September 2008: South Pacific
Musket Cove, Malolo Lailai Island, Fiji Pt 3 (S 17.46.232 E 177.11.381)
I went out for another 2-tank dive to the same general area as before. Except this time we were going to a site called Supermarket that is a known shark hangout. During the boat ride I was able to get pictures of the small island with the custom house on it. The water all around it is very clear with a sandy bottom that comes across as turquoise. Even though it is an idyllic location it can only be reached by boat. From what I’ve seen and learned about these islands is that if you don’t actually live here and just vacation here then you first fly into the Nadi (nan-di) airport on the mainland; travel to the port to take a ferry; or helicopter or twin-engine prop to a small island with a runway; then take another smaller boat to the island. I’m sure there are lots of variations on how to get to these islands but first impressions are misleading. There is a lot of effort to get here. I still wonder at how they were able to get the materials on that island let alone all the other structures out here.
There are many small islands in this particular group on the southwestern tip of Viti Levu and Castaway Island is visible from most of them. The movie makes it look very remote but the truth is….
The dive shop in Musket Cove has branches in several other resorts and we once again picked up divers on the way to the dive sites. Above is a very remote resort on Malolo Island and that is a bar on their man-made jetty with boat dock. The bungalows over the water looked very nice. The thing about most of these resorts is that they are located on beaches and backed up to hills in secluded locations. So, it is not very easy to just go walking to the next resort as it is uphill and downhill. It appears that you tend to stay in the resort compound and only get off the island on a small boat or kayak, etc.
This dive I primarily captured video clips and did not take very many still shots. Immediately after dropping in the water we were above what was most likely a 4-5’ Nurse Shark. There was another shark on this dive swimming just above the bottom but I’m not sure what kind it was. The most curious of this dive were the Barracudas. They were in no way shy and came within several feet of us. I was able to capture plenty of video this time out.
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| Castaway Island |
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