July 7, 2015 – Savusavu-Hike-Dive

On Canada Day, we hiked up the hill overlooking the bay and harbour. It was a hot sticky walk but the breeze helped to keep us cool. We walked up several roads and tracks, but had to back-track a number of times to finally find our way back down the hill. We strolled through the yards passed shacks that are home to some locals. There was copra drying in the yards of some. Despite the poverty, people are friendly to us and seem happy.

A Fijian family home at the top of the hill

View from their yard

Fijian home with copra drying in the yard

I noticed many wild orchids as well as some beautiful tropical plants and flowers.

Wild orchids along the road

At the top of the hill, we had a panoramic view of the bay and could see Whistler in the glistening sun-bathed anchorage.

View of the bay. Whistler is in view

View of the other end of the harbour

Back down in the harbour,the Canadian boats were celebrating Canada Day.

Spirare (left) and A-Train (right-front) celebrating Canada Day

Showing our patriotism

A few days later, we went for our pool dive, with Colin. He took us to a small dipping pool at a friend’s estate. It was not heated and not very clear. We were glad when we were finished with the pool exercises.

The following day, we went out on the boat which had returned to its normal dive spot, just passed the Savusavu airport along the Hibiscus Highway, east of Savusavu. They took us out and we did two ocean dives to about 60 feet, (less deep on the second dive) each about 40 minutes.  We worked through a number of the skills we had to learn, like sitting on the bottom and taking our weight belt off and sharing air.  I was still having some issues clearing my ears but made it through okay.

Dive course

Blow holes at the entrance of the river by the Namale Resort

We took a few days off diving so I could give my ears a few days to get rid of the congestion, nothing serious, just makes it hard to clear on descent.

Our friends on Spirare and A-Train started to prepare to leave Savusavu. They were heading east. We hoped to do the same, but it looked like we would not be ready when they were going to leave. As it turned out, they delayed departure for a day due to weather conditions.  

On Monday, I went to see a clinic about my ears and was prescribed a few medications to help clear it up, and ensure I could dive the next day.

Tuesday was our last day of the dive course.  After 25 years, our instructor, Colin, was still very passionate about teaching diving.  He was in his element as he pointed out many fish and coral species while making sure we accomplished all the skills for the course. It was incredible to see all the life on the coral reefs. We saw turtles and lots of brightly coloured fish, popcorn shrimp and soft corals. It was really dreamy stuff.  Our instructor seemed very happy with our progress after the last dive and we were awarded our temporary PADI certificates.  Knowing how to dive is an important skill for cruisers in this part of the world.  More about that later.

We scurried around for a few days to get water, fuel and provisions for leaving Savusavu.  It could be a long time before we could get supplies again.

Provisioning the wine and beer

Stay tuned for the next passage!