Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The wind had really picked up that night, at one point we thought the roof was going to blow off! By the time morning came the wind was still pretty strong. Some of the village men wanted to take me out trolling for Wahu but they had to call it off because the sea was so rough. Once again it was time to move islands and the water taxi took us back to the ferry to the sound of the villages singing their fair well song to us. Our next port of call was Naviti Island and the Korouvou Eco Resort. The lads we'd met on the island cruise; Arron, Max and James, from Bristol, where also staying there. We had a great time stood on the front of the ferry skipping over the rough sea at over 50mph, it took our minds right off feeling sea sick. We landed to another big 'Bula' and got settled in. We had a cosy little bure with a bath (almost as big as our bed!) and hot shower which was very welcome seeing as the last resort's shower was freezing. The sun had come out so we did some sun bathing and messing around in the pool, then one of the staff, Ziggy, came round asking if we wanted to go and swim with Manta Rays. We had a trip to see them coming up but we couldn't pass up the chance to see them twice, so we hoped in the boat and set off. It took 25 minutes to get there but about half way through the journey spotted a Dolphin then all of a sudden there were five or six jumping all around the boat, they all moved that fast I only managed to get a photo of one's tail. Once we were in the Manta zone the skipper was on the look out for them, then all we heard was a load of shouting in Fijian then "Mantas, Mantas, go, quickly, go". As soon as I heard that I was off. I swam towards where he was pointing not seeing anything but then i saw three huge black shapes in the distance. There was quite a strong current and it was difficult to catch up with them, they seemed to fly effortlessly through the water with just a flick of their wings. But went I eventually caught up with them there was two smaller ones with a good 2m wing span and one bigger one which had well over 3m. They even came right up to the surface. The boat came and picked us up for another drift down the current but this time the Mantas stayed deep and you could only just see them. The wind had picked up again and the ride home was rather wet, spray kept getting blown all over us. Just as well we had a big bath tub waiting for us back at the resort, that's till we tried to fill it up. There was only enough hot water to put about three inches in the bottom and by the time it had done that the water had gone cold! We gave it a go though but it was no where near as romantic as we'd imagined. We met up with the lads for dinner, got involved in some dancing then started up a drinking game of Ring of Fire. After several rounds of Ring of Fire and everyone diving in the pool the games moved to our room and went on till the wee hours. The next morning we never made it to breakfast and when we looked down to our two bottles of vodka and saw only half a bottle left we realised why. When we finally got up and tentatively went outside Ziggy came over and asked if I would like to go spear fishing with him and the lads so me, James, Max and Arron got some snorkelling gear and followed Ziggy into the sea. The water freshened me up a bit and we swam out to the reef, within minutes Ziggy had speared a fish, it was only small but apparently still good eating. You could tell Ziggy was a pro, he would spot a fish and swim after it a good 6-8m down then stay down there for near on a minute before coming back up not even out of breath. We each had a go but only Max and I shot anything, not that it was worth shooting. After an hour and a half we called it a day and got out, I actually felt worse than I had when I got in so Mel and I retired to the room for a sleep, I don't know what it is but I can't take a hangover like I used to! The night consisted of more dancing, a game of Limbo and some more Ring of Fire, luckily only lasting till mid night.
- comments