Tavewa, Naviti, Drawaqa & Waya, Fiji, 16 - 22 March 2012‏

 Whoops, meant to update more regularly than this as we're moving around from island to island, but seems my memory is pretty good!

So I last left you on Tavewa in Coral View resort. Our second day was spent in the sun, and I was already getting restless, so after breakfast I climbed the hill up to the top of the island in just my sunnies and boardies. Since I took off my flip-flops at the marina in Denarau, I haven't worn them since! The climb was pretty steep, muddy and rocky, then really long grass closer to the top. At one point the trail went straight into a solid mass of bush, so guess it isn't climbed often! Got some great photos, then realised it was about 40 degrees, almost midday, and I had no water, so wandered back. Afternoon was spent dozing in a hammock, and swimming in the bath temperature sea.
Dinner was lovely again, and afterwards we played some games, had some drinks. Whilst chatting to Lauren and Mel from London, I discovered that the following day was Sat and not Fri as I thought, so they were actually feeding the sharks on a dive the next day. I was in two minds, but not often I'll see it, so I signed up. Next morning we kitted up and headed out to the dive site. We went down to 18m, swam between 2 reefs, and at the end was a line to hold. Between 1 and 5m in front of us was a plethora of fish (including a big old wrasse munching on a fish head), and a lemon shark, a 3.5m nurse shark, a few black and white tip reef sharks up to 3m long, and two bull sharks, one of which was 4m long and almost 2m in diameter. It was really good to see, and so different from the usual way of shark diving where they chum the waters so you can barely see anything. The sharks come to this spot twice a week out of habit as they know they'll be fed (shark knows what day of the week it is but I don't, how bad is that), and there's no teasing them to get them close, they're just fed and we sit at the sidelines quietly and watch.
Very different dive to what I've done before, and really glad I did it.

We got back to the resort in time for a bit of lunch before the boat picked us up to take us to our next destination: White Sandy Beach resort in Naviti. This was right next door to another resort where a few friends were staying, amongst them, Luzian, who Jo had fully converted to her version of gin rummy.
We had another bure to ourselves, and were greeted with coconuts. It was nice, if a little small and basic, but had reefs right off the beach. Not much of a drop-off, but still lots to see, and some patches of really cool coral of loads of different, vivid colours, so plenty for me the while away the hours burning my back to a crisp!
Anyway, nice place, and that night we wandered up the beach for a drink with Luzian and Lauren, then next morning after checkout and breakfast of pancakes, fruit and warm polenta-bread, we went back up and loitered by the pool and played some cards until the boat arrived to take us to our next stop!

En route to White Sandy, we met up with Becky again, and asked her to text us as she was off to Barefoot resort, and we wanted to know what it was like. Apparently lovely, so we booked ourselves in for a one night to check it out.
Barefoot is on the island Drawaqa, and has 3 beaches directly attached to the resort and another 3 or 4 around the island. It's near a posh resort called Mantaray, which sells itself on the fact that it's near a strait where mantarays go in season. Turns out that Barefoot is actually on this strait, and there's no boat ride required; just hire a snorkel and you're amongst the 4-5m rays in mins right off the beach! Unfortunately we were at least a month early, so we saw none (didn't stop me looking though).
Barefoot isn't a new resort, it's not actually open yet; it's still being refurbished and putting its new brochure together. We arrived and the only guest was Becky! There were 6 members of staff, and Alesia and Gareth, a South African couple with their 7 month old daughter Jade, who were there as Gareth was in charge of the refurb.
Despite not technically being open, they were still taking bookings and were operating as usual. We were shown around, and told to our amazement that they had wifi which was free, kayak and snorkel hire was free, and tea and coffee was available all the time for free. These are all common add-ons at these resorts, so we were very happy! That afternoon we were taken on a guided snorkel by Tuay along sunrise beach, which had some great drop-offs from the reef about 1m below to about 5m, although the sea-lice were a bit bite-y, so felt a bit stung.
We had a lovely little bure with a huge bed right on sunrise beach. The food was amazing, with 3 course meals every evening, and huge buffet breakfasts.
Our first night after dinner we had some stories from one of the older guys from the village; Bucks, who told us all about the rules on families (you can't speak to any children of your small father, who are any cousins from an uncle younger than your dad), and how men "fix" women (little whispers and quite a bit of close-quarters stalking as it turns out! They're all scared of being beaten up by the girls dad and brothers).
Our second day at barefoot we did very little. Spent most of our time on the beach, I went snorkelling a couple of times, went walking around the rock, then that evening, we found a sea snake in some rocks, and Becky, Tuay and I went up the hill to look at the sunset.
Third day was our second day with pancakes as Jo fluttered her eyelashes at the chef and beat him senseless with flattery, then we made coconut bracelets, I went snorkelling again with Jo (Becky prophetically said "see you in a minute Jo, see you in an hour David"), then after lunch we took the kayaks out for a spin round the island with Tuay. The trip was a couple of hours including stopping for a snorkel a couple of times, and the second time we stopped, I got chased across the beach by a "dead" crab (or I thought it was til it jumped up and legged it after me!).
That night was our last night, and after dinner we had a fire show put on for us, then we sat around drinking kava. This wasn't the touristy kava ceremony they put on, but just the guys who work there sitting around having a few bowls after work, so was pretty strong, and after a dozen I felt pretty dopey too. I can see why they like it so much! Plus there's no hangover as no alcohol!
Our last day Jo and I got up early for sunrise only to see some clouds on the horizon blocking it, so we went back to bed. Was another perfect day though when we got up, and I went for a few paddles and snorkels for one last look in case there were any mantas about, but we were just a little too early in the season, so sadly didn't see any.
We got waved off from the beach by all the staff, Alecia, Gareth and Jade, and made our way to the boat to move onto our next stop; Octopus on the island of Waya.

Octopus was an island not included in our Bula pass, and cost us an extra 70fjd, but you could see where it went. It is a really plush resort, with swimming pool, and our own little bungalow with veranda that you could honeymoon in. As it's a bigger resort it also has a bit of choice for meals, and great food (pancakes weren't up to the scratch of Barefoot though).
We sat with Lara, Emma and Paige at dinner (along with Becky, Jo and I), and afterwards there were some games to win prizes. First up was limbo (little unfair on us tall people), Becky did really well and got to the last round, and we were all happy to see a stuck up American girl who loudly said it wouldn't be fair for her to compete as she'd beat us all as she is a gymnast, go out.
Second game was a balloon thing which Jo and I were terrible at, but Becky and Lara won, winning a free massage each!
We had a couple of drinks, then off to our luxurious room!
Next morning we made the most of the buffet breakfast, then hit the beach, and I tried out the snorkelling. Was good, very shallow close to the beach, so not possible unless high tide, but the drop-off of the reefs were about 6m, so plenty to see even at low tide. Not much else to report other than we were like pendulums between the beach and bar area for the whole day!
Next morning we took the walk to the village on the other side of the island, and went to the kindergarten where some kids "sang" to us (though it was a bit like the haka by the looks on their faces!), and we looked through some stalls the ladies of the village laid out. I don't know how they sat there in the sun though, apparently it was 44 degrees that day!
We got back to the resort and recommenced our perpetual movements between beach and bar.
The night was spent eating and drinking (surprise surprise), and then doing the quiz, which we were winning (despite losing a dance-off I had to do as a tie-break), then the final round was a talent contest, which no-one was feeling, so we lost out, but still stuck around to watch the American girl piss around showing off again, but they still lost to the loony Chinese man with a snorkel mask on and bedsheet behind him doing a Chinese dragon.
Following day both Jo and Becky were a bit poorly, and I tried to hunt down reef sharks with my snorkel and went bloody miles, but still didn't find one.
We topped up the tan til the last minute in the afternoon when we got on the boat to our next island!

Cairns and Whitsundays, Oz, 22-27 Feb 2012

Not sure how I'm going to find the time to fill in the details of SA, so I'd better update what I'm doing at the moment or I'll always be behind.

So we left Perth on our anniversary of our first date (we haven't got a "been together" date as we never discussed it, just fell into place together), on a Jetstar flight which I was thoroughly impressed with as it's so cheap, and yet my knees weren't forced up around my ears!
We landed very early on 22nd in Cairns (about 5am), and as we didn't want to fork out for a cab, we waited til 7 when the free shuttle from our hostel ran. We stayed at a place called JJ's which Howie recommended to us. Was $22 pppn, but that included brekkie and dinner, so we went for it.
As soon as we dumped our bags in our 3 bed dorm (why 3 bed I haven't a clue - bloody stupid, but oh well, was basically a private room for us!) we headed out to socialise in the hostel, have a cup of tea and plan exactly what we were going to do in Oz as it's so bloody expensive, we can't afford doss-days like in SA. We tried to plan, but we were both shattered and dirty, and very quickly were getting really shitty with each other (perilously close to having our first fight!), but we knew we were just tired, so we had a power-nap for and hour and a half. We then wandered along the esplanade into the tourist places, playing one off against the other until we had a deal that seemed to be impossible to top (the last lady tried, but was over our best offer by $40, and had missed one of the trips).
Our plan was mapped as follows:
- use the Greyhound buses for our whole trip from Cairns to Melbourne
- go on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef (me diving, Jo snorkelling)
- go on a Whitsundays boat trip for 2 nights
- go on a Fraser Island 4x4 tour for 2 nights
- plus a shedload of nights accom around all the tours to keep daily spend down (and easy to haggle people to "throwing an extra night" in here and there)



Post dive/snorkel



As mentioned above, we realised that we had to keep our spend down, so everything was to be squeezed into a tight timeframe. This meant that, after dinner of practically vegetarian chilli from the pub where our meals for the hostel were included, the following day, we were up at 6am, to check out of our room, stash the bags, and head to the marina for the boat trip.
Whilst haggling, we'd managed to get our trips bumped up in class each time, and our boat was a brand new cat, with a lovely crew, including a huge Fijian who kept telling me he had the best job in the world undressing women (of their stinger suits after swimming), a fellow brit who was handling us cert divers, and the person in charge of it all; a malay woman about 4'10", and about 25 years old!

We had about an hour and a half trip out to the first dive site, with tea, coffee and biscuits, then dive briefing, then we kitted up and away we went! There were about 6 of us on the guided dive, and it was amazing. We saw a sleeping white tipped reef shark, about 4 1/2ft long, asleep, as soon as we got down! We then bimbled about and saw millions of fish you only see in tanks in posh restaurants, another reef shark with a bright blue pilot fish cleaning it's nosh, and lots of beautiful coral.
We went up, changed tanks, and went back in, along another route, where we saw about 30 batfish, which are huge, about the size of a dustbin lid, lots more tropical fish, a massive Napoleon Wrasse (a local celebrity and on a lot of postcards; about the size of a small sofa, bloody massive!), and then we stumbled across a green turtle, who let us watch him ponder around and then feed for a bit!
Third dive was after lunch, and on a different reef. We saw plenty of fish and coral again, but nothing new this time, but was still so nice down there. Visablilty was about 18m, which is pretty impressive when the last dive I did was between 5 and 8 in Cape Town!
We got back on the boat, and as I hadn't seen a single jellyfish all day, I took off the stinger suit and fins, grabbed a snorkel and mask, and jumped back in for a swim for another 20 mins. Found Jo snorkelling whilst I was duck diving and coming back up, and she waved at me with about 6 inches of stinger suit flapping beyond her fingertips. She looked really "special".
When we got back in, a load of dolphins swam past, quite near some of the last snorkellers coming in. Everyone was jealous that they'd seen them swimming, but I think they were too far away, and no-one talked about it when they got back on, so I think it was rubbish.
We had more tea, coffee and cake on the way back, debriefed, updated my dive log, then and sunbathed on the deck! End of a very long and tiring, but great day! We then went and showered at the hostel, got the bags, got some dinner, then sat outside McDonalds nursing diet cokes and coffees for 3 hours waiting for our bus to whisk us off to Airlie Beach!

We arrived in Airlie Beach at about 11 the next morning, and immediately checked in for our Whitsundays boat trip the following day. Then we dropped off our bags (but couldn't check-in yet) to the backpackers, and wandered off in search of breakfast. In our search for a bargain, we walked about 5 miles, and viewed every menu and shop in town, and when we finally settled on somewhere, a storm had moved in, we were drenched, and it was more like a late lunch than brekkie!
Bit of a boring day after that, just wandered around sorting ourselves out for the next day, and planning the rest of Oz.
Next morning we checked out, ate brekkie, bought goon, and stored our bags for the few days we were on the boat. You weren't allowed zips, as bed-bugs live in them and they didn't want to spread them onto the boat.
At midday we made our way to the marina where we were to meet the crew. A short, feisty kiwi called Liv came and met us, she was the deck-hand. She really reminded me of my old boss Fiona (if you're reading this Fi, look out the photos on FB and see if you agree!). Liv took us to the boat, which was the British Defender. It is an 83ft yacht, which was sailed in competition in 89, 90 and 91.



British Defender sailing... just not in the conditions we experienced!



This is where our haggling really came up trumps. It is a beautiful boat, with a crew of just 3 (Tane the skipper, Liv the deck-hand, and Rosie the cook), and 29 of us tourists. As when it was sailed in competition it had a crew of 40, we were needed to help out when sailing (which most of us were very happy to do!)
We left the marina under engine power, then we got the sails up and got sailing. We started sailing towards a big dark cloud, which we tried to skit around. It then got a lot bigger, and we went straight into the middle of it. As we hit it, the wind direction changed by 90 degrees, and we had to tack to go towards the Whitsundays. This just means going in a zig-zag, but means the boom has to swing over the heads of all 29, whilst some of us tried to help out and all move out of the way of the ropes and stuff... Whilst at about 60 degrees to horizontal... In a thunderstorm and really heavy rain. It sounds horrible, but great fun, and no-one whinged, just smiled along and laughed about it!
We got to our mooring spot in the shelter of Hook and Whitsunday Islands, and got the goon out, but not after a bit of a swim first. We had a go at diving, and my first attempt was a good ice-breaker (and prob could have actually broken some ice), as I slipped on the side, went half sideways and landed in the water on my face. Very graceful.
We all sat about on deck chatting under the covers as the rain picked up again, and drinking our goon (strangely, goon, which is cheap wine in a bag, is still nicer than cheap wine in the UK). It was when all this was happening that the storm went right over us. I was down below chatting, and Jo was sat on deck with everyone else when a flash lit up the whole sky and a huge crack stopped everyone's conversation. We went up on deck, and then it happened again. 5 mins later, a guy from another tour boat who was mates with our crew came over in a rib. Turned out our mast had just been struck by lightning, twice. It had blown a couple of lights on the top of the mast, but the earthing had done it's job, and we hadn't felt a thing! He came over to make sure we weren't all fried!


Sailing onboard the British Defender



Had a really cool night in the end, playing Arsehole and drinking goon!
Got woken early the next morning by John Mayer (not in person, on the sound system), as we chugged along towards The Lookout and the beautiful Whitehaven Beach. Weather was looking brighter, and we soon anchored up in Tongue Bay, and ferried across to the beach and walked up to The Lookout, then down to the beach. Even with some threatening clouds around us, was breathtaking. We went paddling in the sea one side of the sandbar, then climbing on rocks searching for crabs (found some too), then into the bay which was only knee deep to see some juvenile sharks and rays swimming around our feet! Weather held out until we reached Tongue Bay for the pickup, and we sailed round to Hayman Island for some snorkelling and diving. I swam out to the snorkel spot instead of getting the rib in the hope of seeing something and getting a bit of exercise (was about 250m away from the boat). I was rewarded with a load of bloody huge batfish again, and a few different jellies. Saw loads of tropical fish, and did loads of duck-diving down and looking up, as it started to hammer with rain, so looked really cool from below!
Had a bit of a swim back to the boat, then did some diving off of the boat, and got changed, ready for some dinner, more goon, and, unexpectedly, doing the macarena on deck with the Swiss and German girls! Was a great night, and finished the night playing cards again.


Me, Jo, Sarah and Gary

Woke up early again the next day, and the weather was beautiful. Tade took us out to a reef where we were most likely to see turtles. We did more snorkelling, but I didn't see any turtles, but swam with loads of fish, and followed a shoal of juvenile somethings. They were pretty big, and if they were older they'd be lovely grilled with some lemon and garlic I suspect.
We almost left someone behind because she'd swam off looking for turtles, but was all ok, and we headed for home under the sails in blistering sunshine.
When we got back, we headed to the lagoon which is a big open swimming pool for the public. We met up and played some ball games, and sadly said our goodbyes as Jo and I were booked on the Greyhound to Hervey Bay that evening, so we wouldn't get a chance to see them that night. Was a fantastic trip, and met some lovely people, so thanks to Gary, Sarah, Dan, Becca, Canadia, Craig, Joe, Donye, Vera, the Swiss and German girls, and of course to the crew!



Last night we got the Greyhound, which was pretty packed to Hervey Bay, ready for our tour of Fraser Island tomorrow!

Will try and update more regularly now, and going to put in some retrospective posts from my rubbishness in the latter stages of our SA trip!

Cape Town, SA

Jo looking thoughtful

As per the plan, we made it up Table Mountain after our tour of Robben Island. We got up early, had some breakfast and took the hop-on hop-off city tour bus to the base, and started walking up the gorge route which was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours. Jo also reserved the right to whinge as she doesn't like walking, but she did really well, and we overtook loads of people and only got overtaken by two fully kitted up lads on a mission, so pretty proud! Though we did notice there were about 4 times as many people walkinbg down the mountain as walking up. When we got to the top (after only 1 1/2 hours!) we realised why; the cable car is really popular and fast (only takes a few minutes), and because of this there's families, kids, and women in dresses and stupid shoes everywhere. There's also a full blown restaurant/cafe. It put the rustic cafeteria full of smelly and wet climbers at the top of Snowdon in perspective! We took a load of photos (pics to follow), including some really nice ones of Jo that I took when she wasn't looking.

Jo and I at the top of Table Mountain

We took the cable car back down (we'd done the hard work, so sod it, why not!) and got back on the bus anf went to Camps Bay which is pretty posh and a real beach resort with some beautiful hotels. We had a wander about and some lunch, then got back on the bus around the city, through the waterfront, and got off at the square just off Long St (where  we were staying). Busy, busy day, so we went out for a light snack for dinner and a few beers!
The following day was Sunday, and we went on the Cape peninsula tour which was another early start. We first went to Hout Bay and took a boat trip out to seal island, which is just an outcrop of rocks just off the coast, but was nice!
Then we stopped on Chapmans drive near the peak which looks down on Hout Bay. Turns out Hout Bay was designed when fully developed by the apartheid government, who put all the blacks and coloureds in a weather-beaten and hilly part of the bay at the base of a mountain, whilst all of the whites were housed in the middle, on the flatter and more sheltered ground with the beaches. They even had outside pools built on the beachfront for the blacks so that they didn't even share the same seawater. Pretty pathetic, but amazing that this was still enforced and people were being jailed for breaching such rules up until 1993... Anyway, it was very pretty.

Jo a kilometer up overlooking Cape Town

We then went to Simons Town where there is Boulders Beach which has penguins on it. Jo of course absolutely loved the cute little buggers. From there it was onto the Cape, and Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. These were both very windy with lovely scenery, and a little surreal being at the very tip of the entire continent.
Monday was spent sorting ourselves out ready for the next 4 days doing our PADI Open Water which is in Simons Town. Worked out cheapest to just move to a hostel closer to the station and pay the R100 (about 8 quid) each for a week long train ticket.
Tuesday and the first day of the course was pretty boring to be honest, just working through the dvds and knowledge reviews and quick quizes. Wednesday was spent sat in the shade at the base of Table Mountain in a military barracks going through the knowledge reviews, We then got kitted up (and dekitted, and in, and out, and in, and out, and in again for one of the skills) and did our swimming and skills for the rest of the day. Was a bit of a challenge, and the "hover" took a few attempts, but we did it. By this point, Jo wasn't enjoying it at all. The feeling of being underwater was unnerving her. We went to Mojitos again last night afterwards for some BOGOF burgers which are just amazing,
This morning was another 6.30am start, and our first open water dives. We did 2 shore dives, and got all the skills down. Unfortunately, Jo wasn't liking it any more than previously, and on the second dive when she was struggling to equalise and the controlled emergency swimming ascent she nearly threw in the towel. Luckily, our instructor; a nice saffer called Carel, gave her a break from doing that skill, and with his patience, got all the rest of her skills done, and even the one she was struggling with. Have to say though, she never really wanted to do it, she just went along with it for me, so I'm very proud she's got this far when it's scaring her so much.
We saw loads of fish, a few shoals of stripies, absolutely loads of starfish. There were 2 other divers in who came over and told us about a huge ray (about 1.8m span) on a wreck we were near, but we never found it unfortunately.
We got out of the water (carrying about 25kgs more than normal after being weightless for an hours is difficult though!) and we're ok, but I must have done something to my ear, as when we went to do the exam I was in agony. I was terrified I'd burst my eardrum, but think it's ok, feels alright now, though think there's still some water trapped in there somewhere. Will just take it easy on the way down tomorrow on the boat dives! Will also be going from 7m we were at today down to 18, so that will be good! Fingers crossed for some big rays and maybe a few little sharks!

Puff Adder Shy Shark

NB. Tried to upload a few photos, but seems that you get what you pay for with free internet, so I'll have to do it another day.

UPDATE: Found somewhere with a decent connection, so photos from Table Mountain above, and below of me in the water finishing PADI Open Water, and a puff adder shark we saw when down there!

Me looking my best

Cape Town, South Africa

Well we're now in Cape Town. What a city, really beautiful place, modern, friendly, and the intimidating Table Mountain looming over you at all times.

We left Ghana after a fairly unemotional goodbye from Auntie Love in Ghana, whilst Jo was still pretty weak from her illness the previous day. She was a trooper and got through it though. We took a taxi to the bus station and took a big luxurious coach to Accra, then asked an American couple if they wanted to share a taxi to the airport, which seemed like a great money-saving idea... until we saw all of their luggage. Cabman was undeterred, and somehow managed to fit 4 adults, 2 big rucksacks, and 4 suitcases in the back of a very old vauxhall Astra (mk 1). If it were painted blue, I'd have sworn it was the TARDIS.

Lovely flight with South African Airways, and was very impressed when I was given a beer and then offered "another drink to go with your meal", so I happily took a bottle of red wine too. 2008 Shiraz, and was sooo good. I felt mightily sophisticated until I realised I was watching Puss In Boots.

Got to Jo'burg for the connecting flight to Cape Town, but had to do the whole check-out, pickup luggage rubbish and then check-in all over again, but was fast and painless. Then had a coffee in arrivals. The airport is lovely, with a huge atrium in the centre where arrivals takes up the ground floor and is basked in light, but with a huge ceiling feature which looks like a pure white zeppelin has crashed through the roof.

Got to Cape Town, took the bus to our hostel, and was very pleased; its entrance is right on the high street, but you feel miles away from it in the courtyard.
Had a quick shower, and by this time it was 2pm, and we hadn't slept since 8.30am the previous day. Jo managed to get off but I couldn't, so after 5 mins staring at the ceiling, I went outside for a beer and got chatting to a couple of British lads who'd just arrived. Spent a few hours drinking in the sun, then Jo got up and we went for something to eat. I felt half-cut, but don't think Jo noticed :)

Next day we wandered around the city a bit, got our bearings, bought a SA sim for the mobile, and decided on what we were going to do.
Plan today was to go up Table Mountain, but the weather was a bit cloudy, and it rained, so we went out with the intention of just getting some breakfast. We then wandered to the marina/harbour area, had a look around, got a boat out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and the other political prisoners of apartied where held. We then had an early dinner, and booked our PADI Open Water course, starting in Simons Town on Tuesday! And Jo is doing it too! Can't wait! Also popped into Baz Bus on the looong walk back and booked a daytrip around the Cape on Sunday, and our travel tickets to get us around the rest of SA when we come to leave Cape Town!
Tomorrow the weather should be back to glorious, so we will be going up Table Mountain in the morning.

That's enough for now I think, so have good weekends everyone!