With a pretty decent hostel which also operates as a hotel resort as well as having a couple of dorms, I had a good night sleep. The large mass of frogs which were everywhere outside made a racket throughout the night though! The one thing the hostel lacked however was in room power sockets although I solved this problem by giving my phone a quick power charge whilst having my shower. Breakfast this morning was basically toast and fresh fruits. I can't wait to have a fry up again though!
With an 8am departure scheduled this morning, some peoples nights made them slightly sleepy this morning. A few people overslept to the point where they missed breakfast, although by 8.05 most of us were on the bus which was pretty impressive. I say most of us because it happened to be a couple of the older tourism Fiji people who arrived considerably late. Our guide ended up waking one of them up with water, who thought he was going for a surfing lesson at 5am so waited down the beach for 2 hours! It wasn't until 8.45 when we finally left Mango Bay ready for another day of activity.
The plan for today was to spend the morning doing a trek through the Fijian jungle, followed by the afternoon relaxing at our next hotel resort of Uprising Beach. Passing Beqa island en route which is famous for its fire walking, we soon arrived at this track where we were dropped off and taken by this truck into the jungle. It was slightly precarious sitting on the back of this truck along this gravel track though! It took two trips to get everyone in the end, and after heading over this bridge our trek guide gave us a brief of the route which I couldn't understand!
Before leaving we were told to wear decent footwear. I did this, although the rain from yesterday had made the paths very muddy, and people fell over so many times as we headed up and down. It was a laugh on the first section of the trek going through woodland and open grasslands, gaining myself a fern hat en route! Before long however we reached a swampy stream, which I assumed we were crossing. It surprised me however when we were told we were following it! I just decided to go bare foot from here to save destroying my already destroyed trainers as I'm not getting a new pair anywhere soon!
It was pretty refreshing walking through this swamp with knee deep water, although one person took a step and fell to their waist! Baring in mind I had my phone like many others, I am pretty glad that wasn't me! The trek got more off track by this point and we ended up crossing some creeks which had some nice and refreshing water inside. It was pretty dodgy getting into some of the creeks though which had slippery mud to access them. Eventually after crossing 6 creeks and going through open fields we arrived back into the woodland where we reached a waterfall to spend a while playing in.
After a quick swim in the water hole beneath this small waterfall, we all followed this path up through the woods next to the river up to a bigger waterfall where we were able to climb up further slippery rocks and jump off! I even managed to somehow get under the waterfall and swim under the full force of it. After a while spent here we headed back the same way back to the first water hole. I had actually bought swimmers with me, but the fact I was already so muddy meant I didn't bother changing. I did however become everyone's camera holder as I had bought my drybag on the trek with me.
The next part of our trek took us back a different way, although starting out in trekking gear for a hike I had now become topless and barefoot with mud paints on my face. It was pretty muddy along this section which made the squelch between my toes pretty refreshing! We even picked up some fruit to take back to the hostel later. Before long we reached a bigger river which we were told we would paddle through and follow. It was pretty shallow though.
A fair while after following this river we reached a long boat which had come up the murky waters to give us a lift out of the jungle. Once everyone was on we made slow progress as the shallow waters and sheer weight of the boat slowed us down. It was a pretty relaxing boat in the ride getting the odd view. We eventually emerged right on the beachfront which signalled the end of the amusing trek. I did rip my shorts on the boat however. In the space of two days I had destroyed so many of my clothes!
When re boarding the bus we got a quick transfer by our driver to the hostel at Uprising Beach in Pacific Harbour, also known as the adventure capital of Fiji. The first thing I did when getting back was jump into the shower, which had to be quick to wash off the mud between my toes as we had a table booked for lunch. Lunch today was Kokoda which is a traditional Fijian dish I thought I would try. It was nice but not very filling. After lunch I took a little walk down to the beach which was nice, even reading these funny signs, and this distance signpost. I even purchased some handicrafts here which were pretty reasonably priced.
From here the afternoon was spent relaxing, although the free time available allowed me to catch up on my blogs whilst many of the others ended up having naps. I didn't do much else other than relax in bed all afternoon, mainly because it was raining again, and come evening went down for the special island buffet meal called a lovo which was amazing. This was complimented with some island dancing and a fire show for entertainment throughout the evening. From here I had a pretty chilled out evening after last night, finding the Liverpool v Chelsea full match replay which I watched before heading off to bed.
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