Tour de Fiji!!

Hello all! 

First thing; To our friend Lea who asked if we had licked any toads yet and we strongly reply, NO! Lea, we do not plan on licking any toads!

 I told Fred the Toad that and he thought it was hilarious! But he then asked about our blogging. I filled him in and now he thinks he's some kind of celebrity!

He is now talking about having his own website for crying out loud! I asked him if he has any skills or artistic abilities that he could showcase and he said "Nope", all he has is his "steely-eyed gaze" so he is now working on a routine, ....or something......we will see...?

Now to explain today's blog title. Our driver Ali delivered us to EcoTrax: World's First Electric Rail Riders. About 2 years ago a couple of enterprising NZ'ers brought over a bunch of junked bicycles and repaired and restored them for the locals to use. 

The village they were in had a stretch of the old narrow gauge sugarcane train tracks in front of it and it wasn't long before they had designed and built a wheeled contraption that used legpower to operate it.

Now the units are also powered by those small electric motors built right into the rear wheel hub. There is no front wheel and the back wheel travels right on the metal track. They do have little track wheels front and back to keep unit aligned on the track.

The trip was 22.4 km's there and back; we stopped at, again, a beautiful WSB where we had something to eat then into the water!

The company is looking to expand operations, plenty of track still available and hope to have track running through some of the planned resorts that are yet to be built.

We really enjoyed it and would love to revisit Fiji in a few years to do it again!

Now for some pics.

Mechanic Solo, Mike and Seya from New Caledonia, Naomi and our guide Brittaney getting ready to head out

Naomi concentrating on the track

One of many bridges; some maintainence needed says Naomi

Some of the "wildlife" along the track

LOOK MA! NO HANDS!

We did make a few stops on the way. This is a private resort, ideal for honeymooners; no electric power, no wi-fi, no tv, no phone...just a lot of privacy

Brittany with a former cane field behind her. She gave us a little talk about how Hindus from India were brought into the country early in the 18th century to work the fields and how some of them ended up on the menu for the local Cannibals....stuff like that. She did say that there were no more cannibals around but "pedal like crazy" while going through some of villages (lol).

Our destination is that far point of land that you can barely make out. Brittany said that we would be there in no time! We both muttered "Yeah right. Who you trying to kid?" She does this trip twice a day!  She was 100 % right and we found ourselves there in no time at all.

These little guys were playing on one of the old cane cars

 Mike and Seya are trailing the pack in our Tour De Fiji....us  older types are not to be dismissed in a tour like this.

Official village greeting party

Our own little island..for an hour or so

Yet another beautiful WSB (white sand beach).  Brittany brought some snacks (fresh fruit)  for us to enjoy after we finished snorkeling and walking around the rock island in the crystal clear water that was refreshing after the ride out but still very warm by Canadian standards.

More wildlife of the aquatic type - we passed over them on one of the bridges.  

The views were amazing nothing like what you see on the roads.

They had to do some blasting to maintain the grade, this would have been done by the Indians that came to Fiji many years ago.  They came to work in the sugar cane fields hoping for great opportunities...this sadly was not outcome for many.

More wildlife

An example of the switches to all the sidings; each plantation had their own siding to store the canecars

An ocean view bar none! (Lea, this means it is a GREAT ocean view)

Speedometer showing our speed going back but it started to rain after this shot. We did hit 35 mph at one point.

Another village. One very elderly gentleman wanted to have us for dinner, ....with his family of course.......We regretfully declined. (Bob did love the history shared about Fiji's history of Cannabalism.)  Thank you BRITANNEY for expertly sharing your history in an entertaining way - you made our tour so enjoyable.

So that was our day. Bob's leg muscles are a little sore and Naomi's not so much.  I (Naomi) loved the fact that we could push a little button and the boost we needed was there.  We did bike for a large portion of the trip to get our needed exercise for the day...very needed I might add.

We have arrived back at Neviti Resort and have begun to spread the news that this tour is suitable for everyone.  They have bike seats to accommdate little ones and Josh, Vanessa and Macey will be on the "Tour De Fiji" in the next few days.  What impressed me is that this trip can be enjoyed by absolutely everyone from young to old.  They have a seat at the back of the bike where one can sit like a queen, wave to the villagers and sit back and enjoy the ride.  I strongly recommend that anyone planning to come to Fiji includes this in their plans...it was a very exciting adventure!!

Fred does say hello and he will be out later. Can't wait to see his new routine!

Bye for now!