Our Fijian jungle trek

Good morning. It is Friday Feb 23 and we woke up to another sunny morning here in the beautiful island nation of Fiji.

Here is the view from our bed when we wake up

And this is picture of Fred's brother Ted after a rough night out on the town. He looks kinda wasted though.

We did have an eventful day yesterday that involved jungle trekking, coconut tree climbing, then we had lunch sitting down on the dirt floor!

We met up with Vanessa, Josh and their 16 month old toddler Macy out at the bus stop in front of the resort. We got picked up by Big Peter and delivered to our destination. There we met our host "Charles" and the tour started off by climbing for coconuts.

First, a young Fijian lad by the name of Naomi, yes that's his name, went up first and knocked down some nuts.

Next, I went up the tree but unfortunately the camera battery was dying so Naomi could not capture any images of my tree climbing ability.

 Seems like Vanessa and Josh are making coconut bets on me climbing the tree.

The camera battery charged up by our little solar charger and we ready to go; I will check with Josh to see if he took any pics of me up at the top.

After the tree climbing we had lunch in our host's simple one room house. "Mary" our host's wife went all out and prepared a huge feast for us. Typically, Fijians will eat with their fingers so we had no eating utensils. I had no problem with the roast chicken and veggies but wasn't  sure how to eat the rice.....one grain at a time?

This is Mary's kitchen and dining room. She created the feast using the gas stove and simple burner that you see in the background. What a great cook!

After lunch we began our jungle trek to the falls. The path followed the river and was very narrow. Then the path became very muddy, as in lose your sandals-in-the-mud muddy! I had on cleated golf sandals so I fared better than the others. Every one else finally gave up and went barefooted.

The problem with that were the sharp spiny vines and plants that were every where! Now anyone who knows Naomi (my wife, not the young Fijian lad Naomi!) will know just how un-impressed she was!!!!

Arriving at the falls and getting into the water did make up for the trip in. We were so anxious to get wet that I forgot to take pics! Hopefully Josh will have some that I can use.

Lastly, we went across the road to the village and visited their primary school. Little Macy was a hit with the kids and proceeded to hand out candy provided by her mum, Vanessa. The kids then sang for us, showed off some school work then we loaded up for the trip home to wash off the mud!

Here we have a young rebel. They were told to stand but he chose to stay sitting.

Today's big event was finding where Fred and his 10,000 relatives spend the day. They all have little burrows at the base of the trees here out in front of the bures.

We now are sitting here on the deck,as it gets dark, waiting for the moment when they all jump out and say "we're here!"

Here we have Fred asleep in his burrow

Lastly, here is a pic of the injuries Bob sustained while trekking through the jungle! Actually Vanessa's injuries were much worse.

Bye for now!