August 2008: South Pacific
Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji Part 5 (S 16.46.661 E 179.20.067)
I took the dinghy to the small island next to us to do some hiking. There is a small beach where the locals land and we can see the smoke from their fires in a small flat area. I’m sure there must have been some kind of activity going on here in the past as there are the ruins of a building. Not knowing which way to go I went clockwise following the path and viewed one of the natives in action.
A couple days ago we kayaked a small inlet on this island and came to a dead-end of mangroves. Half of the island is fairly flat and surrounded by mangroves that cut off all shore access. The other half has enough flat area to walk on and also has steep foothills. I am suspect as to why there are so many coconut trees growing on the steep slopes as well as the tops of the hills as that is not how I envisioned the survival of the species. The nuts are heavy and I thought they pretty much floated ashore and set root where they could. Or, they set root where they fell on shore.
I was lucky to stumble on a particularly special beach to me. The Fiji Pearl farms are just offshore and the discarded or lost cultured shells wash up on this very rocky waterline. Some shells were intact with fishing line holding them together but most were just halves. This beach was littered with these shells. They all had the tell-tale sign of a drilled hole in the outer edge of the shell and the inside was the true mother-of-pearl surface. The colors ranged from the darkest grays thru gold to milky white. I managed to pick a handful and will try and clean them up on the work bench when I get home. We’ve come across lots of shells on the beaches that we walked and this is a souvenir I never expected to find.
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