2 August – picking up guests

We left our little village bay on Ono Island before breakfast as it was going to take us over 4 hours to get to the main village which has the airport that Phil and Wendy are flying into. We had an easy exit out of the southern pass from the area we were in and finally got to the village on the main Kadavu island, which has much higher mountains, which were constantly covered in thick clouds. The highest peak is Mt Washington an ancient volcano, 805m high, it dominates the island. As we entered the rather tricky pass into the village the heavens open and we had torrential rain, almost a white out, so we had to rely on instruments, I got drenched looking out for various markers through the reef. We heard the tiny plane land which was carrying Phil and Wendy. We finally got anchored, changed out of our drenched clothes, and Rowan went to pick up our guests who we could see standing in the pouring rain on the beach. Poor things were soaking by the time they got on board.

Rowan had to change out of his second set of clothes, we needed to go and check in with the police with boat papers, get fuel for the dinghy and I needed to get some fresh provisions. Rain poured down again, soaking Rowan yet again, luckily I had my poncho, but it was a very wet excursion. I went to the little market at the beach which was handy. There were a number of fresh produce stall holders, again the most successful was the Indian guy. I managed to buy something from all 5 of the stall holders, Bok Choy, spinach, cabbage, carrots, lettuce but no tomatoes or potatoes. A good supply of eggs thank goodness as we had our last two for breakfast! I also found found some local honey and locally made chilli jam. So not a bad shop. It was all very basic and the supermarkets more bare than the African trading stores I’m used to. Wendy had requested Soy milk …….. well that was a pipe dream!

Once Rowan had completed his very friendly chat at the Police station with Rowan commiserating with them about Fiji getting a silver medal for rugby at the Olympics. Rather quaint when Fiji won gold in the previous Olympic games the president produced a $7 FJD note with the rugby team on it!

We finally got back to the boat, Phil and Wendy had managed to dry out a bit and we set off up the coast to a little bay for the night. Once again tricky light and bommies everywhere, so hard to judge how deep they are, but we finally settled, with Rowan and Phil off in their fins to inspect the anchor and surrounding bommies. All was good so we celebrated with sundowners and a BBQ. We were all ready for bed before 9pm…..no partying here!

Woke up to sunshine in our little village

Scenic bays along the way down south

Heading down from Ono Island to the airport ….. runway may be more appropriate!

The runway is at sea level at the narrowest part of the island, Vunisea is the biggest village/town

Entering the pass to the main village with the runway

Almost a white out in the rain

Dodging reefs going in

At our anchorage for the night looking at the volcano Mt Washington. Around 2,500 years ago, the volcano erupted. When the clouds cleared, the people saw a new mountain had formed, its shape resembling a mound of earth in which yams are grown. This gave the mountain its name – Nabukelevu, the giant yam mound. It was renamed Mount Washington during Fiji’s colonial history.

Spectacular sunset