Bula ! SavuSavu, we are in Fiji

English, Fiji, foto, ilse, reisverslag

Monday morning (july 31st) the wind dies on us and we have to motor the last 12hours to SavuSavu because we want to get there before dark. We arrive at 16.30 under blue skies at the Q (quaranteen) dock from Copra Shed Marina and receive a warm welcome with “bubbles” from our friends from SY North. This was not in our “sailing plan” but a nice surprise. Three Fijiean ladies came aboard to clear Sanuk for customs, immigration and bio-security and after a lot of giggles and filling out documents we were free to go on land.

The British ruled Fiji from 1874 till 1970. In 1970 Fiji became a fully independent nation. Several coups took place in Fiji after their independence (1987,2000, 2005 and 2006) because of growing tensions between the Indo-Fijan and the native Fijans. It was only in 2014 that new democratic elections took place. The Indians originally came to Fiji under British rule to work on the sugarcane plantations. A lot of them stayed in Fiji because they did not have the money to return. The Indians make up about 38% of the population in Fiji.

Savusavu is on the island of Vanua Levu. We will visit Labasa by car and go to Taveuni by ferry. From Savusavu we sailed to the Yasawa group of islands before arriving in Nadi on Viti Levu. Viti Levu and Vanua Levu account for 87% of the population.
View from our anchorage in SavuSavu.
The market on saturday with the typical Fiji smile and friendliness. Fijieans are melanesian and differ from the polynesians in Tahiti. In contrast to the long hair of the French Polynesian girls, the Fijieans have short curly hair.
Fijian woman selling sea grapes and snails. We tasted both and it was very yummy.
Eggs for sale at the market, no choice of free-range eggs 🙂  10 Fiji dollar (4EUR) for a tray of eggs (24). Above the egss is the cava root for sale. .
Typical Fiji kids enjoying their saturday. On sunday all stores are closed and everybody respects the sabat.
When a cruise ship arrives they dress up in traditional dress for the tourists. More and more traditions will disappear over the years.
Sanuk at anchorage in Savusavu.
The main street in Savusavu with all the businesses and restaurants. Most of these are owned by Indians who have clearly more commercial ambitions than the Fijians. This picture was taken on a sunday morning, no stores open or people on the street.
The landscape on our way to Labasa.
Lots of fields with huge coconut trees used for the copra (dried coconut).
A truck loaded with sugarcane on its way to the sugarcane factory in Labasa.
Many trucks waiting in front of the sugarcane factory waiting to be unloaded. Sometimes they have to wait 12-14hrs before they can unload. They receive on average 70Fiji dollars (28EUR) for a ton of sugarcane. It takes about 9 ton of sugarcane to get one ton of sugar. Most of the sugarcane plantations are run and worked by Indians.
The train runs through the sugarcane plantations to pick up the sugar cane. The crushing season starts in june and lasts till about november. It takes about 15months before sugarcane can be harvested.
Sea grapes on the left and snails on the right. They are best eaten together as an appetiser with a cold glass of white wine 🙂

As Stefan already mentioned in his blog we were unexpectedly stuck in Savusavu because another boat’s mooring broke and hit us in the front. No major damage but we had to involve the insurance company and this took 2 extra weeks. During that time we did go to the island of Taveuni (garden island) with the Taveuni Princess.

More on the Return of the Taveuni Princess in our next blog.