Sunday 16^th August 2015

After leaving the Eco Park, we headed into Sigatoka and found a very pleasant place for lunch - the Cuppabula Cafe in the Tappoo shopping centre.  Cheese toasties were the order of the day here, followed by delicious ice creams.  We debated whether to brave the rain and go to the sand dunes, but decided this was not a very attractive proposition.  Instead we returned to the warmth and dryness of our villas at the Crow’s Nest, and just relaxed.  Hopefully it would dry up overnight and we would do them tomorrow.

At dinner time we put on our raincoats – yes, it was still raining – and went up to the restaurant at the pool terrace.  Not surprisingly, the tables had all been moved in towards the bar, out of the rain, and only one was occupied by a couple.  The lady berated us for wearing wet weather gear.  Apparently they had just arrived from a very wet Melbourne and she had spent the last few hours being moaned at by her husband for not packing any. Her answer to him had been that NOBODY packs wet weather gear for a holiday in Fiji...  Perhaps they too should have checked the local weather forecast!

We spent an enjoyable couple of hours over dinner, chatting on and off to the lady in the bar about our travels around Fiji.  She was from one of the outlying islands, and we chatted about village life and our travels.  The two chaps with guitars who had been playing and singing to us over dinner had also chatted to Bear about his travels.  We were very touched when, at the end of our meal, the bar lady, musicians, chef and kitchen and other staff came over to our table and said they would like to sing us a farewell song.  And then they did.

Such a lovely sound from a gathering of staff. (Note they are standing

on the only dry patch of restaurant floor!)

It was a lovely gesture which would have melted even the hardest of hearts. They all shook hands with us and wished us well before they left.  We were even more touched when the waiter later explained they usually only do this on special occasions.  Yet another demonstration of the kind, gentle and caring nature of the Fijian people.  May it always be so.