November 21, 2007
Savusavu, Republic of Fiji.
Last time at Savusavu we opted to walk the village six ways to seven. This time, we had a different plan. We went snorkeling at the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort. There are three parts of note to this excursion – going, swimming, returning.
Going – Would we get there? The “road” was washed out because of the rains. The route was often closed by backhoes attempting to clear the “road.”
Swimming – I have been in the ocean since I was 3 months old -- in the cold Atlantic Ocean water until I was 40. Cold Atlantic or warm Pacific, swimming at Savusavu was the best swimming I have ever experienced in spite of the less than perfect visibility, due to the runoff from the rain. Our guide for the swim was a marine biologist, who was mapping the reefs in the area. I am not able to free dive more than 30 ft. Not a problem. Johnny was up and down like a yoyo bringing up specimens from the deeper areas. The outer islands of Hawai’i may have more varieties of fish (a highly debatable subject), but the western Polynesian islands have us coming and going on soft coral and shells.
Returning – This was very interesting. I will leave it as a slip here, a slide there, and with a motor going chug, chug, chug we were back at the port.