My last day in the Yasawas. I woke at daybreak and went to photograph the sunrise.
As ever, the dogs were keen to keep me company.
I rocked in the hammock until it was time for breakfast. We got pancakes which were quite nicely done. The morning before, breakfasting alone, they had served me delectable waffle puffs containing coconut milk.
I asked for a shoulder massage to ease the knot in my left shoulder. I could move it better after that, but time was the best cure.
During and after breakfast the others were vacillating between going to Blue Lagoon in the morning or after lunch. They still hadn't left by the time I had to transfer to the Flyer. I wore long jeans so the cuffs got wet during the transfer. I dried up in the lounge.
The return trip was uneventful, we passed the resorts I had stayed at in reverse order. They didn't play The Blue Planet documentary on the TV though. Here we are passing South Sea Island again.
Viti Levu loomed in the cloudy distance. It looked like it would rain that evening.
In the lounge I chatted with a French girl from Toulouse who had spent a year on a working visa in Australia. The brave lass had driven across the Nullarbor in her own car.
We picked up our luggage from the jetty at Port Denarau. Awesome Adventures Fiji then took us on coaches back to our resorts. And that was the end of my outer islands excursion.
It had originally been my intention to visit Vanuatu, but it seems that the season only goes till the end of October. In fact I was visiting Fiji close to the hot and rainy season but I couldn't get away earlier. Fiji is roughly the same longitude as New Zealand and the same latitude as North Queensland so it is only 4 hours from Sydney. I had opted for carry-on luggage so no wait to claim luggage, but I was delayed at customs and waited for the transfer taxi to decide that no one else was arriving soon. Some people had told the resort the day they were arriving but not the flight, imagine that.
First impression of Fijian countryside is of a tropical developing country whose infrastructure could bear improvement. Reminded me of Malaysia decades ago.The main road is semi-rural and lined with retail shops punctuated by the occasional hotel or bar. Many businesses are Fiji-Indian owned.
Nadi Bay Resort is actually more like a backpacker hostel with some upmarket double rooms. (Nadi is pronounced Nandi by the way.) But it also has a couple of pools. The beaches on Viti Levu (the main island) are undistinguished so the lack of a beachfront compared to the other resorts is no loss. The resort is conveniently located on the main road and only 15 minutes to the airport. It's close enough to the runway to get aircraft noise but that's not a problem at night.
There are a couple of cats at the resort. One's well-fed, perhaps too much.
At the Indian owned Jetpoint supermarket near the crossroads I bought a pair of flip-flops. Those turned out to be essential. The cream crackers were more like hard tack though edible, I guess this is so that they don't soften in the humidity. Apples are imported from NZ. They also sold fireworks for the upcoming Divali festival. You'd never find that in an Australian supermarket.
I took a dip in the pool to cool off. There was a father, mother and daughter family there speaking Portuguese. I guessed that they were Brazilian.
Dinner was at the Sitar restaurant at the crossroads. The resort has an excellent and reasonably priced restaurant but I decided to save that for later. Dining costs are about the same as Australia, but the korma wasn't as tasty. The only other person in the dorm was an older Swede who was travelling around the world. He had purchased an islands excursion from the same company as I had so we would be picked up the next morning.
