Savusavu, Fiji - January 2013

This will be a fairly little post as not a lot happened this day! My one over-riding memory of the day was of the stifling humidity. Before we were off the ship the captain was warning the guests about going ashore due to the heat and humidity. Being the hardcore cruisers Sam and I are, we went ashore anyway, jumping off the tender we noticed straight away the lines of punters waiting to get back to the air conditioning on the ship, hmmmm.

Punters coming ashore in a tender.

The tender dropped us at the Copra Shed Marina and Sam and I decided that we would take a bit of a walk around town to check the place out. Savusavu is the only entry point for yachts on the island of Vanua Levu so there was no shortage of boats bobbing about in the harbour.  After checking out the shops and the yachts to the east of the marina we headed west along the main drag for awhile. We had heard about some hot springs so we thought that we would check them out. The hot springs were situated behind a sports oval and were literally boiling hot, not somewhere I'd even dip my toe.

The water in the harbour at Savusavu was almost dead calm, with no breeze the humidity was oppressive.

There was a little bit of rain around which only made it more oppressive.

Some of the local kids playing on the jetty.

With the sweat dripping off us it was time to admit defeat and head back to the ship, judging by the queue to get back on the ship it looked like everybody else had the same idea. The ships crew did a fantastic job handing out cool towels and looking after some of the people that had been over come with the heat. Before long we got on board a tender and set of across the still water of the harbour that had an oily dead calm appearance to it. It was with some relief that we got back on the ship and we certainly savoured the air conditioning, anyone who knows me would be surprised that I am talking up the heat as it normally doesn't worry me but that particular day the heat and the humidity combined to make it very uncomfortable.

A little more rain on the way.

Savusavu harbour from the ship.

The Dirt.
Savusavu is the main city on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji, I get a feeling that I didn't see the best of the place. Next time I go there I'll try to organize a dive tour, at least that way I'll get out of the heat for awhile. The main street is along the waterfront and you can walk from one end of town to the other in less than thirty minutes. The hot springs are behind the oval and aren't signposted, don't think you'll be swimming there as they bubble up into a very shallow creek.

The clouds provided for a great sunset.