Hello all....well, i'm catching up on this journal business. We made it to Fiji with no problems...except for Chris who, despite being fully aware of the problem while in America, arrived with no shorts or sandals. We touched down at 5.30am and even then the heat was intense. We had booked into the Beach Escape Villas in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) and spent about 2 days there. Our resort manager booked us into a number of resorts on the Yasawa Islands which is a string of islands to the north west of the mainland. It was doubley good, because as I've said before, we can't organise anything.

It took 4 hours to get to our first destination Naviti Island where Nabula Lodge was located.  We loved the location of this place...the sand was white on the beach and the water was so clear it was unreal.  I remember wishing that people back home could see what I was seeing because it was so beautiful.  We could walk for 150 metres out into the sea and it was still only chest deep.  We did line fishing here on a boat.  Our guide took us to the famous Blue Lagoon area and we had to dig for live crabs in the sand....none of us caught any though. We were fishing with a group of Irish people who were a right laugh.  Needless to say I caught the biggest fish of the day.  Chris caught one about the size of a goldfish and Baz...well he didnae catch a bean cause he was rubbish.

We heard reports of tarantulas in the huts, but luckily none were found in our one.  The food was not bad either where we stayed and there were plenty of activities to do, but we spent a lot of time in our hammocks lazing about enjoying the situation we were in.  After a couple of nights there we moved onto Korovo resort where we met 3 Scottish lassies and and English guy called Steve.  We spent a lot of time having a laugh with them playing cards and shooting the breeze.  Another guy they knew called Fernando turned up the second day...he was Brazillian and what a laugh he was....really facetious.  He gave me a shot of his snorkelling equipment so I got to do that for free.  The waters were so clear and the coral reef was so beautiful, it was unbelievable.  It was like another world down there with so many different types of fish.  Some of the coral can be really sharp though and when I was passing over it in shallow waters I was quite concerned about losing a nipple...it was all good though.

Our next stop was Sunset Waya, which was my favourite place.  The staff here were particularly friendly we thought...especailly Messie, a guy who taught us card tricks and took us fishing.  We went out line fishing again in the evening when it was dark.  I was the only one of the 3 of us to catch a fish this time, because the other two were rubbish.  But the funny part was when it started raining.  Messie kept asking if we wanted to go back in to the resort but I kept saying 'No, it's fine'.  The rain kept beating down on us though...it was torential.  Messie eventually said that we had to go in because the engine was about to flood and we were about 1 mile from the resort.  We even noticed that the staff at the resort were signalling us in from the shore using a powerful torch.  Messie was furiously bailing water out of the boat as we headed back to shore...you could tell from his voice that even he was quite nervous about the situation.  I just thought it was hilarious...especailly as sharks had been seen in the water earlier that day.  When we got into the resort I honestly don't think I could have been any wetter from the rain than if I'd swam back.

The final place we went to in Fiji was the famous Beachcomber Island. This place has a reputation as being a party island so we had booked 3 nights on this one.  One would have been plenty though....the place was full of teenagers from OZ who were quite annoying.  By chance our Irish friends were staying the first night here as well so the 9 of us went on a mission to get as drunk as possible.  It was a good excuse for me to hit the Bounty Rum again.  We all ended up dancing for ages and had a great night.  I managed to fall asleep on the beach and woke up covered in mosquito bites...excellent.  The following day was spent recovering and watching England get humiliated at the cricket.   We managed to meet some cool people more our own age on our final night and had a decent time with them....but I think Chris especially just wanted to be anywhere else than there.   The next day we caught the boat back to the mainland and checked back into the Beach Escape where we'd left the majority of our luggage.   We were only gonna stay one night but we got put in a much better chalet, and ten minutes after we got there two hot Swedish chicks came in for a night...nice one.  Then the following day when they left, two hot German chicks moved in.  I think Ako, our friend on reception was putting these chicks in our room on purpose....(probably because we'd asked her to do that when we arrived).  We had a great relationship with the staff the second time we were there.  They asked us to send them our group pictures so they could post them on the wall at the bar.  Ako and Teqilla in particular were great...I think they knew fine well what we three Scottish boys were all about right from the start.  It was a bit like having two aunties looking after us and it was actually quite sad saying cheerio to them.

Fiji was a great place with stunning scenery and sunsets (we never, ever got up for a sunrise)...but it had it's downsides...like mosquitos, a relentless sun and a military coup.  Typically we were unprepared for Fiji, like Chris not having shorts or sandal and us being totally unaware of the military coup.  But the coup didn't bother us....all the carry on was in the capital on the other side of the island.  Unfortunately I never took a picture of Chris when his face swelled up.  We never really found out if it was from massive sunburn he suffered or a reaction to the insect repellant he put on, but one day he woke up with a swollen forehead.  The next day the sides of his face had swollen from above his eyes down to his cheeks.  What with that mouldy looking beard attached to his face he actually looked like a Lion.  If you look very closely at the picture with Chris balancing his cap on his head you can see his swollen face.  Baz never had a camera in Fiji because the idiots in the American airport managed to break it for him.