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Kavala - Solotavui Village Kadavu 24 June 18 58.870s 178 25.153e David We are tucked up in a gorgeous Kavala Bay at the eastern end of Kadavu.
Surrounded with high, steep, lush deep-green hills. They call this Little New Zealand and I can see why. Reminds us of the Sounds, but for the coral.?Such welcoming locals. We had no sooner put our anchor down than we were enthusiastically serenaded by a group of children ashore. We replied with our own songs which seemed well received. A passing family, returning from church in their fibre, a tough, versatile local boat, came on board with coconuts and pawpaw and then piloted us to a better anchorage. They stayed for tea and biscuits. We swapped songs and fell in love with one year old Lisi.
Yesterday we picked a dry spell and went ashore to do sevusevu at the village.
We joked with the Chief that the kava we presented was probably grown in the bay and bought in Suva just to be brought home again.
Sevusevu was followed with an extensive tour of the village guided by Luisa. *** Janet "These men are working on the pastor's place," said Luisa, pointing to a house nearby.
"Bula," called a man in an old blue rugby jersey, then said something rapidly in Fijian.
"They are inviting you for yagona, would you like to go?" Louisa translated.
"Yes please," I said. "We haven't tried Fijian kava yet." Inside the house there were eight men sitting cross-legged on a mat, a large wooden bowl on feet in the middle of the room.
"Bula, my name is Joe." We introduced ourselves and Joe passed David a half coconut shell of brown liquid. He drank, and the men clapped four times. Joe refilled the shell and passed it to me. I'd heard that Fijian kava, called yaqona here, (pronounced yangona) was stronger than in Tonga where we last partook. They clapped. I drank. It tasted part nutty, part aniseed and part river silt. It numbed my tongue a little and gave me a pleasant glow. The men were friendly and interested in us.
To get to the village we'd traversed a slippery muddy path over a hill and were not looking forward to the return journey.
"No, no, we go this way," said Luisa, pointing to the shoreline beyond the village.
Low tide had revealed a rocky beach all the way back to where the dinghy was tied up outside the local shop. Luisa helped us buy data for our Digicel simcard, and showed us how to set it up.
*** "We're gonna move," said David, donning his raincoat. We'd been sitting in the cockpit having a cup of tea discussing the day's events when suddenly the wind rose and started to change direction, threatening to push us onto the coral reef close behind the boat. I leapt below.
"Depth sounder shows 1.5 metres." I called.
Bit close. The rain was coming in sheets now.
Engine on, I get us up on the electronic chart, tiller down, David was winding the anchor in.
"Four meters now." Wind gusts push the bow round and I motor into the wind to take the load off the anchor.
"We're up," called David.
I turn the boat and motor across the bay to the lee of a headland.
"This is it," calls David. He releases the anchor chain and I motor back to lay out the chain. Gusts push us from side to side.
Back in the cabin, toweling his hair dry, David declares, "That calls for a shot of vodka." I glance at the clock, 4.30.
"Why not." I retrieve a green coconut from the basket in the cockpit and hand it to David. He deftly lops the top off it with a machete. Fingers still intact, he decants the nectar into the waiting shot glasses of vodka.

On Monday we were collected by the bus at 8am for the Millenium Cave tour. After a long drive over bumpy muddy roads we arrived at the starting point which is a trek through the jungle. Fourteen of us were on this tour, with 5 local guides who were very professional, making sure the group stayed together and no one got left behind. The track through the jungle was very muddy and slippery due the recent rainy days and a couple of people, including Heather, went sliding over during the trek. It became fun to be a mud lark! Everyone had mud splatters all up their legs, so you could not tell the ones who had fallen over from the ones who hadn't - we were all covered in mud! We all had to cross a bridge made of bamboo, just bamboo poles all laid together in a pile between vertical bamboo poles supported by some other bamboo cross bars all tied together. It was very strong! After an hour and a half of mud trekking in the tropical jungle, surrounded by jungle birds, frogs and lizards, we reached the cave. The guides issued everyone a torch and off we went into the vast dark cave. Inside, the river was flowing through and we had to clamber over rocks and sometimes wade through water waist deep in the pitch black. Shining our torches high up to the roof of the cave we could see bats hanging and swallows flying. In places the cave was probably 3 stories high. Our guides helped everyone over large boulders, across gaps and through holes in the dark for 30 minutes and then we saw light coming through from the other end. What a beautiful sight! Emerging into the sunlight from the cave, the water we were wading through joined the main river running swiftly across the mouth of the cave. Getting across this fast flowing water was tricky - we formed a human chain and helped each other brace against the force of the water trying to sweep us away. Once on the opposi te bank we were all glad to have a rest and eat lunch which some porters had kindly transported for us.
After lunch we headed down stream though the canyon, clambering over boulders as big as cars and others that were the size of a bus. Water was rushing through the gaps in these slabs of rock as we kept our balance and scrambled over - sometimes having to jump across large gaps between boulders! After half an hour or so of canyoning, it was time for a swim down the rapids! This part of the canyon was the most spectacular. As we floated down the river being swept along at a steady pace, we looked up in amazement at the sheer rock walls of the gorge rising straight up on both sides of the river. Pretty ferns and trees hung down from little ledges above us and several waterfalls thundered down the rocks. It was fun to swim under the waterfalls and feel the jolting force of the water hammering down on your head and back. Several times as we floated down, we came close to rocky outcrops blocking most of the water flow and creating fast flowing tumbling water. We had to scramble to the side and climb around these areas that would have pummeled us if we had been swept over them. It was a thrill ride and it was stunning scenery. Sunlight streaking through the gap between the canyon walls in places, shining on the spray from waterfalls high above. Water glistening and dripping from tree ferns that clung to the sides of sheer rock here and there. Spectacular! We had almost an hour of running the river and we were in awe the whole way. At one point Heather joined a few of the others in the group and climbed high up a rocky ledge to jump off and plunge back down into the river. The force of landing from such a height sent each person down down down deep before popping back up again. What fun! The next part of the journey involved rock climbing to get back up the elevation we started at. Wooden ladders had been nailed to rocks in places to assist. Other parts of the ascent used knotted ropes to abseil up a couple of waterfalls. Looking back down the valley was incredible! Dense, lush, green tropical jungle, with a sheer rock canyon carving through it. It took about half an hour of almost vertical climbing to get to the top, but we made it. Wet, exhausted and exhilarated! After another muddy jungle trek we arrived back in the village to a very welcome sight. The locals had prepared delicious paw paw, lady finger bananas and juicy pompelmousse for us to munch on along with lemon leaf tea and coffee. In the bus on the way back the driver took us past the Vunaspef primary school. This school as well as a local kindergarten is funded from the proceeds of the Millenium Cave tours, which is a community business, run by locals, employing locals and putting money back into communit y projects. A wonderful experience and great to see this community effort. Before they started these tours in the year 2000, there was no primary school here, so children had to travel a long way to go to school and some never did. Now they have a local school to be proud of.
Yesterday we went on an organised dive with Allan Power Divers, to dive the wreck of the Coolidge. The guide was great, very informative and showed us the layout of the wreck before we went under water so we were familiar with what we were about to see. We were certainly aware that we were seeing and touching a piece of history. Some divers are very keen to see wrecks and get very enthusiastic about the historical significance and all that. We met a couple who had been for 6 dives on the Coolidge over the last 3 days and were about to do their seventh dive! It is a large ship, so they were doing more dives to see different rooms and compartments in the vessel. For us through, it was nice, but no matter which way we looked at it, it still looks like a huge lump of grey steel covered in crusty growth. We decided one dive was enough - we would rather dive to look at natural features and marvel at the underwater caves, arches, chimneys and walls that nature makes! Last night we went ashore to the resort to watch the entertainment. Over a glass of red wine we listened to a local string band play, complete with tea chest bass. They were great! Then came a puppet show using live people, but using heads, hands and feet from different put into carefully modeled clothes behind the scenes to make up a very short "person" who danced to the music. Crazy and very funny to watch. Very clever too! Then came the fire dancing. Wow! Dances twirled long sticks, with balls of fire on both ends. As they twirled the sticks to form a rim of fire, they leapt over and under the sticks and through the circles. One lady did a dance with long ropes, a ball of fire on the end of each. The dance was similar to the Maori poi dance, ropes swung in cirlces and criss crossing over and over to make two intertwining circles of fire. The male dances would sometimes breath a fire ball out of their mouths, shooting flames several meters out towards the crowd. They lit a bonfire and then completed the dancing with special flaming balls that sent sparks like fireworks out from the fire. As they spun these flaming balls on a long rope faster and faster and faster, they formed huge katherine wheels. Showers of orange parks flew out from the rim as they spun the rope so fast you could only see the rim of fire and the sparks, framing the dancer in the middle of the circle. Spectacular! We learned that all the performers from the band, puppet show and fire dancing were from the local youth centre which had been set up to help local youth learn new skills and hobbies. The youth centre also has classes in cooking and other useful skills. A fabulous initiative and a very entertaining result. Amazing talent from these young people.
Today we have enjoyed our first day of total sunshine in a while. The last week has had drizzle on and off - not that it made any difference to our activities of swimming in blue holes or floating down rapids! Had a nice dive on a coral garden today, just floated around appreciating what nature gives us. Thousands of tiny fish, a multitude of corals, a small turtle, some curious fish that want to look at us and some shy ones that try to hide. A lovely scene and a nice gentle dive. We had a few more swims today just to cool down and enjoy frolicking in the crystal clear water here. Tomorrow looks like a good day to sail up to Hog Harbour, so we will set off a little further north again in the morning.

Last week marked the 239th birthday of the United States and about 33 for those guys to the north. They didn't start counting until a constitution was signed, whereas we got about a decade and a half jump on that by measuring from sending a nasty note to King George telling him where he could stick his empire. We tried to get Canada involved in the subsequent dust-up, but they weren't nearly as miffed with the British as we were. Although a formal document has served us extremely well, that 15 years of meandering along without one didn't seem to bother many people very much and after all, the U.K. still doesn't have a constitution and they seem to get on OK. Happy birthday guys.

On Friday we took the dinghy and motored up the river, to the Matevulu Blue Hole. A beautiful river that meanders for about 1km through tropical jungle, ending with a swimming hole that is somehow tinted blue even under a grey sky. Nice to have a fresh water swim, but the river trip was gorgeous with the overhanging trees and jungle vines reflecting in the mirror of the river. In the afternoon we walked a few km down the road to look at the Riri river from the bridge. Yesterday we decided to go upstream to the Matevulu Blue Hole again, but this time in our kayak. So, after baking some bread and pumping up the kayak, we set off. It was a brisk paddle at times to head upstream through the narrow parts, but restful where the river widened out and slowed down. Nice to take in the sounds of the jungle birds on the way. Coming back was a very easy ride, swept along by the river and pushed back out into the bay. An enjoyable ride. In the afternoon we motored around the island and the reefs in the dinghy to explore and spotted a turtle swimming by. Last night the crew of most of the yachts in the lagoon all met up for Happy Hour at the Oyster Island resort. Lots of stories, fun and laughter - a really good bunch! Based on the excellent reports we heard from fellow yachties we decided to take the dinghy up the Riri river today, to the Riri Blue Hole. We thoght it would be similar to Matevulu but our fellow yachties were right - this one is even better! The river has a sandy bottom and crystal clear water. All the way up the river it looks like you are in 2 inches of water but it is over 1m - it is just so clear! At the end of this river the Blue Hole is bigger, deeper and a more intense shade of blue. We had fun climbing up on the platform perched in a tree and swinging from the rope, across the blue hole and dropping with a splash! A stunning place and a really beautiful river trip. We are so very lucky.
This afternoon we decided to go for a walk to Matevulu village and we took along some seeds in case we found some people who needed seeds for their gardens. The signs we not so clear and we had to guess which way to go at a fork in the road. The road we chose took us to Matevulu College instead of the village, it turns out this was a lucky find! The college is a full boarding school for over 400 students and is set well away from any village and a few km inland, so is quite isolated from the usual community life here. The grounds are neatly groomed and beside the school is the teachers compound. There are 31 teachers and they all have a house next to the school. Children help with cooking duties, do their own laundry and other tasks to help them be self sufficient adults one day. The list of school rules on the notice board is very strict! We got talking to a couple of teachers who were doing some administration work on their day off (Sunday) at the school. The two teachers we happened to bump into, Mr Pong and Mr Issac, were the agriculture teachers. We asked them about their lessons and they explained that the students learning agriculture helped to plant vege gardens to feed all the children at the school. They were planting 1000 seedlings per week but needed more to have enough food for the children. We asked what they were planting and discovered that the only steady supply of seeds they had was for Bok Choy, but they wished they had some other varieties of seeds to grow. When we opened our back pack and produced several packets of watermelon and pumpkin seeds for them, they were astonished! Wow! They could not believe it! With big smiles and many many thank yous they kept shaking our hands and shaking their heads and saying wow! They explained to us that getting seeds was difficult and many times teachers were bu ying seeds from their own money just to keep supply of seeds for their nursery. They were truly very grateful. Mr Pong took us for a tour of the school and showed us the nursery and the gardens planted by the children. He insisted we take some Bok Choy with us by way of thank you, and later as we walked with our bunch of Bok Choy, one of the students proudly told us that he had planted it and helped it grow. A fabulous experience - we were so happy that we took this wrong turn and ended up at the school.
Tomorrow we have made arrangements with Bob and Sue to go on the Millenium Caves tour, which should be a great trip trekking through the jungle, along bamboo bridges, down cascades to a massive cave full of bats followed by a float down the rapids! If we survive this, we have booked to go diving with Bob and Sue on the wreck of the USS President Coolidge on Tuesday. This wreck dates from WWII where the USS President Coolidge was part of a fleet of more than 100 ships stationed here by the Allies. For three years, to September 1945 more than 500,000 military personnel, mainly American, were stationed here. Roads were laid, runways, wharves, jetties, offices, accommodation blocks, military hospitals and workshops built. Much of this infrastructure can still be seen today, though most of it in disrepair! On 26 October 1942 the Coolidge, a 22,000 ton luxury liner, converted to a troopship was bringing 5440 US troops to Santo. Approaching the base trhough the wrong entrance the ship struck two of their own defense mines! The captain attempted to save the ship by running her aground, allowing most of the troops to make it ashore. Only 5 lives were lost. The wreck is now a prime dive site, so we will have a look!