White Sandy Beach 1

The English girl who joined my dorm closed the door for the night. Too bad for air flow. During the night it rained heavily which dropped the temperature considerably.

Breakfast was rather plain compared to the feast the night before. More carbohydrate in the form of sweet potato and taro. The new arrivals from the afternoon before went snorkelling. I killed some time writing in my diary.

The snorkellers got back about the time S and I had to leave. My next stop was the White Sandy Beach resort. This is located on the western side of Naviti Island. After 90 minutes sailing they announced my resort, I bade farewell to S and stepped into the transfer boat. (All the resorts use transfer boats as the Yasawa Flyer cannot approach the shallows.) There was one departure and I was the only arrival for the day. At the beach a committee sang me a welcome.

I was introduced to the current backpackers over lunch. F from Germany, E from Austria, and a couple from UK. Lunch was pretty good, comprising a vegie curry, papadums and rice.

I resisted blandishments from the staff to join the snorkelling activity and rested away the afternoon. Anyway they had enough people with the afternoon arrivals. (The Flyer passes each island twice on its daily circuit, so resorts in the middle will receive northbound guests in the morning and southbound guests in the afternoon. The order in which people visit the resorts depends on the package they have booked, or itinerary they have drawn up, which in turn depend on availability of spots.)

In the evening, the resort staff played a friendly volleyball game with the neighbouring resort and guests were invited. Fijian group dynamics were fascinating. There were no formal teams, people were free to join or leave a side whenever they felt like it. Some players both men and women were very good but there were no showoffs. It was just a game for everybody to participate and have a good time.

With a west facing location, the sunset was spectacular.

Dinner was excellent. It comprised soup to start then a main of fried chicken with a cream sauce, accompanied by julienned carrots, beans, potato wedges and taro. Dessert was pineapple cake. I suspect the cook had worked in a commercial kitchen before.

This was a gecko on the dining room ceiling.

While I was showering, they began the evening balloon game. Couples were required to maintain a balloon between them in a specified position without using hands while dancing to the DJ. To eliminate a couple in each round the challenges got harder and harder. The winner was the couple with F, the German guy. He was also a good player at volleyball.

The resort staff sang us Fijian songs after the games.

A bonfire of palm fronds and twigs was lit on the beach so that people could mellow out in the glow.