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After munching on my final free continental breakfast at Mango Bay resort we departed at 8.30am sharp.....no Fiji time! Ashley, Carly and I were jumping on this bus as the only newbie's as everyone else on the bus had travelled the previous sector together the day before. It was only a 40 minute drive from the resort to Pacific Harbour Arts Village, enroute we cruised past the last of the Coral Coasts glamorous resorts and into the 'local's' part of the island. During the short drive in the blue minibus I got chatting to some of the new people on the bus, I got to know Michael and Mel, who I would end up travelling with until we got back to Nadi, as they were to jump off at the forthcoming resorts as I was also going to do. My new bus driver for this journey was Arvin, who has never said a serious word in his life, every time he speaks he makes a joke, it's impossible to have a sensible conversation with him, and example of Arvin's humorous personality would have been the first time I met him, I gave him my backpack to put in the minibus and he said to me 'Hi, are you alright' so I replied 'Yes, I'm fine thanks' and before I could even ask him how he was, he was like 'Yeah, I'm good too cheers, thanks for asking' in a sarcastic manner! The guide for this sector of the trip was Joe, the newest recruit to the Feejee Experience team; he was only a young local Fijian, in his early twenties opposed to Arvin who was at least double his age.
Upon arrival in Navua at just after 9am, we parked up the minibus before all getting off to be greeted by this blistering heat as we applied our sun lotion and insect repellent ahead of our trek into the rainforest. After application of our various products we put them into a big waterproof bag which Joe was to carry throughout the trek just in case we needed them at some point in time. Meaning we only had our cameras to carry yet keep safe from the gloopy mud and various lakes, and a bottle of water to keep us hydrated throughout. To get to the start of the trek we had to be transported on a 4WD carrier truck as we wound our way up the Navua River on a parallel gravel road. But there was only room for a certain amount of people in the truck at any one time meaning our Feejee Experience group had to be split up into two separate groups so the truck had to make two separate trips. I was in the second group so we had to wait for about ten minutes for the truck to drop the first group of people off before it returned to pick us up. During this time we all found our nearest toilet, which was wherever we chose to do our business as you can expect there were no toilets in the rainforest.
Upon return of the truck we all climbed in and tried to get as comfy as possible, as we sat in the back of the 4WD vehicle. In our group we had two deaf travellers who were travelling the world together. They were really nice people and were teaching the group sign language throughout, meaning Joe, the guide would have to explain everything in sign language after speaking to the group. I have full admiration for the deaf couple to be able to navigate their way around the world without being able to hear a thing. During the short trip up the gravel path we took various photos of the group, whilst holding onto our cameras for dear life so that they didn't fall out of the truck and onto the track as it was a bumpy ride meaning we got to know everyone in the back of the truck a little better than anticipated. However, the deaf girl, who was from England, accidently dropped her camera out of the back of the truck so we had to bang on the divider between us and the front of the truck to notify the Fijians to stop so the camera could be retrieved. Once we reached the end of the track we all jumped off to begin our trek into the mountains, which was going to take approximately three hours as we ventured through the rainforest amidst the inner mountains of Fiji. The end of the Matakibau trek intersects with the river, which once reached we knew we had conquered the trek which goes through the Namosi highlands. The river at the end of the trek is as wide as the M25.
We were met by our two Fijian guides as we got off the truck who were to take us through the rainforest along with Joe, although he ended up staying towards the back with Michael and Mel as they were the stragglers because Mel had a serious knee injury meaning she had a metal plate in her leg which was too big so any fall on her knee would have resulted in the plate slicing through her skin so she had to take it steady which is why they were also bringing up the rear of the group. The rest of our group steamed ahead however and it took me by surprise just how easy the trek was to complete, I was expecting it to be incredibly physically demanding but it was not so, there were stages which involved a little bit of graft to complete like when going up a incline that was only accessible through the sloppy mud but these inclines were few and far between, you didn't need a great deal of fitness to be able to complete the trek although wearing trainers or some sort of sturdy footwear was a necessity as the rainforest was full of extremely slippy, thick mud which got us all filthy. We stopped many times throughout for photo opportunities as well as to get explanations on some of the local plant life which made up the bulk of the rainforest. I even got told about a local Fijian plant which is meant to be really good for asthma if you place the roots in boiling water and let their goodness diffuse out. After passing through long grass fields, rock faces, muddy paths, rainforest growth and multiple lakes, some even nearly shoulder high....on me especially, which were murky and muddy we made it to the waterfall.....feeling so unsexy, covered in mud, water and sweat from the humid conditions, so it was a welcome relief to be greeted by a big pool of refreshingly cool clear freshwater which with little hesitation we jumped into.
We spent about 40 minutes at the waterfall, allowing us to climb to the 7 metre tall jump point where we could then chuck ourselves into the water from, which took a little bit of bottle to do as although 7 metres doesn't sound too high when you are jumping into a rocky pool of water which you don't know the depth of it can be quite daunting which is why it took one girl about twenty minutes to finally jump after waiting around at the top for that length of time only making matters worse for herself as she thought about the jump ahead. It was quite hard getting to the jump point as we had to climb a rock face which was incredibly slippy and narrow. My turn came around and I went for it without thinking about it too much and managed to spend about 5 seconds underwater having a mini panic attack because of my asthma before resurfacing and catching my breath back, many people went up for second, third, fourth and even fifth goes but after my little drama I was happy with just the one jump. We then got to swim through the waterfall as we queued up around the pool edge before hiding in a little crevice then swimming out through the waterfall two at a time and being pushed further and further into the pool by the current of the water and the strength of the waterfall. After this we got to watch Joe and the other local Fijian guys chuck themselves off a tree that was about three times the height of the jump that we did, and then swing on a rope into the water which they had to time perfectly as without doing so they could have landed on the rocks which would have ended in tragedy, none of us attempted these jumps as the locals do these jumps everyday and are good and confident at completing the jumps. They really were daredevil stunts; I thought my jump into the pool was hard enough.
We then had to make our way back down through the rainforest from the waterfall, this first involved swimming down the river and carefully going down a rock face before having to jump down into another pool of water and swimming to dry land where we then passed through more grass fields and muddy tracks before we reached the Navua River where we were to catch a longboat from, to get to the longboat however we had a five minute walk through the river which was completely brown and muddy meaning we couldn't see anything that was in it plus the water was shoulder high as we trudged through the mud that was at the bottom of the water which we all kept getting our trainers stuck in. The motorised longboat which we were travelling down the river in is the main form of transport for local villagers that live in the highlands.The ride took us through a stunning gorge with mountains, houses and farms on either side of the riverside back down to civilization where we left the bus earlier in the day. It was amazing as we moseyed down the river taking in the views on a typical Fijian journey. Once we reached the bus, we all had to take our trainers off place them in a bin bag and clean our feet before we got in the bus and waited for the group on the longboat that were following us to catch up. They got on board and within 15 minutes we arrived at our second overnight resort which was Uprising Beach Resort at Pacific Harbour. We arrived at 1.15pm just in time for lunch so upon arrival we checked into the monster dorm room which could hold anything up to 30 beds all squeezed in and compact in the room, before making our `way down to the restaurant where we all got the mother's day BBQ they had as it was mother's day in Fiji on the day of our visit. We were told by Queeny the entertainment lady at the resort that we could have the BBQ for a special price of FJ$18 opposed to the normal price of FJ$33 so after some deliberation we decided that although it was quite expensive compared to other priced foods in Fiji that it was worth it.
So we tucked in to a meal that was more about quantity rather than quality, but nevertheless it still left us full, after gorging on the various meats, salads, pastas and potatoes that we had been given followed by cake, washing it down with orange juice. Then after a brief wait and chat at the table to allow our food to go down we went and sat down in the sun on a blanket as we waited to have a coconut carnival. We all sat there waiting for Queeny to come and get proceedings underway, and after a few minutes she arrived with our bill for the BBQ, only the bill said that the amount each of us owed was FJ$25 and not FJ$18 as we had been quoted so we all questioned Queeny and after she went back and spoke to the manager she realised that she had made a mistake and we were meant to pay FJ$25 for the BBQ as it was a special mother's day one, but seeing as she had quoted us seven dollars less before we ate it we were not going to pay anymore as we all not have got the BBQ otherwise as FJ$25 is quite expensive. So after admitting her mistake Queeny came back with a new bill us charging us the original FJ$18 that we had been quoted so we were all relieved not to have to pay anymore for a meal that would definitely have not been worth it.
After all that chaos we got the coconut carnival underway, this consisted of Queeny showing us various Fijian products and clothing that were all made out of coconut and then explaining to us how they were made, what part of the coconut tree the products were made out of and how much the products would cost. Then after passing the various coconut products around the group so we could all get a feel of them, the deaf couple in the group got to dress up in various pieces of clothing made out of coconut and then we had a group photo with them two in the middle of the shot pulling various poses. We all had to get charcoal spots of lines rubbed onto our faces for the photo shoot. Following this Queeny got a game of beach volleyball going for those that were interested, while the others lay about around the beach and pool catching rays. We were playing beach volleyball for well over an hour, not that any of us were any good or improving, but it was enjoyable and Queeny was showing us up big time, but also gave us tips on how to try and improve our games. It was starting to get dark as the sun had gone in, and we were all incredibly sandy from jumping around trying to prevent the ball from touching the ground so we all decided to get in the ball, where Queeny brought out some free Fiji Bitter for us for being so good at beach volleyball...haha! We played a Fijian drinking game where you take it in turns to have a shot of beer, until we ran out beer and decided to go back and get showered ready for dinner that night. Everybody had the same idea though so there was quite a queue for the shower but the boys take nowhere near as long as the girls so the queue although quite big went down quickly.
We had a table reserved for the Feejee Experience at 7.30pm so once we were all there at the table we scoured the menu to see what the resort offered, but I was still full from lunch so I opted for some chocolate ice cream with caramel sauce as did another girl, a few of the others just got some wedges or chips, and some people got nothing at all, as we were all still full from what was a real heavy duty BBQ at lunchtime, there were only a few from the group that did get a proper meal, the food did look mighty fine though and the ice cream that I ordered was so good, and went down a treat with a Fiji Gold ;D
After 'dinner' there was quite a subdued atmosphere in the bar area and there weren't too many people around so I decided to go and sit in reception near the wifi hotspot and make the most of the free wifi that the hostel offered. Many people seemed to have the same idea as they sat around with their laptops and many others were queuing up to get use out of the two free computers that the resort had for use. I got bitten to death sitting in the reception area, which seemed to be full of mozzies, which was the only time since I had been travelling that I seemed to get bitten. After using the internet I made my way up to the monstrous dorm room, to go to bed, which was set back from the main part of the resort as if to keep us separate from the full paying guests.
The next morning, about half of the people on the bus from the previous day moved on and made their way to the next overnight stop, but as I had some spare days I could spend a couple of extra nights at the resort so did so, along with Ashley, Carly, Michael and Mel, plus the deaf couple. We all went down and got our free breakfast before it finished at around 10am. The free breakfast was brilliant as it consisted of the usual tea, coffee and orange juice plus toast and cereal but it also had a wide selection of cakes as well such as chocolate croissants, muffins, shortbreads etc, so it was a really good start to the morning getting to munch on these free cakes, we all then secretly took some for lunch as well as we stuffed them in our bags to save having to spend money on food for lunch. After breakfast Ashley, Carly and I decided to go and venture into the local town to see what it had to offer, we were going to see if there were any cheap restaurants that we could eat at, but they were all a similar price to the hostels restaurant so it wouldn't have warranted the walk into town to eat out there. There were also a few touristy shops where the locals would beg us to come into their shops to buy stuff off of them and even said they would give us a tourist price as the prices listed were for locals only which didn't make sense as the locals were so poor they couldn't afford anything from the shops anyway so why would the price be even cheaper for a tourist that has more money than a local. We also meandered around the local post office, bank and supermarket before we made our way back to the resort. In town all the locals were undergoing construction work to restore the town to a new look, as they continued their duties in painting or wood restoration work.
Once we had arrived back at the resort we went and sat by the pool for the afternoon along with Michael and Mel, the weather wasn't the best as it was a little overcast but there were spells of sunshine which we made the most of as we sat there reading books or listening to our iPod's before jumping into the pool and then drying off. The resort was dead quite that day, there was literally no one around. At about 4 or 5pm Ashley, Carly and I decided to play a knock off French version of monopoly with Kit and Kat, a couple of were travelling together that we had met, who were addicted to diving and were dive masters. Kit had a previous girlfriend called Kat, but they are taking a break lol, so he has a new girlfriend called Kat as well but she likes to be called Katherine so they don't get the same Kit Kat jokes, us three found the jokes funny however. Michael and Mel decided to make hats out of some local Fijian tree leaves, the hats did look pretty cool once they had finished them but it took them nearly as long to complete as it took us to finish our long winded game of monopoly which seemed to go on forever....as monopoly usually does. Carly won, but after playing for nearly 4 hours we were all pleased the game had finally finished but it was good fun and passed loads of time. By the end of which we were all really hungry, so I ordered a bowl of wedges with sweet chilli sauce which I had become addicted to since being in Fiji. The wedges came in a huge basket and were so nice; the others ordered wedges or a meal as well. We sat around chatting after we had finished our food before we went up to bed, because as had been the case the previous night there was nothing going on in the bar except from a local Fijian band singing the same songs over and over again. Plus we were one of the last few groups to be sitting in the bar. I had a shower before I went to sleep that night as I felt grubby from the day.
The next morning it was an early start for me as I agreed to Skype the family, so I was up 7am, just when the free breakfast had started so I sat there munching away on my free cakes as I spoke to them. Following this I took some cakes for lunch and then met the guys to sit by the pool for the day, the weather was pretty decent, there was enough sun about to catch a tan, so we just sat by the pool all day doing the usual stuff like reading or listening to music or sleeping, until the Feejee Experience bus arrived with the people that we would be travelling with the next day. Jerry was the guide once again, so he said hello to us and even remembered our names from the first time we had met and been on his bus. He said that we could join them for lunch but we didn't bother as we had cakes stored away in our bags for our lunch, so we continued to laze about by the pool. The guys that had just arrived on the bus then had the coconut carnival which we did when we first arrived after lunch, and then they seemed to disappear they didn't come and introduce themselves to us, but there was only six of them so there was more of us getting on the bus the next day than there had been on the bus previously. Michael and I went to the activities centre to enquire about horse boarding for the third time that day but they insisted that we wouldn't be able to do it as the horses had been doing horse riding lessons all day and were knackered. It would have been cool to participate in the horse boarding as you stand on a wakeboard which is attached to the horse, the horse than pegs it along the beach taking you with it on the wakeboard on the water. But we weren't allowed to do it which was a bit of a shame so it meant we had to sit around the pool for the rest of the day, before I went on the internet for a bit and then got showered and ready for dinner that night. There was a table reserved for the Feejee Experience bus as there had been the previous time that the Feejee bus arrived. Again it was a big long table but as there were very few people on the bus that had arrived we didn't even half fill the bus. I decided to buy a proper meal for the first time at that resort, so opted for this Italian chicken meal that came with chips, the chicken was wrapped in breadcrumbs and layered with cheese, mushrooms and various spices and sauces and like all the previous meals I had, had in Fiji it was delicious. Again there was no entertainment that night so we sat around with a few beers chatting before we had an early night as the next day we had to be up early for sector three of our Feejee Experience adventure.
Love Toby xxx
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