Fiji Phase 20- Week 4-5

Tuesday 9^th: Rations arrive, everyone was delighted (HURRAY! from Tom). Vicky cut her hair into a really cool fringe.....

Wednesday 10^th: Fish points all day which were really good fun. Gav and Chaz were clearly the best spotters since phase 2. We had burgers for dinner thanks to Paul. James had more mayonnaise than he bargained for!

Thursday 11th: Yet again Gav and Chaz impressed staff and volunteers with flawless size-esting. One might say they were trainees in the making. Dr Alex Warner was bottom of the class yet again but we love him and he is a really good doctor.

Friday 12^th: Ladies night, ladies from the village came to our camp for a fun filled night of cakes bingo and dancing. James and Tom sought to woo the Fijian ladies with their rendition of the popular anthem YMCA. Scottish dancing followed in which Gav and Debs excelled. Before the night was done the cheeky girls (Gav and Chaz) made an appearance and the guilty party are now referred to as the cheeky boys by the Fijian ladies.

Saturday 13^th: Fun dive at Sirens and a new dive site was christened ‘DEVIZES’ after the famous market town in the heart of Wiltshire, England. JoJo’s birthday was met with a fantastic sponge cake courtesy of Deborah.

Sunday 14^th: Classic village day consisting of food, sleep, church, food, sleep, food. A good day had by all!

Monday 15^th: More fish points in the day followed by a lads + Vicky night dive, manly!

Tuesday 16^th: The start of arguably the best week on camp so far. We’ve had a big feast thanks to Ben ‘the hairy hunk fisherman’ Lewis for catching a big coral grouper. Big shout out to Vicky’s mum who kindly donated pancake mixture that was appreciated by all.

Wednesday 17^th: We woke to a still bay and one word was on everyone’s lips.... ‘Namena’. Sprits were high as we waited for the decision; Paul soon announced we were going YES! Two boats went throughout the day and amazing dives were had by all at two sites Grand Central and Chimneys. Everything is bigger and better at Namena and sightings included sharks, turtles and Humphead wrasse.

Thursday 18^th: Picture the scene; Gav fishing in the shallow waters, Vicky sunbathing peacefully, Hahja and JP having a cup of tea, when all of a sudden Ben ‘disturber of the peace’ Lewis shouts “WHALES”!!! We all madly scramble for our kit and Paul took us out on the boat to go and swim with the whales. We did and it was amazing!

Friday 19^th: Invert points, Chaz and Gav top of the class. In the afternoon there was a fundraiser in Navatu for the church, we played volleyball in the afternoon followed by dinner and then plenty of Kava until 12:30am!

Saturday 20^th: Everyone woke up with a Kava Hangover which makes your head feel like smog and your tummy feel like a lead balloon. Camp clean was the last thing we wanted to do but we battled on and were rewarded when Paul, James and Tom went fishing and caught a 30kg Giant Trevally. Gav and Tom came down with the lurgey. The party went on despite the number of sick people. JoJo was showing her best fish impressions.

Sunday 21^st: We went to Raviravi and stayed in a house with a sofa! Much to our delight we had short but song filled church service and delicious communal lunch followed by tea and cake. We had the standard Sunday nap and then standard Sunday Kava. Vicky and Mike then came down with the lurgey.

Monday 22^nd: Half the group went to Kinder and Beni was being his usual self. In the afternoon we started coral points. Learning some of the basic life forms of coral and how to recognise them in the water.

Gav & Chaz