Bright and early, again, I got myself out of bed and met the three people who had come to stay the night at Lavena. One was working with a volunteer program on another island. She was in charge of marketing the program and then sending the volunteers off with a nice experience. She brought them here. Another of the three was one of the volunteers. The third was a guy they met on another island. He is from Basque and has been here in Fiji for about two months.
We all hopped on the bus and headed to the Tavoro Visitor Center. There we had a cup of tea, instead of the planned breakfast. They had to catch the next bus out and so we were a bit pressed for time, and had to skip breakfast. But we did have a couple of cookies. And an early morning rain shower made the light nice for a photo of the flowers.
Then we headed down the road to meet the guide for the trek. Kristy (the volunteer coordinator) knew him from other times she has visited the area. It was a meeting of old friends. We signed in at the Vidawa Visitor Center and then headed up the mountain. It was a bit wet and muddy. And it was also slippery. While we were slogging up the mountain on the trek, I slipped somewhere in the mud and the strap in my sandal snapped and came out of the sole of the sandal. Suddenly, partway up a wet, muddy mountain, I had to go shoeless. It's a good thing that rainforests break down the dead vegetation quickly and it is soft (for the most part) on the forest floor. I didn't step on too many things. Our guide, Matt, offered me his flip flops, but I can't make those things work properly, so I had to give that up after only a minute or two. Bare feet it was. Part of the trek was to see birds. Now birds are nice, but I don't find them really interesting. We did see something called a ground dove. It was in a tree. There were some other birds that we saw, but the real prize eluded us on this day. There is a rare bird here called the Orange Dove. I guess it's only found on this island in Fiji (making it endemic, yea, I get to use a new word from Kakadu). As far as I'm concerned it's a myth. I have asked people if they have seen it, but it's always, “No, but my uncle/aunt/next door neighbour/guide did.” In any case, we did not see it.
But we did see a stone chair where some Fijian king in the past sat and looked out over the ocean.
And we saw the defensive trenches the villagers of old dug to protect against invaders from across the seas. It was uphill and the villagers lived at the top. They dug these trenches to give themselves the high ground on invaders, making it easy to throw spears or rocks down on them and kill them. There were four such trenches along the way. After that there was a narrow path with a steep slope on either side leading to the village. Matt apparently said that it was the only way into the village, but I think that must be mistaken. If there is only one way in, then by extension that means there is only one way out. And if there is only one way out, and the invaders did, by some quirk of fortune, manage to get into the village, the villagers would be dead. So I imagine it must have been the main way in, with a couple of secret ways out. Once in the ancient village, we saw ancient mounds where the houses used to be situated. It was too dark in the area though for good photos, and I was preoccupied by bare feet.
But the next bit was the sacrificial stone. If ever there was some problem in the village, bad crops, adultery, unfavourable weather, the chief would gather everyone together. He would ask everyone who was responsible. If someone spoke up, they were sacrificed on the stone. They would kneel on the kneeling stone and put their head on the high stone. Then they would be whacked on the back of the head, and be killed. Now, if by any chance, there were no volunteers eager to fess up for any wrong-doing to cause the village's trouble (and, hey, I can't imagine why there wouldn't be many eager volunteers to take their lumps, can you?), the chief would choose someone to be sacrificed. And then they would be eaten, apparently.
We also saw how they used to catch wild chickens. A trap was laid using sticks and a piece of bark as a lasso, strapped somehow to a young tree. The chicken would come along, lured by some tasty coconut. It would step on the twigs and the tree would be loosed. It would snap back upright and the chicken's foot would be snared by the bark lasso. Dinner would be hanging from a tree when the hunters returned. It was a fairly convincing demonstration, and a reminder of just how much we city dwellers have lost in knowledge along the way.
Then we headed down the hill, back to the village of Korovou, where Tavoro Falls was located. But as we were walking through the village, the bus came along. Not wanting to walk the five kilometers back to Lavena Village with tender feet and a broken shoe, I ran to catch it. I just made it and rode back to my accommodation. So much for my plans to walk back. Foiled three times out of three, I guess I will have to find a nice view on another road on another island another time.
When I got back to the lodge, I decided to take a swim to wash the mud off. As I was getting my legs clean, the room key came out of my pocket and was lost to me. I searched for it for quite a while, but eventually came to the conclusion that it was gone. I told Anna, the woman running the lodge this week. She was understanding.
I went to watch some volleyball in a tournament the village is having today. While I was there, the key floated up to Anna on the beach and basically came back home. Sigh! Friday, the 13th.
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