Beachcomber Island, Mamanuca Islands, Fiji

26th October – 27th October 2017

After boarding the Yasawa Flyer at Bounty Island, I had a ten minute journey until I reached my next destination, Beachcomber Island. Apparently Beachcomber Island is known as the ‘party island’, which I wasn’t aware of previously and I wasn’t exactly in the party mood, as I was still slightly jet lagged, but I couldn’t do anything about that. When I got off the boat, I was greeted with more singing Fijians and I was taken to the office to check in; luckily I was able to check in straight away and didn’t have to wait until a particular time.

When I was showed to the room, I was almost in shock – I have never seen anything like it before, they couldn’t have fit any more beds into the room, if they tried. I squeezed my way through the beds, to the bed that I was designated. Luckily there was a locker under the bed for my bags, because they really wouldn’t have fit anywhere else in the room. I was also pleased to see that it was relatively quiet, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be the usual party island that it had the reputation for.

Once I had checked in, I went to the bar area to get my bearings of the place and relax a little. I managed to FaceTime home for a little while and chill out, before deciding on how I wanted to spend the rest of my day.

After a while, I went for a wander along the beach with my camera. Beachcomber Island was even smaller than Bounty Island, so there wasn’t a massive number of things to do there either. After I had wandered up and down the front, I decided to put my cameras away, so that I could lie out on the beach and enjoy the sunshine. As I was walking back to the room, I got chatting to another guest, who was telling me about turtles that they have further around the beach. He also told me that we’re apparently not allowed around the other side of the island because that is where they bread the turtles. Before I put my cameras away, I thought I would go for another walk to see if I could see them. I kept walking in the direction that he pointed me in, walking over rocks, that I wasn’t sure I was allowed to, but I did anyway. Before I knew it, I was back at the resort, seeing no turtles! I don’t know if he was fed false information or if he thought it would be funny to send me on a random turtle hunt, because he also said that we weren’t allowed on the other side of the island, but I made it all the way around. It did only take me ten minutes, so I wasn’t bothered about the walk and it was nice to get some exercise.

After my failed turtle hunt, I put my cameras away and lay on the beach. I’m not sure how long I was lay there because I didn’t have anything with me to tell the time, so as soon as I saw other people moving and heading towards the dining area, I thought that lunch must be ready, so I followed them.

Lunch was buffet style again and served the typical buffet foods: rice, meats, salads. I got a selection and sat and enjoyed it.

After lunch, I went and did more sunbathing on the beach. It was a little annoying that there weren’t any sunbeds to lounge on, so I had to lie out on my sarong. I lay there for a while, before I went for a paddle in the sea. The sea is so lovely because it isn’t too cold, so it’s easy to paddle in and enjoy.

Later in the afternoon, I decided that I had had too much sun, so I moved into the shade, where there were chairs. I took the opportunity to sort out some photos on my laptop and get myself organised. I ended up sitting there for the rest of the afternoon, before I went for a shower to get all the sand and sea water off me.

Once I was showered and changed, I went for a wander to see if I could see the sunset. It was another cloudy night and the sunset couldn’t be seen from the beachfront. I went for a walk, back over the rocks towards the back of the island, but there were too many clouds to get a decent photo, so I gave up.

When I got back to the resort, it was almost time for dinner. Dinner was a buffet, again, which was okay, but a little boring. After I had eaten, I chilled for a while in the dining area, before going to bed – no partying on party island for me.

At around 2am, the Danish group of girls that were in the dorm came back and were very loud shouting across to each other. I wasn’t exactly getting a full night’s sleep anyway so I wasn’t overly bothered but they weren’t considerate of others at all.

I was awake really early the next morning, and I decided that I would go and sit outside in the fresh air, instead of staying in bed where it was very hot and stuffy. I sat there for a couple of hours until breakfast was ready; it was very calm and peaceful to just watch the sea coming onto the beach, even if it was a cloudy day.

After breakfast, I had about half an hour to get my bags ready and wait for my boat transfer to my next stop. There were a couple of us leaving, so it was nice to have someone to chat to on the boat.

One night in Beachcomber was more than enough for me. There wasn’t a lot going on, on the island and there wasn’t anything to do there besides lie on the beach. It was a nice experience but I was more than happy to be leaving and heading for my next resort, Octopus Bay, on the Yasawa Islands group.

To travel is to live, Katie x