I went for my run then went down and picked up the van we had reserved, much bigger than our mini, and with great clearance, no more bottoming out on every pothole. While I was running and getting the van Rae and Chris rode the Bula Bus over to some of the other resorts to take pictures.
We drove south to Sigatoka and stopped at the Catholic Hospital there to pick up another Peace Corps volunteer that Rae was friendly with. She gave us cinnamon rolls and showed us the back way to the sand dunes that we had come to see, thus avoiding the normal tourist fee for visiting them.
Todd, you can be the Pirate Jesus and I'll be the Ninja Jesus."
-Chris B en-route to the Waya Ferry
We parked on the local rugby field and scrambled up the sand dunes, they were HUGE! It was a hundred or so feet up the first dune and then several more levels of 10 or 20 feet above that. When we got to the top I handed off my camera in case I felt the uncontrollable urge to throw myself off a dune...which I of course did. I really want to have a snow board there. We crossed the dunes until we could see the ocean. The view of the beach hundreds of feet below was spectacular. A storm blew in and we got some great photos.
We drove back to Sigatoka and Jess showed us a great little curry house up an unmarked stairwell on the second story of an indistinct building. We sat and drank masala tea while the storm let loose around us. This is one of my favorite moments of the trip, you just can't buy that kind of thing. It was a real place, not something built like Denerau, and it had magic in it. It's places like that that make me want to pick up and travel.
On the way back we decided to find Natadola beach. We had seen the turn off on our way down and found it without any trouble. We went down the increasingly exciting road. The rain stopped and there was a terrific double rainbow. We could actually see the spot where it hit the ground! The road continued to get worse and we were about to decide we were lost when we came upon a guy who seemed to tell us that we were going in the right direction. We persevered and after almost getting stuck in the mud three or four times we found the beach. They are in the process of building a resort at one end!!!! Meh! It looks like a nice enough resort but I hate to see the beach 'discovered'. I mean they will have to pave the road and that will make it more accessible and thus less special. Still it was as beautiful as I remembered it. We got there just in time for sunset. It was a little dark for great pictures, but we took them anyway as it was too late to go snorkeling. On the way back we stopped to take a picture of a particularly treacherous bridge we had had to cross. Crossing it in the dark was an interesting experience!
Rae: "You were like a sultan!"
Chris B: Mmm...a sultan with itty bitty living space."
-In regards to my tent at pennsic last year.
Rae: Was that in regards to the Pennsic tent.. or the one under Uprising with the pillows? I forget.
Chris B: Might have been the Uprising tent...when I was napping with that headache while you all went back to therPerl... humm...
Chris S: I think it was about the tent at Uprising with the pillows.
Chris B: In any case...
We made it back to the resort without incident and stopped at the port for dinner. We ran into a Pan Pacific dance performance at the port. The dancers were gorgeous and their fire work was excellent. They had batons and poi and they did group work with stacking...kind of like flaming cheerleaders... It was universally agreed that we should take them all home with us. Dinner was delicious meat pies. I love those things!!!!
LINKS:
UNESCO Site for the Sigatoka Sand Dunes
Evil resort on my beach
Our trip to Natadola was just like this.
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