The Unknown Hike

I was invited to come along on a exploratory hike with a start up hiking business that I have been helping out with a few bits and pieces. The information on this hike was sketchy to begin with but basically it was somewhere around point A 'beyond Namosi Village' to point B 'Draubuta Village'.

We were assured it could easily be done in a day, it would take 8-10 hours and was around 20k's... I'm not sure if the guides perception of time and distance are wayyyyyyyy out of whack or if they were fudging the info to make it sound like a better hike but anyway, long story short it took a little longer than they told us!

 

Above is the village we drove to on the first night and stayed there, they supplied us with guides and a few vittles (boiled root vegetables and cans of Mackerel...) It was in a gorgeous setting, check out the hills in the background. The scenery changes so quickly here... From rolling hills to jagged peaks... oh and the beaches :P

A chicken wearing gang colours. Or it could be to stop it flying away or to show who owns it... But I prefer to think of a chicken gang.

A local not too sure about the new visitors to his village.... So we rocked up, had an amazing feed with the locals and then hit the kava in a traditional Sevu Sevu. Nothing like a numb face to put you off to sleep!

For the first leg of the hike we followed a river, a few local girls followed us up to their fishing spots. Check out the damage their home made fishing spears would do...

One of the coolest things about wondering around in the bush in Fiji is you can grab random things off trees to eat. I have no idea what this was, but you had to bash in open on a rock and pull out these slimy seed things and suck the quite tasty goo off them. Sounds nasty but was pretty good!

So... Don't buy cheap walking shoes in Fiji... Half a hour in the sole started peeling off... Thankfully one of the guys had some duct-tape which saved the day! An hour later the other shoe started doing the same thing!

The fisher girls stopped around these waterfalls, there were big pools at the top. It was great to watch them fish, they would slap the water with their spears and then dunk their heads under the water to see any fish they had startled. The fish they were going for were about as long as your finger, I'm not sure I could have even gotten close to getting one!

 We stopped around here for lunch (hmmm canned Mackerel), the guides were happy taking breaks and weren't in any hurry. They seemed sure we would get there at like 4:30-5:00...

You can vaguely see the outline of a path heading in from here, this is where we left the river and went bush. It was pretty rough going, up and down and with not much of a path. The GPS said we were averaging 2K's a hour... 

Imagine waking up with one of these dudes crawling across your face! Apparently there is a centipede species that can spit Cyanide... And no one is sure if the damn things are found in Fiji!!!!

A friendlier looking fellow!

Slowly as the day progressed, the guides kept changing their estimate on our arrival time. When they said 7pm we gave up asking, and when it got to 7pm we asked one last time "oh, another 2-3 hours". And its not like we weren't keeping up with the guides! By that time we had head torches out and were looking forward to finding a place to stop for the night. Luckily the guide knew of a plantation house not far off the track where we were so we headed down that way. Amazingly, when he said about half a hour we got there in less than 15minutes!

 

 As we weren't carrying the supplies for an over nighter, we raided the plantation for Papayer. This was my breakfast :D

 Our accommodation for the night, as modeled by our fabulous guide. 4 guys sleeping in here... Was a wee bit tight! We were all carrying plenty of clothes and our sleeping mats etc so it wasn't too bad. I woke up with like 50 mozzi bites though the little buggers....

 Walking down the valley in the morning... Not such a bad place really!

 We eventually met up with some people from the village we were heading towards and they had brought some horses with them, they were the first purpose made saddles I have seen in Fiji! Normally its just a few blankets and sacks tied on does the job.

First glimpse of our destination! What a welcome sight! While the fruit had been good we were hankering for a real feed, and boy do the local's know how to put one on!

Quite a cool little village! No road access but it does boast a pretty awesome swimming hole! And as it turns out, the guides normally take two days to do the trip, and it was 30K's not 20... Good times!

The women of the village put on a performance during the Sevu Sevu, never seen anything like it. Such a awesome culture and people over here.

Children watching their parents during the ceremonies.

 My Lei! Can't say I have ever had one of these before so I had to take a picture of my first one!

Village mutt, they keep a lot of dogs for pig hunting here. Scrawny wee fellows though I don't think they do so well in the getting fed department.

 Pet pigs roaming the village... Gotta watch out for your flip flops they appear to be a delicacy for them. Mmmmmmmmm bacon....

So from here we had to walk to the top of a ridge where we caught up with our transport. A big 7 seater Nissan patrol... On the way in it was the three of us and our guide and driver. On the way back from the village they decided to make the most of it and we left with 11 people in the car and more luggage than you would think would fit in the car empty. But as the track was pretty bloody rough it turned out to be well stuffed in as it almost made it comfortable!

It was a four hour drive back to Suva, dropping people off here and there as we went. Bed was a welcome sight! And I could have kissed the mozzie netting on the windows... That was a week ago and my arms are still showing the signs of the the little buggers from that night! All round a good trip... Next time I might pack a few extra snacks in case we end up in the bush over night again!