Fiji
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Tue 23 Oct 2012 06:59
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18:07S 178:26E
First stop was Suva, the capital of Fiji and
where better to start than the Royal Suva Yacht Club.
It was a pleasant surprise to walk into a
yacht club and see the picture of the Queen. Yes...our majesty the Queen of
England, good old Lizzy, in prime position behind the bar. A gentle
reminder of days of yore, when the conquering Brits were spreading their
wings, but also a brief moment of reminiscence of misty yacht club
days back home. It was strangely comforting to listen to the tipsy armchair
admirals propping up the bar recanting stories of their sailing exploits in the
South China Seas and rounding Cape Horn in a leaky bath tub while harpooning
whales from a pitching deck during the worst storm in living memory. Every
yacht club is full of them, our own Marchwood Yacht Club in Southampton
included. So we felt right at home. The beer was pretty good too but nothing
could beat the warmth of the welcome. We thought this was just sailors greeting
fellow sailors but no, we were amazingly well received by everyone, young and
old, where ever we went in Fiji. These people are naturally friendly with no
hidden agenda. We quickly realised that we were going to like
Fiji.
I guess it was largely because of the friendly
locals we liked the dodgy port of Suva. Outwardly, Suva
is typical of most capital ports around the world......a
little bit seedy & tainted, but interesting none-the-less. The icing on
the cake for us though, was the food. There is a large Indian population here in
Fiji, a bit too large according to the Fijians. But from our point of view
it meant........... CURRY, mmmmmmm. The curries in Fiji are
great, authentic, hot & cheap. So we filled our boots, so to speak, managing
to fit in a curry of some sort at every opportunity during our time in
Suva........It was marvelous. At £3 for a curry, it didn't make sense eating on
board. We couldn't cook it for less and why stink the boat out.......Well, that
was our excuse anyway.
It soon became time to move on before
we lost our stomach linings and completely run out of toilet rolls. So off
to Beqa, pronounced Benga, a little Island with a surrounding reef just a few
miles to the south west.
Fiji has a strange political structure with its
foundations firmly in the past. Each island, or province of that island, is
run by a chief. This chief is responsible for all aspects of the community
including policing, welfare and solving disputes. And, unlike most other
countries, the cove/beach including the water in front of the
territory is also owned by the chief. So it is expected of you to ask the
chief for permission to park your boat in his back yard. This is part of the
Sevu-Sevu ceremony.
Basically, this Sevu-Sevu ceremony is all about
introducing ourselves to the village. We sit around cross legged on the
floor, nodding & smiling at each other in our best 'we are friendly folk and
please don't eat us' kind of way. And then we nervously offer a gift.
This gift is normally a 'yakona', a pepper-tree root from which a highly
intoxicating drink called 'Kava' is made. The chief then checks you out, poking
your fleshy parts with the point of a spear, probably assessing the fat content,
(somewhere approaching 98% in my case). And if he likes the look of you, the
chief accepts the gift and does a chant thing, claps his hands twice
and you are formally welcomed to the village. Somebody then shows you
around and introduces you to the locals. The kids go crazy and
cling like monkeys to your extremities in increasing
numbers.
   Chief
Jo &
sprog
Fiji sprogs
We were expecting our chief to be a war-like
creature wearing a grass skirt, war paint on this face, bones &
feathers in his unruly hair and sporting an impressive spear. Sadly, our
chief had been working in his garden tending his vegetables at the
time and turned up in a grubby polo shirt, shorts and a garden fork. It didn't
quite have the desired effect. But he did do the chant thing and welcomed
us to the village but not before he threw our Yakona gift across the
floor saying 'ugg, only one, how many boats?'. Clearly he expected one from
each boat. But as I was the one who handed him the Yakona, I got the
pearly white smile, while John from S/Y Redsky, got the stink eye. I found
the whole thing highly amusing but clearly John & Leanne were a tad
embarrassed in a 'we really don't give a cuss', Aussie kind of way.
However, members of the village did put a bit of a
show on for us and demonstrated the art of fire walking.
   Fire
girl
Fire boys walking on hot
stones
Fire boys & Jo
Jo was coaxed to have a go but elected to just
have a photo with them instead.....Probably wise, but we did get to taste
the dreaded Kava as part of the Sevu-Sevu ceremony. The local Fijians love it,
especially around happy hour, (5'ish in the afternoon). After a couple of
coconut cups of this rocket fuel, the village takes on a totally different
demeanour. People start chanting, banging on drums and playing there little
guitars or ukuleles. We thought the Kava actually tasted disgusting,
not unlike cold washing-up water. It made your lips go completely numb
after the first mouthful and you spilled the rest down your shirt. We decided we
would stick to vodka & tonic, but you have to give it a try....don't
you.
The following morning we weren't in the best shape
to do the famous Beqa shark dive. This dive is in a lagoon pass and is
billed as 'the worlds best shark dive where you can see 8 different sharks in
one location'. They said we could see sharks from the huge Tiger & Bull
sharks through to the Lemon & Reef sharks. Not to be missed we thought.
However, we started to have second thoughts when we had to sign 2
disclaimers confirming that the dive company is not liable if we get eaten or
attacked by one of the beasties and that if we use our own dive gear, there are
no highly visible colours on it that will confuse the sharks into
thinking we are bait. Well, we happily signed our life away, only to realise
that Jo had fluorescent yellow stripes under her arms. Jo didn't sleep too
well that night. It didn't help when we started having a conversation about what
body parts we could do with out. Oddly enough, we decided we were quite attached
to them all and she decided to keep her arms firmly against her sides
through out the dive.
Anyway, the dive turned out to be more amusing than
scary. It was quite well organised and safety first was
uppermost. We swam down to a large rope on the sea bed, about 25m
down. We had the reef to our backs and the feeding arena was about 5 metres
ahead. Divers brought down the bait in wheelie bins and began feeding the
fish. It was impressive even before the sharks turned up. Some of the groupers
were about 6 foot long and almost that around their girth. It
was like fish explosion with all different types and sizes of
aquatic creatures,.......an excellent opportunity to see a pelagic fish feeding
frenzy. Then the sharks entered the fray and the most bazaar sight was an 8 foot
Nurse shark stuck head first in the wheelie bin, thrashing about trying to get
back out........greedy shark!
The whole thing was quite an experience
and comes highly recommended. Jo even got to touch one of the sharks and
neither of us were either eaten or gnawed on, which was quite a bonus
really. But unbeknown to me at the time, a large green moray eel was checking
out my butt from the reef behind and was the closest I came to being
lunch.
We came away from the dive smuggly smiling
thinking 'what a cool experience' but that smile was wiped off our faces
when we were shown a report from the local rag only a few days later. On the
very same dive, an experienced diver was attacked 2 days later by
a tiger shark because he had a yellow dive tank on his back. Fortunately, he
wasn't hurt, but it is fair to say, Jo was well glad she kept her arms
down.
Carrying on with the fishy theme, Jo managed to
snag a 'gooden' enroute to Musket Cove via Nadi. A nice 'Rainbow
Runner' which was great eating. A delicate white meaty flesh ideal for the BBQ
and fish pie, mmmmmm.
 Fish girl
Fiji was proving to be full of surprises. Denerau
Marina near Nadi, was a delight. Swanky shops, bars & restaurants and
all at very reasonable prices. We spent several days there making the most of
the facilities and used it as a base to explore Nadi.
  Hindu temple
Then off to Musket Cove, the famous hang out for
Pacific Cruisers.
  Musket Cove anchorage
It is a perfectly sheltered cove within a reef
complex which is both safe and attractive. Lots of resorts, restaurants, bars,
snorkeling/dive sites and plenty of walks to work off the excesses. We
liked it at Musket Cove and it is fair to say that we were sad to
leave. We learned to our detriment that we hadn't
left enough time to properly explore Fiji, our favourite cruising ground so far,
by a country mile. If we new before what we know now, we would have scooted
through the Marquesas and got to Fiji sooner. Now we understand why cruisers
choose to go down to NZ inorder to come back up next season. Braving the
cold weather down in NZ is probably worth the effort, but hey, you cant
have it all. We have New Caledonia and Australia to come yet and if we are
inclined, we could always come back out. This would be a slightly more
difficult route but atleast it will be warm and we wont freeze our arses off
like the other donkeys heading south.
Anyway, before all that,........we have
Vanuatu first or the 'New Hebrides'. That all sounds good to
me.
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