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.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Fiji