Mantaray Island, Yasawa Islands, Fiji

29th October – 30th October 2017

After getting on the ferry again, I only had another half an hour to go, in order to get to the next island on my visit, Mantaray Island. I didn’t sit in a very good place on the boat, as I sat in front of the glass doors, so I could see the reflection of the sea behind me, going in the opposite direction to what we were – it was very weird and it made me feel very sick. Fortunately, I was only there for a short ride, before I could get off to my next island.

The weather wasn’t great, so it made the sea quite choppy, which made it difficult to get from boat to boat safely, but I managed it. Once I was on the island boat, it was only a short ride to the resort, but it felt very strange that I couldn’t see the resort from the ferry, as I have always been able to before Mantaray.

Arriving at Mantaray, we were greeted in the same way that we usually are, with singing Fijians, singing the Bula song. We were given a welcome drink and taken to check in. After all of the formalities, we were complete, we were shown to our rooms.

After I had dropped my bags off, I didn’t really know what to do with myself and it was a small resort and it was raining. I went for a wander with my camera as usual but I couldn’t get many shots as the rain was getting heavier. I put my camera away and chilled out for a little bit; there were some big comfy chairs to lounge on, so that was handy as it was raining.

Shortly after we had arrived, it was time for lunch. I wasn’t particularly hungry but I had paid for it, so I went to see what was on offer. There were six options, and I went for the Manta club sandwich. It sounded great at first, but then when it arrived, I remembered how painful it was to eat, so it took me a while to finish it and I had to use my knife and fork – it tasted good though, so that was a bonus.

Once I had finished my lunch, I went to sit by the beach. The rain had stopped by this point but it was still very cloudy, so I stayed under the shelter of the trees. While I was sat there, I had a read of the activities board and noticed that there was a free guided kayak for an hour from 2.30 until 3.30. I thought this sounded like a great idea, so I signed up. It was almost 2.30, so I got myself ready and went down to the kayak area.

A few people had signed up for it, so at least I wasn’t alone. We all got into our kayaks and off we went. After about ten minutes, I was tired and ready to give up, but we had only just got going. I didn’t realise it at first, but we were kayaking around the island that was opposite us, and it wasn’t a small island! We were going for about an hour before we had a break on a small beach. It was an opportunity to go snorkelling but I didn’t fancy a snorkel because I was too tired, so I went for a walk instead. We were on the island where Barefoot Manta Resort is, on the island opposite Mantaray. After a short break, we got going again, continuing around the island back to the resort. It wasn’t as long on the way back, but we were still going against the current, so it took us around half an hour – typical Fijians not sticking to the hour time that they originally said.

By the time I finally made it back to the island, I went straight for a shower to get all of the sea water and sand off me, before chilling out. I found myself a spot on the comfy sofas and stayed there until it was time for dinner.

Although dinner was ready at 6.30, I didn’t go up to the dining hall until just after 7, as I still wasn’t hungry. When I did go up, I had to check the board for what I wanted, before finding my own seat. Finding my own seat was much more difficult at dinner because it was a lot busier and when you’re on your own, it’s really difficult to know where to sit. I went up to a table where I thought there was a girl on her own, sat with a couple; it turned out that she wasn’t on her own, her boyfriend was just at the bar, so I ended up sat in between two couples – they were lovely and we chatted away (one couple was Australian and the guy from the other couple was a Kiwi, so I got some advice) but I felt slightly uncomfortable. I wasn’t overly keen on dinner. I ordered the beef with sweet potato mash and vegetables but it was cold as soon as it came out and others had said the same too. When I then got my dessert, the ice cream had practically melted on my plate already, so there wasn’t much to it. The food just didn’t compare to Octopus at all.

Once everyone at the table had finished, they left to go to bed, so I thought I would do the same. The toilet block is quite a distance from the dorm – more than I would like, but at least I was the only one in my section of the dorm, so I had a tiny bit of privacy. After I had taken my trip to the toilet block and brushed my teeth, I climbed into bed, ready for an early night, with the plan to get up early to go for a morning snorkel as my dinner friends told me it is one of the best snorkel sites. It was another warm night in Fiji, despite the rainy day we had had.

Besides waking up to have to take my tablet, I had another good night’s sleep in Fiji. I woke up early though, with the plan of going snorkelling and it was nice to see that the sunshine was back! I got myself ready and head down to the beach before breakfast.

At the beach, I set myself up on a sun lounger. I wanted to get my snorkel session in before breakfast, so that I had time to dry off before I had to get the ferry. When I was at Port Denarau on the main island at the beginning of the Fijian trip, I bought myself a snorkel, thinking it would be cheaper that way so I didn’t have to keep renting one out. I asked the man in the shop if it was a children’s or adult’s and he said both – I thought this was a little strange as children and adults have different sized heads but I bought it anyway. My snorkel session in Mantaray was the first time I was using my own snorkel, because it was free to hire them at the resorts I had been to already. When I put it on, I knew straight away that it was a children’s one because it was far too small for my big head, but I thought I would give it a go anyway.

Going into the sea, I had to walk a little bit up the beach first, as the tide was quite low and it was too shallow where I was. I went for a little swim and the snorkel worked fine, at first. I took my GoPro in, but held it above water until I saw something worth photographing. I didn’t swim very far out because the current was pulling me sideways, back in the direction of where I was sat on the sun lounger. I took some photos and saw some really good fish – different to what I had seen before. I had been told that reef sharks are often spotted out in the snorkelling section at Mantaray, but I didn’t see any; as much as I would have found it so cool to see one, I’m not too sure how I would have reacted if I did. My snorkel mask didn’t last very long, before it started leaking water and every time I slightly moved my mouth muscles, I would take in a mouthful of sea water, so I decided to get out.

Once I had got out, I decided it was time for breakfast. I was glad I decided to go when I did, because although it said breakfast was from 8 – 10, when I went at 8.30, there wasn’t much left and they didn’t seem to be refreshing anything. I managed to get myself a bowl of muesli with some yogurt and then I had a freshly made omelette.

After breakfast, I went back to the dorm and packed up my things ready to leave. I didn’t want to just sit waiting until 11 for my transfer, so I still sun creamed up, so that I could lie on the beach. After I had checked out, I did exactly that. I got myself another sun lounger and lounged about with the most beautiful of views. When it got too hot to just sit, I went for a wander up and down the beach.

At 10.30, I decided it was time to get ready for the ferry. I got myself changed and sat in the shade, on the comfy sofas, so that I could cool off. While I was sat there, me and the other two people leaving, got our leaving song from the workers. It was time to board around 11am, so we got onto the island boat, in order to get to the ferry.

For me, 24 hours in Mantaray was more than enough time. It was a couple of steps down in terms of quality, from Octopus so I’m glad I didn’t book too long there. It would have been very cool to see a mantaray, but I arrived just as the mantaray season ended – they hadn’t seen any for about a week before I got there. It was still a nice resort though and the staff were as friendly as always. It’s now time to move from resort life into a little village, for a homestay with a Fijian family for a few nights.

To travel is to live, Katie x