Today we went for a dinghy ride, grabbed some drinking nuts and decided we’d visit the small island to the north of us. The one the ship is anchored at (seen below, with a couple of fibreglass boats).

As we approached the beach, a fibreglass boat was leaving full of people, but we could see more on the beach itself. Everyone in the fibre (as they get called here) waved to us as they left. We were a little surprised as the guide suggested that the island had either 1 person or was unoccupied.

What we found was quite the operation. Moses met us on the beach and was pleased to show us the operation. They’d chartered the boat from Suva and came down to Fulaga to collect Beche-de-Mer (seacucumbers). In the past the trade in this was taboo, because the Fijians discovered that the Chinese were making far more than they were being paid. This may be changing. So a 63 person operation came down from Suva, including cooking equipment, freezers, food for the whole operation for a fortnight, a camp site for everyone etc.

The sea cucumbers are collected, gutted and cooked. Then they are salted inside and put in the fridge for 3 days before being cooked again and then dried. The above photo shows part of the operation.

In the spirit of things, we’d taken along some of Nina’s banana oatcakes. 6 in fact. We were not expecting 63 people! Moses accepted them with graciousness. Once he’d told us about the operation, he told us a bit more about the history of Fulaga. In their local dialect they call it Vanua Seyor (i think), which means ‘island of chicken scratchings’. As Moses explained, a large chicken landed here and was so hungry scratching around, that it threw up the little islands which surround us. It was fascinating to hear some more of the history, and Moses was really kind and generous with his time. He even offered us a drink, and promptly sent the ships captain up a tree to fetch some drinking nuts. 3 chops with the machete and a nut was open. Makes our efforts look like amateur hour - but I’m not brave enough to hold a coconut in one hand and hit it so hard with a machete!

He suggested we go to the 3rd village and make our welcome and then walk the track over the hill to the beach on the other side which is the longest sand beach in Fulaga. We may well do that as I think we’ll be here another week or so.

We’re going to see Moses again next week. We’ll swap some movies for some more drinking nuts perhaps…