240118 Navua River

Photos still to come.

Breakfast was sent chatting to Lini, Patrick and Maren. Today Patrick is going swimming with the sharks. We are going on a tour up the Navua River. The river is 67km long but we would not be going that far.

We were picked up at 9:45 and taken to the base. From there on it was a lot of fun. It has been very wet recently and we do not know how the day will pan out. Patrick and Maren advised taking a change of clothes. They got very wet but they were tubing; we are rafting. But, if it rains, we will still get very wet. We determined to be better prepared that yesterday so had our togs on under our clothes.

 We arrived in the village on Ratu William Danford Drive, were fitted with lifejackets and given a briefing of our day. Our guide was Nem and he was brilliant - informative, funny and keen to pass on wise advice. He said he was from a long line of preachers. Apparently, we were to go directly to the waterfall in the longboats, then cruise down river, for part of the journey, on a bamboo raft, before coming back to the village for lunch and a cultural experience.

Our group consisted of 30 people from Australia, New Zealand, The USA and Germany. We think the group of girls from Germany was actually from new Zealand. They seemed to have a NZ woman leading them. They were probably exchange students. The maximum is 80. We were spread across four longboats. Our driver was Joe. The boats are powered by outboard motors and travel at a reasonable clip. The river was largely flat and it was very pleasant cruising up the Navua Valley lined with lust vegetation. There are a handful of other villages up this stretch of the river and we periodically passed people fishing or on boats on the river. There were occasional dogs and horses.

We saw several waterfalls on the valley walls. We had been told that at one point we would disembark and walk while the drivers navigated the rapids. But, when it came to it, the "mamas and popas" (i.e. the old people) were told to stay in the longboat. We missed out on the walk but we had the fun of zooming up the rapids, sometimes being wet by water coming into the boat.

The others re-joined us and we continued our journey up the river. One waterfall was apparently used in the film Anaconda 2.

After maybe an hour, we reached our destination and took a short walk of a few hundred meters along a reasonably rough concrete path to the waterfall. It was quite spectacular. I think just about everyone went swimming. Many stayed close to the edge of the pool opposite the fall. Others ventured out into the middle or to the rocks at one side of the waterfall. A couple went behind the fall. The water was cool and refreshing. It was an experience being close enough to be wet by the spray of the waterfall. It really was very nice.

We had 30 minutes there before walking back to the longboats and heading a short distance down the river to the raft. The raft was remarkably stable and buoyant. Nem described fats as being a one way ticket. They are useful only for going down river. In the old days, farmers would take their produce down the river to sell, then buy supplies and have to walk back up the river which might have taken days. I don't know what happened to all the abandoned rafts.

Nem stood at the front of the raft steering it into the current with a long bamboo pole that he forced down to the bottom and pushed on. It seemed like it was quite an effort. His son (we think), Joe, did the same at the back. It seemed like it was  a training exercise and Nem gave him advice. After they had pushed their poles down, the would let go and the poles would spring up again. They must be very buoyant.

We didn't go a huge distance. Nem had said that it would take 7 hours although be a bit faster today because of the rain and the river being higher. It was a very peaceful experience and fun to think we were doing the age-old traditional thing.

Back on the longboats it did not take long to get back to the village. That was when the rain arrived. There was terrific thunder and the rain bucketed down. We had a short distance to walk between the trip base and the village building but they took us that short distance in a bus.

It is widely publicised that respect means that women enter vilages only with covered shoulders and knees. Men also are expected to wear long shorts at least. Soome of the young women in our group were in bikinis!

We then had a kava ceremony. It was very different from last time - more elaborate and involving the people of the village - a bit more like a welcome onto a marae (but totally different). One person from our group volunteered to actually drink the kava. He sat opposite the man presiding. The men sat in a line beside him and the women behind. The ceremony involved men in native dress entering and dancing. The kava was poured out of a bamboo tube into the kava bowl before being squeezed through the muslin. The ceremony involved a bit of toing and froing before the kava was presented and drunk. Our man, Cameron from Australia, had been coached in the one clap and bula before receiving the kava and three claps and vinaka vaka-levu afterwards. Nem emphasised how to say vinaka, saying that they hear all sorts of variations including vinegar but if the person doesn't say vinaka then he is not saying thank you. Cameron still manged to get it wrong! The bowl was then refilled and taken to other men from the village who were present.

A group of men danced what looked like a war dance including swinging a weapon very close to a young boy to frighten him. A group of women then "danced" sitting on the floor while other sang. We all then joined in a snake dance, one behind the other with the person at the front being the head and deciding what the snake's body will do. Whatever actions he did, everyone had to copy. Then someone would call "Over" and everyone would turn around and the tail would become the head.

Nem then prayed and we had lunch which e said was exactly what they would eat in the village - chicken in various dishes, fish, spinach, potatoes, taro(?) etc.. Some of it had been cooked underground (i.e. like a hangi) and all of it was very nice. It was a good-sized meal.

The rain had continued in dramatic fashion but at about this time it stopped and we went to another building where we were treated to demonstrations of the use of a coconut, the making of a basket from a coconut frond, weaving and painting.

Nem split the husk of a coconut by crashing it down on a metal pole with a blade on the end. Having ripped of the husk, he split the coconut shell by hitting it in just the right place and just the right way, with a rock. The fluid inside is coconut water. He showed how to extract the coconut milk but scraping out some of the white flesh and squeezing it. Coconut cream is made by heating the milk.

He talked about uses for the coconut shell e.g. kava bowls, bras etc. The husk can be used for sweeping the floor or making rope. Nothing is wasted.

He then cut a length of maybe 1.2m from the middle of a coconut frond and started weaving the leaves together. When done and the end ones platted into a tail at each end, he split the stalk and the whole ting opened out to become a basket. The two tails became handles. It was impressive.

Two women were sitting on the ground, one working on a woven mat, the other with pieces of painted tapa cloth spread around her. Nem explained the process of weaving process using Pandanus leaves. The prickles down the edges and stalk are stripped off. the leaves are then boiled and dried. The weaving is a laborious process making the mats precious.

Painting on tapa cloth involves three colours: black dark brown and light brown. The light brown is made from clay; the dark brown is made from clay mixed with boiled mangrove leaves (I think). The woman sitting there had done all of the paintings now on the roof of the main hall.

Nem finished with a little speech encouraging children to value their parents, reminding us that we can take none of our possessions with us when we die and exhorting us to cherish each moment because every second that passes cannot be reclaimed.

I learned (among other things) that Viti is the Fijian word for Fiji. Levu means "large". Viti levu is therefore the large island of Fiji. Vanua Levu is "large land".

With that we returned to the main hall where the women had laid out their (and the men's) various crafts (jewellery, carvings, coasters with Fijian patterns, bowls etc.etc.). Chris bought two lots of earrings that might be useful for Kayla's wedding. A bowl almost identical to the one that the woman in the Nadi Cultural Market had tried to sell us for $F195 was here priced at $F30!

Nem made a sincere expression of gratitude that we have given them some of our time and wealth, and our time was up. We initially got on the wrong bus so who knows where we would have ended up but, having realised our mistake, we did get back to Orchid Island.

We let ourselves in. It was along time before anyone else showed up. We mucked around catching up on task but mainly trying to figure out what we would do tomorrow and Saturday. We made no progress deciding. Do we go back to Nadi with the possibility of going to the garden of the Sleeping Giant? Do we stop partway back - somewhere where we can enjoy the location? Where even has rooms available?

Eventually, we heard Lini in the kitchen and we went out to be sociable. She made us a cup of tea each. We asked her for advice. She mentioned Mango Bay and a nice Air BnB and recommended the Kula Wild Adventure park. Most had not vacancies though. We were not further ahead.

Searching further online we eventually booked to go to Smuggler's Cove in Nadi. We got a room at what seems to be a very reasonable price.

With that sorted, we did a few more things (e.g. some washing) and went to bed.