Day 81, Year 2: Visit to Denimanu Village
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny Day
Location: Cukuvou Harbor, Yadua Island, West of Vanua Levu
Although we got an early start this morning, our trek to Denimanu village took almost all day. We knew it was a three-mile walk, but what we didn’t know that much of that walk was on volcanic rock. So it was a challenging trip, but well worth it.
We picked up Kathy on La Vie at about 8:45 AM and took the dinghy to shore. A man named Joe from the village was there starting a fire in the pit we had used last night for our beach gathering. Joe had his spear with him and was going fishing. He was hoping to smoke some of the fish that he caught. He pointed us in the direction of the path to the village and off we went. He said the walk should take about an hour. More than two hours later, we arrived in the village. We had trudged uphill
from the anchorage on a path that had eroded and looked more like a rock lined drainage ditch. We reached the first plateau and had a spectacular view of Cukuvou Harbor. We continued on and from a higher plateau, we could see all of Talai Bay and Yadua Taba island across the channel. On we went along a very narrow little path with very high grass. We came to another lookout point where we could see Vakasa Bay on the north side of the island. After what seemed a very long time, we came to another
volcanic rock plateau, and finally we could look down into Navi Laca Bay. This was our destination, but it was more than a bit further to the village. We had to walk all the way around the bay and then descend. I was certainly glad when I saw the roofs of village homes.
Denimanu was the most traditional village we have visited to date. Most of the homes were in the traditional thatched roof bure style with either thatched or woven bamboo sides. However, the school and teacher’s homes, as well as the community building, church, and village chief family homes were all a more modern construction. A young teenager met us near the school and welcomed us to the village. His name was Nick and he asked if we could take pictures of him and some of his friends. We did
and when we let them see the pictures, he asked if we could give him copies. I said I would send some when we reach a post office and he then took us down to the village. He introduced us to a woman named Sala. We didn’t know at the time that she is his mother, but she then took over as our guide. The village chief and his brother were visiting the main island of Vanua Levu today, so Sala was trying to figure out who could do sevusevu for us. While she was working on that, we wandered down near
the water to look at the boats sitting in the dry harbor at low tide and the couple of boats on land. We saw a little boy of six hammering away at something that looked like a ladder with a fishing float at one end. We then saw some kids pushing one of these devices as a cart with the fishing float as it’s wheel–very creative. One woman was doing laundry, another was scraping coconut. As we walked down the village sidewalk, we thought about how strange it is to see traditional thatched bures
with a modern sidewalk running past. I think it is fair to say that the only modern thing in this village was the sidewalk. We really enjoyed talking with the people, and eventually we ended up at a house where two men were playing a game they called vidividi (vindivindi). Sala had chosen them to do the sevusevu, but we were interrupting their game. They did a very short ceremony and gave us permission to visit in the village and take any photographs that we would like. Mark and Steve then got
into the vidividi game and tried to learn how to play. The game board was about a yard square with eight checker pieces of each color in the center. There was also a larger white piece, probably from a backgammon board. The object was to flip the white piece with your fingers and have it knock the checker pieces into the side pockets of the board. It was very much like playing pool–just on a smaller scale with your fingers being the pool stick. We walked back through the village and then Sala
asked us to come into her kitchen to have tea. Tea here always includes food, and today we had boiled casava root and dumplings boiled in coconut milk. I was a bit taken aback when I was asked to say a prayer of thanks, but after stumbling slightly, I recovered and said grace. Charlie, Sala’s husband came in for lunch while we were there, as well as Sala’s youngest son that we had met upon entering the village. As always, we really enjoyed the most gracious Fijian hospitality and getting glimpses
of the way of life here. It was a great introduction to village life for Steve. The sevusevu was a bit “different” since the chief was not there, but overall, I think we had one of the very best village experiences to date.
The walk home was not quite as grueling as the walk to the village, but we were all absolutely worn out by the time we got back to our boats. There were six boats in the harbor when we returned, and we assumed the two extra boats were Maggie Drum and Ranger. And indeed they were. We swung by to say hello to Maggie Drum. We also dropped Kathy off on La Vie’s dinghy. Dave of La Vie was visiting with Maggie Drum. We returned to Windbird to have lunch and Dave came over to have Mark try a new computer
to computer experiment with him. They were successful in creating a connection from La Vie’s computer to Windbird’s computer through the single-side band radios to instantly share the route one boat has followed. This will allow another boat to come along safely behind.
We spent the rest of the afternoon taking the dinghy around the point to Talai Bay. The wind has picked up and the seas were a little rough for our excursion. We all got soaking wet but we made it into the bay and got the dinghy to shore in rough conditions. We had read that Nautilus shells wash up on the beach there and we did find one nautillus shell. It is a little rough around the edges, but I was absolutely thrilled that Mark found it for me. Steve and I picked up different seed pods that
had washed ashore, and just before sunset, we headed back to Windbird.
After showers, we went over to visit with Ranger. Marie’s friend, Sharon, from California was aboard. We enjoyed meeting her and talking about how both boats will be spending the next couple of weeks. We are actually thinking that we might leave here tomorrow, but it is going to be hard to pull away without snorkeling on the beautiful coral here just one more time. I guess the weather in the AM will be the determiner.
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| 070714 Day 81 Yadua Island, Fiji–Walk to Denamanu Village |
