The Exploring Islands
19 September 2018 | Vanua Balavu, Fiji
Sandra
The Bay of Islands is a spectacular area to explore. This would have been the perfect spot for a drone. There are hundreds of little but tall islands protruding up from the sea. The tides and waves have worn the lower portions giving them a narrow base so they look like cupcakes. None of them are well charted and many have coral between them which makes navigating through them very interesting. There are lots of little hideaways for perfect one or two boat anchorages. We wove our way through a couple of them with boats in them until we found our own little paradise.
We later met a young couple on a little Vancouver 25 sailboat that we had passed by. They thanked us for not anchoring beside them and told us about a lovely beach tucked around the corner where they found some green papayas. They were both vegan so I told them about the green papaya salad and then invited them over for happy hour and salad later. They were thrilled. Knowing how tough it is to find decent food never mind vegan food out here I gave them some refried beans that I had brought from Mexico. They were so appreciative and commented that refried beans had been their staple food last year when they were in Mexico. They reminded Peter of his sailing experience as a starving student 30 odd years ago.
The next day they came over to borrow a piece of hardware as they were making a zip line from one of the tall little islands to another. One first had to climb the rope to get to the top and then swing down and bale into the water before hitting the lower island. I was keen to try it out until he asked me if I was allergic to wasps (which I am). There were lots of wasps on the way up and he had already been stung so we declined. It looked like fun though.
We bombed around in the dinghy exploring the area and stopped to snorkel a couple of coral bommies. The area was perfect for paddle boarding too. We spent a day at the beach playing beach games with Mark and Jude. Peter is full of fun games like throw the machete or seed nuts at each other. I do have a fun video of Mark and Peter trying their balancing beam act on a wobbly log structure they found on the beach and trying to climb a coconut tree. The sandy beach was beautiful and it felt great to be on land.
The weather is beckoning us again with the perfect wind to move south. The Southern Lau group of islands is said to be the mecca of Fijian islands.