FIJI Day 4

Picnic Beach

Lib was booked in for a full body massage at 11.00 am. I forgot to mention in my day 3 post that I had a massage on that day, full body one hour at special weekend price of F$40, or about $25 Aus. Magic it was. 'Mila' the masseur, sister of Frank the spearfisherman, was booked out for that day and couldn't fit Lib in but said she'd do her on the Monday at the special price.

After Lib's massage we packed a picnic and took off on a walk around the north end of the island as the tide was receding, with Picnic Beach our destination on the other side of the island. The NZ couple had given us a description of the shoreline right around. Picnic Beach, just around the north end, on the west side of the island was great for snorkelling and fishing they had said. The next bay around was Sacred Bay which was special to the villagers and they didn't want anyone fishing or mooring there. Further around there was 'Cannibal Caves' and then as you rounded the south of the island back to the east side there was the village, and then on around a jutting steep outcrop you were back at the resort.

There were organized boat trips every couple of days around to Picnic Beach for snorkelling, at F$20 per person, but we preferred to do our own thing. Walking on the slippery rocks turned out quite difficult especially for Lib but it was worth the hour plus a bit effort as Picnic Beach was an idyllic tropical island scene which we had all to ourselves. Lunch was sardines on bread and bananas and pineapple and water. After an hour or two we looked for a track heading inland that might take us back overland to avoid the slippery rocks but the likely looking course all petered out into thick vegetation, so we had to go back via the shore line. We made it back comfortably enough before the tide came in which could leave you stranded if you left it too late.

The week before we arrived, the Kiwi's had told us, a group of Chinese were staying at the resort. Apparently none of them wanted to do the organized activities like skuba diving, fishing and snorkelling boat trips or round the island boat trip, sunset cruise or anything else. Two of them did choose to walk around the island, which is possible if you leave when the tide starts to go out and you don't dilly dally and get stranded. There's one place between Picnic Beach and Sacred Bay where you can't walk even at low tide and have to swim about 100 metres. At that point there's a large rock which is out of the water at high tide but is surrounded by water as the tide comes in.The ywo Chinese did not return for dinner and the alarm was raised. The villagers put a boat out at night and with an educated guess found them on the rock at about midnight. Apparently they could not swim.

On our walk back we saw a number of sea snakes in the rocky pools, these abour 1-2 ft long but harmless we'd been told. By now we were aware that the weather conditions changed quickly. The wind was still about but eased and strengthened , clouds came and went, it was by no means perfect but hey, it was always warm.