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

Fiji- Phase 20- Week 3

We woke up on Tuesday ready for a boat dive to the outer reef, it was the first time we had dived on the reef and it was incredible! The visibility was amazing 20-30m and loads of us saw sharks and turtles. JP and Rosie saw their first turtle and had a celebratory dance, Vicky and Hahja created the crazy O.K signal dance and Debs and Eleanor saw a Tawny Nurse Shark. Defiantly the best dive so far. In the afternoon we had a killer volleyball tournament, a 5 team round robin and a final that is yet to be played due to illness and injury.

Wednesday was the day of Ratu Semi’s funeral in Navatu. We had an early start (5.30!) to walk to the village and the sun was just rising when we arrived. The funeral service was held first thing in the morning, the church was full of villagers paying their respects to their Chief but we were privileged enough to be given seats in church for the service. The service was very touching and the priest gave some kind words in English for our benefit. After the service we followed the coffin to the burial site, the young lads of the village carried the coffin and wrapped the casket in woven mats before lowering the coffin into the ground. They then buried Semi with their bare hands as a sign of respect and with speed and dignity they built a surrounding wall around his grave out of stones. Throughout the burial everyone sang hymns, it was very emotional for all the villagers, volunteers and staff. After the burial we spent the rest of the day feasting, drinking Kava and celebrating Semi’s life with his wife Ma, we all felt very privileged to experience something that not many other visitors to Fiji have seen.

The day after the funeral we started our science training; to begin with we started on basic fish anatomy. We also started our in water size estimations whereby we have to estimate the length of different sizes of piping underwater making sure we account for the distortion of the water. Some of us found it difficult to start with but Al seemed very pleased with his effort, we won’t mention his mark!! In the afternoon we had 2 new arrivals, Lorna and JoJo who have just finished degrees in medicine and are joining us for their electives. Due to a huge electrical storm we couldn’t do our night dive but we all had a rain shower on the decking instead.

On Friday we started the day with our Navigation dive, which everyone successfully passed, we then carried on with our size estimations. In the evening group 2 managed to get their night dive done, everyone was excited about the chance to dive the reef at night, we may not have been the most elegant group but we all passed our dive with flying colours. The weekend began on Saturday with a drift dive at Ariel’s, we saw Hawksbill, Loggerhead and Green Turtles, a White tip reef shark and a large Shark sucker. In the evening we had a ‘when I grow up....’ themed party. Some of the best outfits included Rosie’s ballet dancer, Vicky’s P.E Teacher and James’ Ninja outfit .

On Sunday we visited a new village called Namalata, everyone was amazed by the fully functioning toilet which was used to its full benefit! The church was bigger than Navatu but the chief of the village was kind enough to welcome us to the service in English. We sang plenty of songs before a well earned lunch of sausages followed by Kava, of course! Monday morning saw half the group go to Kinder in our village and the afternoon saw us undertake our Deep dive to 30m. Nobody really felt the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis but the dive was wicked. All in all another awesome week in paradise.

Rosie and Vicky

Fiji- Phase 20- Week 2

Tuesday saw us ‘Open Water Babies’ get started on our skills. We managed to get half of our confined water dives completed which we were all pleased with. Paul had been on a fishing trip and caught a 27kg Tuna which we had for dinner, everyone agreed it was yummy and the best meal so far. The next day we ploughed on the Open Water training, finishing our confined water dives and starting our open water dives at a site called Lovers. We were all shattered and rounded off the day with some well deserved sunbathing.

On Thursday we found out the Semi, our village chief who we met at the sevu sevu had passed away in his sleep. Everyone was shocked by this news and there was a sombre mood in camp. To respect Semi and the villagers in Navatu we stopped diving for the day and treated it like a Sunday relaxing in the sun. On the Friday we did our Emergency First Responder (EFR) training, we spent the day trying to resuscitate “Annie” covering each other in bandages and learning some basic First Aid.

The next day the village gave us permission to continue diving so we pressed on and managed to get everyone qualified to Open Water Divers! In the afternoon we had camp clean, the boys were conveniently nowhere to be seen and when they reappeared we told them there would be no party until they had re-sanded all the paths , you’ve never seen people move so fast!

On Sunday we experienced our 1st church service in Navatu. All our families were pleased to see us and filled us up with pancakes and tea for breakfast, it beats porridge any day! Church was about an hour long, the girls sported their sexy Bula dresses and the boys their pocket sulus, smart shirts and ties. We sang Fijian hymns and we were given speech on behalf of the congregation to welcome us to the service. We had lunch with our families and in keeping with Sundays we had an afternoon nap to help digest our food. During the afternoon we had Kava, which we are starting to get used to and then returned home for dinner.

On Monday we undertook shore dives to help practise our underwater buoyancy and navigation skills, a boat dive also went out to Ariel’s Garden which was an amazing site, there were even sharks and turtles spotted! Most excitingly dinner that night was roast chicken with roast veg which went down exceedingly well!

Vicky

Fiji- Phase 20- Week 1

The 19th of January soon came around for all of us and we met up, the majority, in Labasa where we were greeted by the smiling Debs. Once together we were told the plan for the next few days and then we were given the ultimate team building exercise of a Fijian truck ride, one I will never forget! We arrived in Savusavu and ended the day in the best way possible, a steak BBQ.

We woke on the 20th for the shopping trip in Savusavu where we all bought last minute essentials and the custom Fijian dress that we needed for the villages we would be visiting. The lads all bought the traditional Sulus and Bula Shirts, the girls then bought their Bula Dresses that they would wear on our visits. Our last meal before camp was a banquet of Pizza, something I never thought I would crave, God I sound like I’m pregnant!!!

21st, the first day of camp but probably most remembered for the breathtaking ride to our Camp. At the end of the road Paul was there to meet us to help unload the trucks into the boat Up and Under. The views across the bay to our island was spectacular and to think I will be spending 10 weeks here with sun, sea and beautiful views as standard! As we arrived on camp we unpacked and were placed in the Bures that would be our apartments for the next phase.

On the 22nd we started our jobs with everyone pulling together to get camp up and running. Then most of us went to check out the house reef which compared to the UK waters did not disappoint! Saturday was probably the best day of the week; the qualified divers went for a boat dive on the outer reef. As we went down the visibility was so good I felt like we were stepping into a David Attenborough documentary. The pristine coral and the amazing colours we indescribable!

In the afternoon we went for our Sevu Sevu which was the welcoming ceremony performed by the village chief. The village is so friendly and we were put into our families who will look after us while we are here. We were also given our first drink of Kava. It is a root of a plant ground up and mixed with water and is a uniting drink the whole village take part in. Sunday was a day of relaxing as we didn’t attend church, instead we sunbathed.

Monday saw the qualified divers visit Kinder to become play toys for kids of the village. Whilst we were away the divers who were starting their dive training had a fun filled day of dive theory. So the first week has flown by and I hope the phase continues to be great fun.

Nat

Fiji-Phase 19- Week 7

After weeks of training and studying we have finally started our surveying. Our first day began disastrously loosing equipment (but at least we were on time!). The staff generously gave us a second chance and after some practice we are now the best surveyors in Fiji!

This week has been a good week for wildlife with sightings of spinner dolphins, at which everyone on the boat chaotically belly flopped into the water. We also had our first boat trip to The Namena Marine Reserve. This site is teeming with amazing wildlife and scenery. Divers reported seeing numerous species of sharks, schools of barracudas, Napoleon Wrasse and various other super sized fish.

Saturday night brought the usual fun and games but was a bit over cast by the anticipation of Anna, Gemma and Jade’s departure (and of course the puppies!) departure. Luckily Karen was there to brighten the mood (shlimmy schlom!). Even though we felt a little worse for wear on Sunday morning with Vicky’s pancake breakfast lining our tummies we enthusiastically embraced a wet boat trip to the catholic village of Natokalau. Apparently Vicky is a confirmed catholic….. We were delighted to find a flushing toilet, short church service and a lovely buffet lunch. The village was beautiful and the locals were as friendly and hospitable as always.

On Monday morning there was a tearful farewell to Gemma, Jade and Anna as they set sail for civilisation a sad atmosphere set over camp but the arrival of post the next day brought much excitement (especially to Caroline who now has a very well stocked ration box!). Now that we are in our last couple of weeks we are trying to savour every minute and embrace the corned beef. But next week we look forward to more surveying, amazing new dive sites and the return of Jade and the puppies also congratulations to Ben and Eleanor who will be spending 10 more weeks in paradise as the trainees for next phase Whoop! Whoop!

Lots of love from the most amazing girls on camp Iselin and Lucy xxx

Fiji- Phase 19- Week 6

Week 6 of our Fijian adventure has been strongly science orientated and great leaps forward have been made. We started the week with fish and invertebrate point dives, courtesy of Debs & Karen, where a big moray eel and a lionfish were spotted. By Thursday we were taking and mostly passing the invertebrates’ test, after some last minute cramming of lobsters, clams and nudibranchs. We moved onto coral (fire coral burns, don’t touch it!) and finally survey techniques, now practice surveys are practically ready to give way to real ones and the important work begins. Everyone is ready and raring to go surveying new and exciting sites. One of which, Gangster’s Paradise, we visited for our fun dive on Saturday, littered with fantastic coral formations and swim-through opportunities. The joint winner of spot of the week occurred on the return journey when Theresa saw a school of dolphins off the port side, Paul wheeled the boat around and we ended up with twenty spinner dolphins dancing around the bow of the boat, a magical moment for all. Sharing the limelight this week was Ben’s sighting of a 3m long Grey Reef Shark on a snorkel to the outer reef, which swam past us only 6m away, my reaction was simply ‘wow!’ That trip was topped off by getting a ride home in a boat from the Chief of Kubulau district’s brother. Other great underwater sights this week have included an octopus, a painted lobster, a lionfish and both green and hawksbill turtles.

On the human side of things this has been a week of parties with the Nu-rave party on Saturday night (most of the glow in the dark paint came off before church the next day) and birthdays for both Gemma & Eleanor. We celebrated Gemma’s with deep fried Mars bar doughnuts and a hand-painted card made by Hayleigh and Jade. For Eleanor’s 18th her mum in the village sent a flower decorated cake and she finished the day off with a girly sleepover (the guys slept outside, because we are manly). On the subject of food this has been another stellar week, I remain amazed by the dishes people can create from noodles and corned beef. Meal of the week was won by Swedish meatballs and spaghetti, although I must apologise as the identities of the chefs have escaped me. Bread creativity has peaked this week with a garlic flatbread and Siân’s onion and herb focaccia. Eleanor’s pineapple fritters were a mid-afternoon treat on Tuesday, our thanks to her mum for the pancake batter. Paul’s return from Savusavu on Saturday morning brought further merriment, as he brought not only fresh vegetable rations but also our personal rations (many bags of cookies, chocolate, coke the little and sometimes not-so-little luxuries we crave) and the gifts of sugar, flour and the like we brought for our village families who take care of us so well.

We were back in Navatu this Sunday for church and lunch, as ever we were glad to be back in our own village, where the great food & better company makes the day fly by. This is especially true when the early high tide meant we had to rush back if we wanted to remain dry (Helen G got back to the very last corner, within sight of camp). The new oven on camp (Paul got bored and 15 minutes later had decapitated the old one with a hammer and chisel) was thoroughly tested on Monday to create a taste of England in the form of fish and chips, although you would struggle to find Pacific Walu baked with lime leaves and garlic butter in any local chippy back home.

A sad moment this week was Ben & Adam’s discovery of dead hawksbill turtle in the shallows, although this was tempered by the sheer fascination of being able to examine such a fantastic creature up close. Walks up the hill behind camp have been the order of the week, with many people undertaking the actually quite easy climb to the utterly breath taking views one way along the main land towards Savusavu and the other out to sea with the reef laid out in front of you in all it’s glory every contour visible beneath the low tide. All made even more spectacular by the continued improvement in the weather, summer is defiantly here, the winds have dropped and the blazing sunshine has been the order of the week.

Finally our congratulation to our most injury prone volunteer Colin who is back in the water after dislocating his shoulder although on his first time back in the water he managed to swim into a jellyfish. Song of the week goes to Ryan’s rendition of ‘I believe I can fly’ which helped his quiz team the Power Rangers to victory on Thursday. We will give Rob the last word with his quote ‘I’m not scared of Triggerfish, I’m just ready to fight them’ (it was in fact 2 inches long).

Adam

Fiji Phase 19- Week 4-5

Wednesday saw the start of fish points with a house reef snorkel, and also a jubilant Theresa and Ciaran as they passed their open water dives. A few of us headed off to the outer reef, enjoying some duck diving into the many holes and crevices making up the reef, a Hawksbill turtle came along for company. Thursday was the start of size estimations measuring sticks underwater with a 20% margin of error; some took to it better than others.

Saturday was Colin’s birthday which was a great end to the week considering a hammock incident. Halloween was also a highlight complete with a staff Addams Family, scary spice, Harry Potter, pirate, skeleton, failed surgery patient and many more. After a Sunday in Navatu, Monday saw the entrance of bad weather and a very strong drift dive at Lovers.

Ellen sadly left on Thursday, but Thursday also saw our first fundraiser in Namalata where there was a flushing toilet! The Kava was broken out early, as was the guitars, leading to a very fun afternoon all for a good cause.


Friday meant ladies night and Guy Fawkes. The ladies from the village arrived with cake in hand and we put on the tea, we partied the night away with games including pass the parcel, bingo, a lot of dancing, limbo and musical statues. Our effigy was burnt and the Fireworks came out and it was a great show that the whole island could hear! The highlight of the night was when the ladies broke the bench next to the volleyball court, maybe it should be ‘eat less’ from now on.

Saturday saw some amazing dives at Ariels; Sam spotted 5 sharks along with some turtles. Sunday lead us to Raviravi for church and Kava. Ciaran’s birthday treat came in the form of the opportunity to serve the Kava and he rose to the challenge on his special day.

Chris