Our third day on Mana
was the best day ever. The weather was glorious and after breakfast
we decided to take a boat trip out to the sandbank to go snorkelling.
The sandbank is basically just a lump of white sand (about the size
of a tennis court) in the middle of the sea that you can just about
see from Mana island. We piled into the little boat with our new
friends (Americans, British and Kiwis) and coated ourselves in
suncream and then the boat driver took us out to the sandbank. It
only took about 10 minutes to get there and when we got there it was
spectacular. It was everything I had imagined Fiji to be – just
what you see in the brochures.
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| The sandbank |
We all got our snorkels and flippers
on and then set off swimming around the sandbank until we reached a
ledge where the water dropped to hundreds of metres in depth. As the
guy who took us out described it: 'this is like in finding Nemo where
Nemo gets told not to go any further'. So we didn't go any further
because there might be bigger fish out there. We stayed close to the
sandbank but the fish were amazing, with lots of corals and Nemo type
fish. Apparently you can also spot sharks (the friendly ones) and
dolphins but we didn’t see any. It was pure paradise and the waters
were crystal clear. After the sandbank, we all got back in the little
boat and returned to our hostel for lunch and then a man showed us
how to climb a coconut tree and how to cut open a coconut and make
jewellery.
Later on we decided to
walk to survivor beach again for some more snorkelling to try and see
sharks. We set off through the jungle again with Ally, Alex and Jemma
and walked until we found some rocks, which we had to clamber over
and then jump into the sea. We didn't see any sharks but we saw a lot
of fish and an eel. It was fantastic. When we got back, we had a
shower and then joined the Kiwis and our other friends for tea and
Bula hour. By now we knew all of the Bula songs and sang and clapped
along. We then spotted a bonfire further down the beach so walked
down to check it out. We found some people sat around playing guitars
and chatting. We joined them for a bit before returning home to
Ratikini to go to bed. A perfect day.
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| Bula hour (James on the right) |
The next two days on
Mana were just spent relaxing on the beach and snorkelling. One
morning the hostel did a free guided walk to a lookout point at the
top of the hill where yo could get a good view over the island. We
borrowed a girl's underwater camera one afternoon and went
snorkelling with Alex and took lots of cool pictures. On the last
night we were all leaving the next day (all of our friends too) so we
decided to have a few drinks. The hostel had also put on
entertainment (traditional dancing and fire-throwing!) which was
cool, however, half way through I got stomach cramps like someone was
punching me and had to go to bed. I blame it on either the water or
the dodgy mixed grill we had for dinner.
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| Snorkelling at survivor beach |
On our last day on Mana
it was so hot, we spent most of our time sat in the internet room
which was the only air-conditioned room in the hostel. We didn't pay
to go on the internet, just sat chatting. At 11.30 we waved all our
friends off who left on a little boat to the mainland. It took them
about an hour to set off because the battery ran out. The we hung
about until 4pm, walked along the beach and then caught a boat to our
next island – Bounty.
Photos:
Fiji
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