Barefoot Island was our next stop as we headed north up The Yasawas chain. It was bigger, more of a resort and felt professionally run compared to our previous stay at Kuata. There was a laid back and relaxed atmosphere, as there usually is in Fiji and we spent most of the day on the beach, reading in a hammock or merely enjoying the wonderful view.
We were extremely lucky to be staying in our own private bure (hut) on the sunset side of the island, a mere 30 seconds from the beach. We did however get given a double bed confirming our thoughts this was becoming more like a honeymoon. If only one of us was a man, we would be the perfect couple! It was lovely to have our own space for three nights and no bunk beds in sight!
After lying around in the sun and relaxing in a giant rubber ring in the sea it was time to explore. There are three beaches at Barefoot Island Resort; Sunrise, Sunset and Mantaray Cove to the North of the island. It took maybe 3 minutes to saunter from the sunset side of the island to the sunrise side as it was quite small.
Mantaray beach named after the Mantarays which can be spotted in the sea just of the island in the right season.
The outside bathroom was a treat. We brushed our teeth each evening at these sinks under the starry night sky.
Bure on the sunrise side of the island.
Our evening started by watching the glorious sunset on the sunset deck with a happy hour rum and coke. It was absolutely beautiful to watch the sky slowly change colour and then be treated to a delicious dinner. We met Elsa and Yanetta, two Finnish girls who we immediately bonded with over our love of food, Fiji, travelling and (because it's so hard lying in the sun all day) early bed times. Dinner was followed by the entertainment for the evening, the staff singing Sunday songs normally heard at church for us.
Monday dawned and after our breakfast we headed to the Sunrise Beach to make the most of the sunshine. Here we lay on the perfect white sandy beach reading, listening to music or in my case occasionally exercising my brain by doing sudokus, only the easy ones though! We went snorkelling to explore the beautiful reef close to the shore and all the underwater life it sustains. Unfortunately there were many tiny, almost invisible, jelly fish meaning we got a fair few stings along the way.
After lunch we followed the path of the sun and migrated to the Sunset Beach to continue our idyllic day. The high afternoon tide allowed for some more snorkelling on this side of the island before once again spending our evening watching the sunset with our customary rum and coke. One of the other guests on the island had managed to catch a huge fish during that days trip and it fed all of the guests for a delightful fresh dinner.
Hermit Crab racing was the entertainment for the evening. We were split up into teams by country and there were around twelve different crabs racing. A large circle is drawn and the crabs are released in the middle. Quite simply, it is the crab that reaches the edge of the circle first that wins. England won the first heat but unfortunately our speedy little crab was overtaken by Argentina in the final race.
It was an extremely amusing evening activity especially because the Finnish crab, which Elsa chose because it was at least twice the size of the others, refused to move earning it the nickname Fatty from Finland.
I was determined to watch a sunrise on Barefoot Island, an extraordinary feat for me as almost anyone who knows me can testify how terrible I am at early rising. Somehow, I made it out of bed and across the island where I plopped into a hammock to watch as the orange hue spread across the sky. It was magical, extremely beautiful and I enjoyed it immensely from my hammock which was swinging in the early morning breeze.
Rather than heading straight to the beach after breakfast we joined in the morning activity which was making jewellery out of coconut shells. We were handed a slice of shell with which we could make a bracelet. First we used sandpaper to take off the hair on the outside of the shell and to then smooth both the inside and outside of the bracelet.
After we had shaped it we used smooth sandpaper on the shell to take away any rough edges. Following this we used coconut flesh to polish the bracelet with the oil released from the fruit. Our finished bracelets turned out quite well and joined our growing Fijian jewellery collection.
There were a couple volunteering on the island who had a two year old daughter Jade. She looked like a female version of Mowgli from the jungle book and sounded like a minion from Despicable Me. It was an adorable combination and I spent some of my afternoon playing with her in the sea and finding 'baby doggy'. It was during this expedition that I met some of the locals who work on the island and they very kindly gave me one of the coconuts to drink, swinging at it with a machete to slice it open and popping a natural straw in it. Although very sweet it was delicious and it amused Lou greatly when I returned from the jungle in my bright outfit with a child in one arm and a coconut in the other.
After dinner we had a lesson about Fiji and it's history. The country is made up from 333 Islands, the furthest taking 5 days to reach by boat! The languages spoken are Fijian and Emglish which is compulsory at school. However, the dialects vary so much across the islands that Fijians cannot always understand each other talking their own language. The population is a tiny 800,000 people slowly making it's way to 1 million. The national sport is rugby 7s, a great source of pride for Fiji as they hold the World Cup in this sport.
Once the history lesson was concluded it was time to make our way back to our lovely beach hut for one last night at Barefoot Resort. Wednesday morning was spent in a hammock reading before making our way North to a new island.
Barefoot, it was incredible.
Until next time.
A x
No comments:
Post a Comment