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Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop

a travel blog by chrischarly

After 6 months in the Western world, it is time to put back on our backpacks, pack away the rain coats and hit the Pacific!
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Too much testosterone for 1 club

Levuka, Fiji

Waved goodbye to Julian this morning as he had to get back to the main Island for his flight out and the
rest of us went for a stroll around town and went to the internet café while Chris searched for somewhere to get some clothes repaired.
It was again baking, but we decided to explore around Levuka regardless. We strolled up the steps towards the mountains seeing many inviting swimming holes to jump into and saw locals doing just that.
It was a really nice walk, but due to the heat we didn’t last long before retiring back to the hotel for some chill time. Chris and Andy went for a snorkel to cool off
and then in the early evening we headed to check out the Ovalau club, sort of like an old English gentlemen’s club that time forgot.
We then headed to a new restaurant that Chris had found during his wanderings earlier in the day, they sold huge pizzas, so we decided that a pizza night was in order.
Adjoined to the restaurant was the only ‘club’ in Ovalau, which was more like a school disco filled with lots of blokes… only blokes actually. All very friendly,
some a little too much at the sight of two white girls. We got the party started, and consumed a little too much beer and some very dodgy Bounty rum that Chris thought was a good idea. We staggered home at some point and took our sorry selves to bed.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 7, 2012 from Levuka, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A great big slice of paradise

Ovalau, Fiji

We awoke slightly delicate today, and had breakfast before packing up ready to move on to Bobo’s farm. They were planning to pick us up mid-afternoon, but in fact called around 11 and said they were early. We were picked up by Bobo’s dRiver and driven over the very picturesque coastal road with some photo stops on the way.
When we got there we were dropped at the side of the road and lots of locals came out to help us with our bags. Andy and Chris being men, decided to take their own, while Abbe and I took a few small things.
We were led down a track that was pretty slippery and muddy and Andy went to ground first, followed by Abbe and then Chris who at one point was seen doing the can-can on the slope before getting his balance back. How I never fell over I will never know especially considering my previous clumsy records.
When we got to the bottom of the slope we got to a River, WITHOUT a bridge, where we then had to wade through and up the other side before finally getting to Bobo’s. Bobo and Karen arrived 30 mins after us, and came from another direction with no slopes or mud, which they thought very amusing!
Which to be fair, was. We got to our lovely guesthouse in the middle of beautiful Forest and gardens. Very basic here, with no power or fridge but some basic cooking facilities, but amazingly peaceful and I’m sure we are going to have an amazing time. In the evening we went for dinner and had some local scrummy roots and ferns from the farm, with some tasty Chicken. We then had our welcoming ceremony and all drank kava (which tasted a hell of a lot better than in Levuka as it is fresh) and enjoyed chatting with Bobo and his friends.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 8, 2012 from Ovalau, Fiji
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Snorkelling and fishing trip. Awesome.

Rukuruku, Fiji

Woke up this morning and Bobo had hired his friend’s boat to take us out for the day snorkelling and fishing. Although it was heavy rain when we awoke, as soon as we were ready it was fantastic weather for the whole day, so we were very lucky. To get to the boat we walked for about 15 minutes to the beach through a local village greeted by loads of friendly smiles and happy faces.
The boat took us out for about 20 minutes before we all jumped in to cool off in the Fijian waters. We snorkelled for about an hour seeing some beautiful fish and corals before swimming up to the sand bar and climbing back in the boat.
We then continued on to another spot a lot deeper to throw in a couple of hand lines to try and catch some dinner. Chris was just like a fish himself and continued to snorkel and both him and Bobo saw a few sharks.
The hand-lines didn’t prove very successful, well Andy managed to catch 2 fish, and I even caught one, but I was so excited and was busy showing everyone dangling it over the water, and the fish, cleverer than myself just jumped straight off the line and back into the water. Very stupid mistake.
Bobo and his friends who were also on the boat had a lot better luck swimming and spearing fish which thankfully meant that we had 4 smallish fish for our late lunch. After a few hours out at sea we came back at around 3pm all pretty knackered and had a nice cool of in the river before showering and gladly returning back to our balcony.
Chris and Andy managed to find some energy from somewhere and soon disappeared again with the snorkels to attempt and fail to find some freshwater prawns whilst Abbe and I stayed behind, read books for a while and soon fell fast asleep for a couple of hours.
The boys returned as I woke back up having hiked in mud and wading through the river and under the bridge through a pipe for hours. We then ate some quick dinner before meeting up again with Bobo at the main house to drink a load of cava and chatted for hours before finally retiring to bed for a much-needed sleep.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 9, 2012 from Rukuruku, Fiji
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Visiting a local school and drinking with the chief!

Rukuruku, Fiji

Today we planned to chill in the morning and go for a village tour in the afternoon.
We had a good walk around the village and then had an amazing tour of the school, which has to have the best view from any school in the world.
The kids seemed so happy to see us and sung us some nice songs with very strong voices. After this Bobo took us for a hike up a hill to see the nice views and sit under a huge mango tree.
On a Normal day it would have been fine, but it was so hot it was a killer. On our return to the village we saw some local men sitting by the school enjoying a bowl of Kava, after mowing the lawn around the village.
We were invited to join them and we soon realised that they were drinking full strength grog, it was great fun and Chris was even got the privilege to sit next to the village chief!
We staggered back home, which was quite difficult after lots of kava and grabbed a quick shower before Chris and I headed to have dinner leaving Andy and Abbe to their 2-minute-noodles.
We had a delicious dinner of freshwater prawns, cassava cakes and local spinach cooked in coconut milk – Chris was very happy!
After this we joined the party on the deck which was a joint leaving doo, mainly for Andy and Abbe but also covering us too. Lots more Kava and some local music and dancing – it was great fun, but we were so knackered that soon had to call it a night.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 10, 2012 from Rukuruku, Fiji
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Farm tour

Rukuruku, Fiji

We awoke at 4.30am to say goodbye to Andy and Abbe, then straight back to bed. We had a good lie in and then we went for a farm tour with Bobo.
The farm is spread over a large portion of the 500 acres that Bobo owns, but it is in no way a conventional farm.
He has pigs and cows but it is mainly a collection of fruit trees, vegetables, flowers and trees that all work together, with no need for fertilizers or pesticides.
If you want to weed then you let the cows come into an area for a day. To list them all would take too long, but some of the amazingly tasty fruits include bananas, mandarins,
kumquats, passion fruits, star fruit, avocado, papaya and the biggest mango trees you have ever seen. Apparently, in mango season (October), locals sit underneath the mango trees and gorge on them until sick.
To add to this there are of course all the local root vegetables they survive on, plus kava, plus coco, chillies, vanilla,
ginger plus lots of herbs and spices. To put it simply, you could live in this place and be fully sustainable on pure organic and wild foods.
To say Chris was excited would be a massive understatement. We ate fresh coco pods and marched around the farmyard (read jungle) in awe of what Bobo and Karin have accomplished in their little piece of paradise. After our tour we chilled before having a delicious Indian dinner.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 11, 2012 from Rukuruku, Fiji
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Our own private beach and ocean

Rukuruku, Fiji

Today was another Bobo expedition, so we thought we better get some breakfast inside us, which was some Weetabix with fresh fruit, avocado, and then wholemeal pancakes with Forest honey and star fruit jam
– as delicious as every other meal at Bobos! After breakfast we packed up and headed off, first on the gravel road up and down hills for a while then across a neighbour’s farm, with a nice break under yet another huge mango tree.
Then we headed further down a supposed track that was more bush than track, but Bobo did stop to harvest some sugar cane for us,
which when finally at the beach was a delicious snack. Then while Bobo amused himself making a shell necklace for Charly, we headed off into the beautiful Coral Bay to explore
and for Chris to hunt with spear in hand. Much like his “ing” expeditions in NZ Chris managed to fire the spear at many fish and hit approx. zero.
This was mainly due to the fact of his excitement and thrashing around once a big fish came by, causing the fish to swim away to live another day. After a while
Chris started to get cramp and went for a rest while Bobo and I continued to explore the underwater beauty of this untouched paradise.
Once we were all pretty knackered we came ashore and as the tide had retreated followed the coast around to the village, stopping at Bobo’s childhood playground and grandfather’s House before returning to the farm for some rest and to start packing. We then had our last delicious meal before an early night, knowing we had to get up at 4.30am.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 12, 2012 from Rukuruku, Fiji
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A lot of travelling, travelling with many smelly bodies

Nabouwalu, Fiji

Alarm went off at 4:30am closely followed by a bang on the door from a sleepy Bobo, so time to hurry and get ready to walk up to the main road by 4:45am to get our taxi to the ferry. Guided mainly by moonlight the walk took about 10 minutes but luckily as the rain had held off it was pretty easy apart from our tired legs slowing us down. Alvin, the driver was running late and turned up at about 5:15am and every minute that went by was an extra minute I could’ve spent in bed.
On the way to the ferry we picked up many other stragglers loitering on the side of the road eager to pick up a free ride as we had already booked and paid for the lift, but a car full of smelly bodies was not what I needed at this time of the morning. But we did get dropped off straight on the ferry bound for Natovi just outside of Suva on the mainland before continuing on to Nabouwalu where we got off on Vanua Levu (the second biggest island). The ferry ride itself was pretty painless apart from the loud films they played along the way, but I soon zoned out and read my book for most of the 6 hour journey.
Once we arrived at our destination we got straight onto a bus which the seats were very skinny for our not-so-skinny bums and drove for a few hours with some simply spectacular views. All luscious green forests everywhere, completely untouched. The roads however for most of the way we just dirt tracks and as it was hot outside I had to have the window wide open the whole way, which meant I was completely covered with red dirt which the locals and Chris especially found highly amusing!
We were dropped off at ‘The Junction’ (named for obvious reasons) to catch another bus to Savusavu and I think it was the only actual junction we have seen on this island so far. The bus was already parked up and waiting for us and we just had to wait another 15 minutes before some more passengers arrived and then we were on our way. The final journey was only anther hour and it was pretty comfy as we had a whole bus for just 5 of us.
Once in Savusavu, Chris phoned one of his Government friends and we took a taxi to meet a guy called Herbert who found us a cheap room in Sunset Lodge. It is a nice room with air-con, what a luxury but very basic, but it’s all we need really. We then showered away the dirt and smelliness before going for some serious tasty and cheap food, followed by a drink at The Planters Club, which we believe to be yet another old English Gentleman’s Club. Then bed.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 13, 2012 from Nabouwalu, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Fish with Miti (Coconut)

Savusavu, Fiji

It was nice to have a lie-in this morning, especially in our air conditioned room! So after lounging about for a while
we took a walk into town and went for some delicious lunch at a little local shack eating ‘fish with miti’ which we ordered although clueless what it would be and a Chicken curry to share.
The fish was amazing cooked in coconut milk with some greens on the side. Just as I announced it was quite possibly one of the most tastiest things I have eaten as well as the cheapest I took a big spoonful of the sauce which had many tiny bits of chilli in and coughed and choked myself half to death!
It was still tasty though nonetheless and as usual I entertained the locals by embarrassing myself! After lunch, we went to find some Wi-Fi and stayed for an hour before they closed and then went in search of somewhere to find some info on ferries and buses.
As it was a Saturday everywhere was closed and it will be tomorrow too. So we went and asked a few people for some information and got many different answers from everyone so we are none the wiser. Then as then rain hit we walked back to The Planters Club for a drink or 3 before calling it an early night.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 14, 2012 from Savusavu, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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To yet another place in paradise

Tavuki, Fiji

We awoke by 6am to get down to the bus station for departure at 7 to Taveuni where we would get picked up by the Dolphin Bay Divers Retreat boat.
There had been some rain overnight so the mud road was slippery and we have to “hail to the bus driver” for his skills driving a very crappy old bus, stacked to the rafters over these roads.
It wasn’t the most comfortable journey, but we are used to that by now and after around 4 hours we reached the Ferry crossing which was easy. Just before we reached Taveuni, Chris spotted the pickup boat following us in and they were on the dock waiting for us when we disembarked the Ferry.
It took 20 mins to come back to the resort that was in a little bay and was absolutely beautiful and also has its own time zone from the rest of Fiji; a further hour ahead.
We had a great welcoming and then some lunch before being led to our tent, that turned out to be an amazing bure as they had upgraded us. Chris really had outdone himself getting us here – we later found out that we had 3 meals all included and a really nice room for $85 per night (about £30) for both of us. We relaxed for the afternoon before enjoying happy hour and a delicious 3 course dinner. We only wish we had more than 4 nights here as it is truly paradise!

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 15, 2012 from Tavuki, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Jellyfish, sharks and a lost Chris, or a blind Charly?

Dolphin Bay, Fiji

Just before getting ready to go snorkelling this morning a couple that are staying here, Carla and John returned from a swim with John having 2 bad jellyfish stings, 1 on his arm and another on his neck.
This immediately got me worried so I opted for a stinger suit then after seeing a jellyfish just offshore I rapidly exited the water having only been out about 5 minutes. Chris went out for about an hour and saw some huge lobsters and a turtle among lots of other fish.
I was supposed to be his land based spotter but lost sight of him, as he had gone so far out, so I decided to walk around the bay to look for him.
Somehow he must have made it all the way back before I saw him as I had walked all the way around to the next resort worried he had drowned or been eaten by a shark. I myself saw 3 reef sharks swimming in the shallows just off the shore with 1 swimming right at my feet, causing me to jump out of the water and onto the rocks just in case my toes were mistaken for fish and thus nibbled. We once again had a delicious dinner and enjoyed chatting to the other guests.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 16, 2012 from Dolphin Bay, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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