Out and about on Viti Levu

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Sun 22 Sep 2019 06:09

It has seemed like our time in Fiji has been regularly interrupted by the need to find shelter from strong winds and this weekend another blow was forecast so our plans to move on to the island of Bequ were postponed and we opted to stay on our mooring outside Suva.  However we felt that another four days in Lami Bay would be a bit claustrophobic so we arrange a 3 day hire car.

 

On Friday we drove out along the south coast of Viti Levu to have a look at Pacific Harbour and the Sigatoka sand dunes.  Pacific Harbour is a village with a number of resorts, one of which has a small marina we had thought of visiting. Resort and marina looked OK and we had a nice lunch in the village before getting back on the road.

Waterlilies at the Pacific Harbour resort

It was a long drive to Sigatoka, where the sand dunes were Fijis first National Park, and by the time we got there it was too late to do the longer of the two walks.  However we did enjoy the hour long walk where we had the dunes to ourselves, and the amazing bird song in the woods on the way back.

Sigatoka sand dunes

We weren’t sure what these structures were all about

The beach at Sigatoka

Forest art on the return from the dunes

There were lots of produce stalls along the road and some of the villages seemed to have themes.  We drove through one where everyone was selling plants.  In this village the road was lined with people selling hot corn.  No other village sold this – which seemed a bit of a lost opportunity.

Yesterday we joined forces with Jo and Rob from Double Trouble to visit the Coro-I-Suva (pronounced Thoro ee Soova) rainforest park – a half hour drive out the other side of Suva (after the obligatory visit to the hardware stores in town – a must when a group of yachties get together).  The description offered 6.5km of forest trails with streams, waterfalls and swimming holes and we weren’t sure how long it would keep us occupied for.  It turned out to be an amazing day out following a sometimes well made, more often muddy, trail alongside a stream through the forest.  Very pretty and with the promised swimming holes (though the water was a bit too muddy to attract us) and the walk took us two to three hours.  We saw very few other people around the park despite it being a Saturday, but that might have been because Fiji were due to play Australia in their first game of the Rugby World Cup later in the afternoon.  The last swimming hole, however, was full with young people out for the afternoon, and more were on the way as we walked back to our car.  We finished a great day out with tea and ‘cheesecake’ at a vegan café back in Suva.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning dawned wet and windy so rather than trying to find another touristy thing to do (difficult anyway on a Sunday in Fiji) we headed to Governors for lunch.  Its a pleasant restaurant housed in an old colonial bungalow with a mix of Asian, Fijian and European food on offer.  Tomorrow morning we return the car, then will spend the day getting ready to leave for Beqa (again).

We have used some fairly rickety docks to get ashore, but the Police dock at Lami Bay takes the biscuit

Governors restaurant, Suva

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