Home Again

I fell short in the chronicle of our latest adventure. Losing the camera put me off my game somewhat but that is no excuse for not finishing the story.

As I recall, we lost use of the camera after clam digging on mud beach and while we were snorkeling Butterfly reef; the site of the great octopus battle. Thankfully, the memory card was okay and we can share clam photos. We have several photos from snorkeling on Butterfly until saltwater did the dirty deed but we do have, courtesy of Mama Laite, photos of the octopus which, we are more than happy to share.


Here we are, clean and happy heading across the lagoon to a neighboring island to capture appetizers for supper.


As you can see, Arthur quickly put us to work digging clams. We noticed the kids from the island village seemed to be getting more clams and were on semi dry land.


I quickly moved in on their territory and soon had our bucket full and were ready to snorkel. We clambered back into the boat for a short ride; a quarter of a mile or less to a point across from Turtle Island, Butterfly Reef. We geared up and dove in (whether anxious to dive into the clear water or to wash off the clam mud, I leave to the readers imagination).


The reef is spectacular and the visibility exceeded anything we had experienced. The fish were rich and varied. Of course, I can make these claims because I failed to fully secure the camera and have no photographic proof. I will not belabor our day of snorkeling or the adventures that followed as I believe they are fully detailed in a previous blog. I will, however, offer some proof of the episode in the following pictorial spread.





We are home for a while. A trip to Santa Fe and North Dakota in mid summer but no adventures firmed up until Antarctica next winter. We've been invited to Uganda and Kenya in the fall and are considering the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu in September. We can't do both and won't be able to do either if we don't make up our minds soon. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

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Location:Elderberry Trce,Sugar Land,United States

Another Day, Another Beach

We were roused from bed by tremendous flashes of lightning and booming thunder shortly after four this morning. The drapes were flapping and standing straight out from the windows. The rain was beating on the roof and we could here the rushing water in the two small streams that circle our bure. We turned on a light, the nights are so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face, and checked to make sure the rain was not blowing in any of the windows. The bure is composed of all louvered glass walls on all sides. Once everything was secure, we snuggled back in bed and listened to the storm rage. We awoke in daylight to the sound of dripping water from the palms and the rushing sounds of the streams. The wind was still blowing and the tide very high but the rain had stopped. Our walk to breakfast along the beach required a little wading due to the high tide.

We had originally planned to float and kayak in our lagoon but, after breakfast, decided to picnic on Racheli's beach. Another beautiful beach but without the shade of Devil's or Honeymoon. It was overcast and we could see rainstorms offshore and on adjacent islands. As we watched, a tall volcanic peak on a nearby island disappeared as a large rainstorm past between us and the island. We named the two points protecting our beach Shark Point and the other Crab Point. The sandy spits leading through the lava and coral on the south end of the beach were protected by black tip sharks. The water is so clear you can stare into their eyes as they challenge you before they dart off. The tide continued to recede during our visit to Racheli's and exposed a very pretty little beach beyond a lava flow to the north. As we waded around the rocks to the newly exposed beach we were surrounded by pretty green crabs we'd spied earlier in the rocks and tidal pools. We returned to our bure in the early afternoon to say farewell to a couple leaving. Tonight, we're eating alone on the dock.

I just walked down to the dock to post this blog and Felipe asked me to join him and his brother Ben fishing. They have to be here to greet the plane but we will leave after. Ben is a hoot, I went fishing with him and Felipe a couple of days ago and missed two fish. Ben's English is not the best but every time I see him he holds up two fingers and yells "Two Fish!".


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Location:Fiji

Devil's Beach

Our new favorite beach. Sorry, no pictures since I dunked the camera while snorkeling the previous day. Atu and Laite took us to the beach and while we were unpacking our picnic we asked Atu about the idol. Atu took the lead with Laite bringing up the rear. We splashed, waded, and slipped in the mud through a thick mangrove swamp. We had seen the beach from the boat on our cruise the day before and were impressed by the numbers of huge fruit bats circling a large mahogany tree on a hill top above the mangrove swamp. As we trudged through the jungle, the squealing bats constantly swooped and swirled above us. Paula described them as small people on hang gliders. The round trip into the idol and back to the beach took about 20 minutes and was fun. The beach, as I mentioned, is very pretty; several hundred yards of white sand beach pinched between two lava flows. From the beach we had a great view of Paddy's Island.

As we ate, swam, and laid on the beach we kept seeing snorkelers around Paddy's Island. Throughout the afternoon they continued to work closer to our beach. We recognized them as children from a neighboring island. They were diving for sea slugs. Paula swam out to them. At first, they were concerned that we would chase them away but Paula's smile and shout of "bula" eased their concerns. The kids looked to be 7 to 10 years old. Some of the kids had only on flipper but they all carried a white tote sack to keep the black sea slugs. The kids collect and dry the slugs and sell them to a Chinese man that comes around the villages. This is a source of cash for the islands. Not long after the kids showed us their slugs, Micah arrived by boat to pick us up. He spoke with all the kids and made them leave. The kids are not supposed to come around any beach with guests. He told them which beaches they could use for the rest of the afternoon.

Several of our friends left during the afternoon but they were replaced with several new couple. One couple are getting married on Saturday and everyone is invited.

Sorry for the picture less blog. I will try to work out a solution.


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Location:Fiji

Tragedy Strikes

The day started out wonderfully in the pre-dawn grey as we saddled Dip and Nema for a ride across to the east side of the island. Dip, Paula's mount is an eater and enjoyed stopping along the trail to snack on bushes. The horses seemed to anticipate the sunrise and quickened their pace as we approached Long's beach. A fun ride and beautiful sunrise.


The table was set with breakfast and, of course, champagne.



It was a beautiful sunrise and an early start to a very eventful day.


We returned from the horse ride in time for another breakfast. Over breakfast, we were convinced by Arthur to join him on a neighboring island mud flats to dig clams. What a hoot. We were all (two other couples joined us) covered in mud looking for clams. There is a small village on the island and the children were on holiday so they joined us on the mud flats. We filled a five gallon bucket with clams and headed around the point to Butterfly reef to snorkel. WOW is all we can say. The fish and coral are beyond description. I would post pictures but it appears that I failed to properly seal the camera. No more underwater photos on this trip. We will try the disposable film cameras and use the cell phone camera. I left the camera in a bag of rice overnight but no luck. Anyway, back to Butterfly reef. We had been snorkeling for about fifteen minutes, I'd gathered several good pectens and Paula was fully immersed in drifting over the multi-colored coral and fish when Arthur found a large octopus in a hole of a coral head. We swooped in to see the purple octopus and were amazed by the size and color. It was much larger than the one on Farthing reef. Arthur quickly dove down and returned with two large brown sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers will put an octopus to sleep. Arthur shoved the cucumbers into the cave with the octopus. As you would expect, the octopus was quick to return the unwanted gift. Arthur continued to force the sea cucumbers deeper into the opening until he decided the octopus must be asleep. He reached into the coral head and the battle was on for the next 30 minutes. We finally called the boat over, they were hand line fishing nearby, and were able to hook two large hand line hooks in the monster. We shoved additional sea cucumbers into the cave with the boat pulling but we were still unable to dislodge the brute. About this time, he decided to release ink. It looked like a volcano or a smoker in the mid-Atlantic rift. Unbelievable amount of ink. Four separate eruptions but the fight continued. The octopus was large enough that if he was able to wrap his tentacles around you, he could drowned a person. Arthur was taking the brunt of the battle and even employed a kayak paddle. The octopus would wrap his tentacles around the paddle we would pull, along with the boat. Finally, after more than thirty minutes, Arthur, with both hands in the cave exploded out with the creature wrapped around him. We returned home that evening with a bucket of clams, four rock fish and the octopus. Appetizers for our evening meal.

Lunch was fun while we regaled our friends with the exploits of the morning. Paula and I were considering a float in the lagoon but convinced Felipe to take us on a tour of the islands in his boat. We took our bure mama Laite and Felipe's brother Bill along on our three hour cruise. It was fun. We were in an eighteen foot John boat with a 9 horse Eveninrude. We putted around our island and the neighboring islands while Laite, Felipe, and Ben pointed out their villages. The whole while we were sight seeing we had two hand lines out. We quickly hooked a two trevalys and lost them beside the boat. We did land a spanish mackerel which the locals call a rainbow fish.

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Location:Fiji

Another Day

The early mornings here are beautiful. They are clear, calm and cool. The
lagoon is glass only disturbed by the frenzied explosion of bait fish as the predators attack from below. At times, the fish fleeing to the surface appears as a silver wave moving across the lagoon.

We slept in a bit this morning and had a pleasant walked along the beach to breakfast. If you look closely, you can see a rainbow.


Breakfast here is decadent. Suffice it to say, we don't miss breakfast (of course they serve from 9:00 to whenever you want so we have yet to hurry).


We intended to snorkel this morning but, at the last minute, elected to snorkel from our beach rather than take the boat around the north point. Fantastic.


Within 50 yards of our porch we were in a different world. Paula found a giant clam and we saw more beautiful fish than can be described including a shy, black and white sea snake working his way through the short sea grass in the sand near the dock.


After snorkeling and Paula's foot massage, we were off to Honeymoon Beach for another picnic. We learned our lesson from our previous picnic. We ordered much less food but still had a table full.


Honeymoon is my favorite beach, so far. The beach is accessed by steps cut into a volcanic cliff with the hut tucked against the base of the cliff.


The cuspate beach is only 50 yards wide, trapped between two lava flows.


The water is crystal clear and provided good snorkeling and, our new favorite past time, floating.


If you look in the lower left corner of the picture above you can see Paula's foot under water.


Or if you prefer seeing both feet and the rest of her.....

After our trek back across the island we decided to rest in the lagoon.


A nice float and it was time to shower and dress for a cocktails and a fashion show put on by the staff. Like most events on the island, it ended up with everyone dancing in the sand.

Paula and I called it a night early. We had to get up at 5:30 the next morning.

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Location:Fiji

Aaaahhhh

Not much more I can say. As we are both somewhat sun burned we had elected for an easier day. Things could not have worked out better. After our late night yesterday Paula slept in. I went for a walk on the beach and was met by Shakira with juice and coffee on the beach in front of our bure. Paula was up before nine and, after a walk, we had breakfast on the beach. With all our various discussions and conversations, we didn't leave the breakfast table until around 11:00. We convinced Felipe to take us, in his six seat electric cart, on a grand tour of the island. The tour was great. Felipe is one of the original Fijians hired to restore the island and knew the name of every plant, bird, and insect. The island is very self sufficient except for electricity and eggs. They have large shops where they make all the furniture and everything needed. Most of our furniture is made from teak, rain trees, palm, or casarina. Felipe showed us all the various trees and explained how and where they are used in the construction of our bures. Felipe is very proud of the island and led us through the gardens, maintenance shops, wood working shops, water reservoirs and showed us where they are installing solar panels. I've become friends with a couple from Mt Shasta, California that are here installing the solar. The island currently uses diesel generators but the first phase of solar will supply 10 percent of the daylight demand. The solar is not working quite as advertised and we could sense some tension. Our Solar pals from California left yesterday by boat hoping to sort out the problems and return. The tour led us around the island, by all the beaches


and through the mountains. Our bure Mama had prepared a banner with our names to tie to a hibiscus along the way.


It was fun trying to first, understand Felipe's dissertation and names for everything and, second, remember it all. It helped that many of the trees and plants were similar to those we saw in the Amazon in October.

Paula and I took the short walk along the beach to our bure before returning to lunch. I was met with a wonderful surprise. Mama Laite discovered it had been my birthday last month so she decided to surprise me. Mama had decorated our bure with balloons and flowers.


Laite decorated the bed and spelled out "God Bless Happy Belated Birthday Mark Luv Paula & Mama" using palm leaves. And, of course, champagne.


It was a small group on the the beach for lunch to enjoy the sea food pasta as several couples had elected for picnics.


We talked and laughed for several hours over lunch when the sky clouded over and a beautifully cool, refreshing wind kicked up. The wind quickly grew to the point it was blowing over wine glasses and scattering napkins along the beach. We all helped the two Ani's to clear the table and retired to a friends bure on the point. Shortly after we were under cover, the rain hit with a vengence. After a quick glass of wine and champagne Paula and I returned home. We had four handed massages in our bure. Between the massage and the rain splattering off the palm trees, I fell fast asleep. Only too soon, Rini and Maeri patted me on my bare bottom and wished us a good evening. Goodness, not enough time for a decent nap before we dress for dinner. Life can be tough but at least we stayed out of the sun for the day.

Another surprise waited for me after dinner.


Everyone sang and danced. Mama Laite made the Lei.



A postscript - yesterday all the Fijian staff began a joyous celebration on the beach, calling for champagne and party. They had heard that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. We are without newspaper or TV so haven't seen any news from the outside since last Wednesday.

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Picnic

Today was bittersweet. The day dawned clear and beautiful. Paula was up early and took a walk along the lagoon. I found her on the beach


about the same time as Sakira. Sakira spotted Paula on her walk and trailed her with orange juice.


A great start to the day but after breakfast a number of our new friends had to start packing. Six couples left yesterday stretched throughout the day between noon and about 4:30. Two new couples have arrived over the past two days which helped fill the dinner table. With the new arrivals, we have a total of six couples on the island. The odd thing is the lack of accents. We had five countries represented but now are down to one, not counting the staff.

After breakfast, we climbed aboard our floaties and drifted in the lagoon. It wasn't long before all of our floating pals from the previous day were drifting along with us. The drink of the day; Green Turtles. Out of our group of ten floaters, eight were leaving that day. As people would prepare to board the float plane, we would paddle down to the dock and give them a floating send off.

For lunch, Paula and I headed across the island for a picnic on Nudie Beach. Another beautiful beach with a nice breeze off the water.


The picnic was over the top, too much food but we did our best. We had three lobsters, a chicken, pasta salad, potato salad, two fruit trays, bread, desert, wine, beer, and of course, diet coke.


Yes, the picture does not lie; I am getting fatter by the day.

After a quiet picnic and afternoon on Nudie, we returned to our lagoon and decided a swim would aid our digestion.


As you can see, we made it to the water but the Siren Song of the floaties was too great. We enjoy the lagoon. It is always calm with crystal clear water and an abundance of fish and coral.

Cocktails and supper were on the beach again and we were entertained by the staff singing hymns. They have church service Sunday night so, before starting the service, the choir sang several songs for us.

Last night was our latest night yet. After dinner, Ani plugged a video of highlights form the past week. It was fun to see ourselves and new friends frolicking. After that, someone plugged in a DVD of "Blue Lagoon". The movie stars Brooke Shield and was filmed on this island. We recognized all the scenery. It wasn't much of a movie and Paula and I were the only two that made it to the end. We finally found the off switch on the video and wandered back up the beach to bed.

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Location:Fiji