Bula!!

Hi guys,

Well, I'm now in Fiji, so the first new country for me in over a year. All rather warm and sticky and tropical, all rather good fun.

On arrival, I had a chilled out first afternoon just getting used to the place and lounging at my hostel/hotel. The next morning, I linked up with the Feejee Experience bus, and we drove down to Natadola beach (reputedly the best on Viti Levu, the main island) before popping into a local village to be shown the layout and have a bit of traditional Fijian life explained (for which everyone had to wear sarongs/sulus, causing mild consternation to a few of the lads), and ending up sand-boarding on the Sigatoka sand-dunes. I was my usual graceful self doing this (ie I stacked quite spectacularly on my first run, then rolled on the floor alternately groaning and giggling), and a good time was had by all.

The place we were staying at that night wasn't FJX's usual haunt, because that's been taken over by the ITV show Celebrity Love Island. No, I'm not kidding. We actually drove past the place, and the amount of TV equipment set up outside that place is staggering. From what I'm hearing back home, the program's shite anyway, but the Fijians are mildly fascinated by all the goings on at the site.

Then yesterday we went for about a 2.5 hour hike up in the highlands of the south coast (preceded by a trip in a "carrier" - a lorry with bench seating in the back and a blue-tarp cover over it), during which I managed to add to my collection of mud-stains on clothing of mine, and then tubed down the river at the end for a little way (ie floated down in a tractor inner-tube) before swimming at the base of a waterfall and then getting a ride in a Fijian long-boat back down to the coast. The latter was definitely more fun for those of us at the front, where an innocent hand in the wash from the bow could instantly soak most of those behind us... We then had a really nice meal and a few drinks out in Suva, the capital of Fiji. Which is where I am now.

This arvo I'm flying over to the small island of Ovalau, just east of here, where the old capital, Levuka, is. Got a couple of nights there before coming back to Suva and heading up to the north coast, to a beatiful little island called Nananu-i-Ra. But that can wait for another time.

Take care and have fun,

Pat