I Dream of Fiji

Our day's ride took us to Navala Village, cradled in the mountains on the banks of the Ba River. In the 1930s the village chief decreed that there would be only traditional houses, and today, some 800 people live here in bures - one-room houses with thatched roofs. After a welcoming kava ceremony, the chief's wife invited the ladies in the group to join her for tea. We sprawled on soft mats in her home, at ease after our journey into the mountains. That night we slept there, again the beneficiaries of Fijian hospitality.

From Navala we set out once more in Bibi's truck to a place in the highlands that looked out over the Sabeto Valley. Our goal this day was the Stoney Creek Resort, and Scott and Nicole led us to a point where it was a long downhill ride to our destination. After regrouping at Stoney Creek overnight, we set out the next day for the Batilamu Trek.

The trek begins at Navilawa, where village leaders performed the kava ceremony but suggested that we leave the actual kava drinking for the mountaintop. We set out hiking nearly straight up through dry grasslands toward a forest looming above. I was hot, I was tired, and I was not sure I could finish the hike. Our guide, Kali Marawa, was reassuring. "I have taken many people up this trail, and you look about right for this part of the hike," he said.

"How about the next part?" I asked. "Is it as steep as this?"

"It is not steep," he answered confidently. By this time, Kali and the other guides, Poli Ratuka, Mereoni Robe, and Naomi Marawa, had taken most of our gear. As we entered the forest I was still lagging, and Poli had me follow him and hold on to the back of his pack to keep moving forward as the path continued to climb. They don't seem to believe in switchbacks in Fiji.

Then we reached the ropes. "Not steep?" I said to Kali, and he chuckled. "I did not want you to be discouraged," he said. The trail leads up through a wedge in a cliff face where Kali and Poli had anchored ropes in the rock to enable trekkers to pull themselves up. The rope climb turned out to be a lot more fun than walking uphill. And once we had hauled ourselves up, the trail leveled out and we walked along the same ridgeline that the first Fijians had followed after they landed at Vuda Point, near Nadi. We were in the heart of the Koroyanitu National Heritage Park, created by the six villages surrounding the mountain to protect the native dakoa (mahogany) forests from logging.

We spent the night in the Mount Batilamu Trekking Hut, at 3,600 feet the highest overnight lodging in Fiji. And yes, we drank kava at the mountaintop. The next morning we watched the sunrise stretch across the land below, and then hiked down the other side to the village of Abaca, where we swam in a clear river and drank kava again with the villagers.

Our last big adventure was a one-day whitewater trip through the Navua River Gorge with Rivers Fiji, which I wrote about in Whitewater Paddling 2004. We based ourselves at Crusoe's Retreat on the Coral Coast for two nights, and spent the day between paddling through a gorge of black volcanic rock some 120 feet deep and in places less than 20 feet wide. A prolonged dry spell had left the water level low, accentuating the multiple layers of the gorge. There was still plenty of water to make the rapids fun-indeed, the rapid named Snake bit two of our party and sent them swimming down the river. Waterfalls punctuate the canyon and green ferns cascade over the edges, softening the blackness.

From there we caught an Air Fiji flight from Suva to the island of Kadavu, and spent two nights at the Matana Beach Resort, where 10 thatched bures are hidden by palm trees and Zylo keeps the drinks flowing at the beach bar. The primary attraction is diving, but we took kayaks and snorkel gear and explored the coral reef right off the resort. Miles of white-sand beach fringed by coral invited further kayak exploration, but after eight days of high-energy activity, Karen and I opted for the beach chairs. It was the perfect capstone to 10 days that had brought us into a Fiji we otherwise would never have discovered.