The skies were overcast throughout the day so we abandoned possible plans to visit the outlaying reef. We spent the morning on the boat. Helen got into cleaning while I prepped the villager’s laptop with some movies and wildlife documentaries.
After lunch we went ashore with the laptop and the universal remote to try on Vatse’s TB. Vatse was not at his home so we dropped our things off with his neighbour where we first performed sevusevu. He leant us his grandson, Lei, to show us the way to the hot spring. By now the weather was clearing. The walk to the hot spring followed the shoreline crossing a number of small streams. To cross the streams we made us of bamboo bridges that had been built over them.
Lei left us at the hot spring as we could easily find our way back. Helen dipped her feet in while I went all the way. It was quite a large pool, warm, not hot. In some places we could feel hot water seeping up through the mud and sometimes trails of bubbles would rise. When I sat still in the areas where the hot water was rising it got quite warm and relaxing. With the blue skies overhead, the palm trees around us, the sound of the surf and occasional birds around us it was quite idyllic.
While we were there a posse of young school children passed by. When the noticed us they all lined up on one of the smaller bridges for a photo. On the way back we spotted a family of wild pigs. Perhaps not wild but certainly free to roam.
Back at the village we visited Vatse and looked again at his TV. Although I couldn’t get the remote to work I managed to get sound working for him. Not ideally and there was one step where I’m not sure what happened and how the sound started working but we left them happy they could hear the movies. We showed them what we’d done with the laptop so he could show his friend. Our last stop was the mother of the headman who had earlier offered us tea. All this while the village was quite busy as they were preparing for the monthly cargo ship visit that evening. They had goods (mainly cava) to send to Suva to sell, people leaving and people coming to visit. People from nearby villages were starting to show up. As ever, we were warmly greeted wherever we went.
Feeling quite pooped we were quite surprised how late in the day it was when we returned to the boat. Dinner, movie, documentary finished the day. Overnight the wind has returned first coming from the south putting a bit of a swell into the bay and now to the south east putting the boat oblique to the swell. This has given us an uncomfortable second half of the night. We will definitely be moving on today. If the sky is clear we’ll check the pass out this morning for a snorkel. Otherwise we’ll go straight round the corner to one of the bays on the west side. Tomorrow, with the trades settling back in, we’ll be off to the capital, Suva.
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