This is the old capital of Fiji and a World Heritage site. It is an old whaling town and while we were there the smell of smoking fish was very invasive.Everyone was very friendly and greeted us with Bula or hello. The town is very pretty from the sea but was a bit disappointing mainly because it needs a lot of restoration work after the cyclone and many shops had closed down. When somewhere is declared a world heritage site who pays for the upkeep? A small community like this obviously will not have enough funds itself (especially after the cyclone)and at the moment there do not seem to be many tourists. It was still an interesting visit, there is a library with a rather strange assortment of books and a small museum in one corner with a rather eclectic collection of items. The childrens section was probably the largest part with a good collection of books, cosy cushions on the floor and loads of drawings and cut-outs by the children. Luckily we did not need meat as it was a choice between frozen chicken bits, frozen chicken bits or frozen chicken with some fatty lamb for a change, but being Saturday there was a market with stalls set up on the grass between the shops and the sea. There were plenty of vegetables fern, tomatoes, cucumber, taro leaf and root, sweet potatoes and beans. Many of the stallholders still wrap their products in large leaves tied with raffia rather than using bags, the older ladies getting rather impatient because the young ones are not wrapping fast enough or neat enough. In common with much of Fiji there was very little fruit as it has been damaged by the cyclone.
Loads of little shops mostly looking rather run down, but I bought some beautiful fabric while it was measured and wrapped Chris chatted with the owner who was very well informed on Brexit and the state of the pound.
I had hoped to have afternoon tea, a pee and a leg rest in the oldest hotel in Levuka but although I wandered around inside could not find anyone to serve it and left disappointed