Octopus Bay, Yasawa Islands, Fiji

27th October – 29th October 2017

After getting on the ferry at Beachcomber, the journey was a little bit longer than I had previously experienced, as it lasted about an hour and a half. On the journey, we moved from the Mamanuca Islands, into the Yasawa Islands, which are a bit further out from the main island.

As we entered the Yasawa Islands group, we were greeted by a warrior stood on top of one of the stone hills that were in the sea. I’m not entirely sure what his role was, as the boat driver didn’t really explain, and I’m not sure how long he stands there because there wasn’t anything for him to do, but he was stood there anyway, looking proud.

When the ferry pulled up towards Octopus Bay, the island boats came to collect the few of us that were getting off. As we drove closer the resort, we were all fascinated with how beautiful it all looked, especially as it was a rainy day and the sun wasn’t even shining. Before we stepped off the boat, we were greeted by a group of Fijian singers again – they love to welcome you with open arms in Fiji. We stepped off the boat and shook all of their hands, as we walked up to the dining area to check in. As we got up there, we were handed a fruity, refreshing welcome drink, and given a wet towel to freshen up, before we had to check in. As I was checking in, I made friends with the others who were checking in too.

Once everyone was checked in, we were shown to our rooms. I was staying in a dorm again, but it was a much nicer dorm this time, with only seven beds – none of which were bunk beds luckily!

After I had dropped my bags off in my room, I went for a wander along the beach. The island that Octopus Bay is on, is different to the others I have seen so far, as it is much bigger and it isn’t possible to walk around the perimeter, because it isn’t all beach. I wandered to both ends of the beach though, and took photos as I went along.

When I got back from my walk, I sat in a hammock and chilled out for a little while. It was raining very lightly, but I didn’t mind that, as it was quite a refreshing rain. There wasn’t much time to chill and lie in the hammock anyway, as lunch was almost ready.

Lunch was different at Octopus, compared to Bounty and Beachcomber: it was a menu with lots of different choices, that you could choose from. I much preferred this, as you knew it was prepared fresh and it was very tasty, good quality food. I ordered the chicken burger which came with a salad and fries.

The rain had stopped after lunch, so I grabbed my beach towel and went down to the beach and found a sunbed. I lay on the sunbed for a while – it wasn’t hot enough to sunbathe but it was a good temperature to chill out in. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep. I was having a lovely nap until some very noisy girls came and sat beside me on other sunbeds and were practically shouting at each other, as they tried to talk.

Since I was awake, I decided to make the most of my time and go for a snorkel in the sea. I didn’t really know what to expect with the snorkelling as it wasn’t amazing at Bounty Island, but lots of people seemed to be having a go here, so I thought I would too. As soon as I stepped into the sea, and put my face under, there were already so many fish swimming about. I didn’t have to go very far to see lots either, as the coral wasn’t very far out, and they all lived around there. There were some little blue stripy ones who were fearless: they would swim right up to my face and not move – it was hard to know where to put my arms and legs.

As it was getting towards late afternoon, I got cold in the water quite quickly, so I got myself out and dried off. I chilled back on the sunbed for a little while, before deciding to move into the bar area to sit on some chairs. As I was sat there, I had a perfect view of the sunset (I actually got to see one on the islands without making too much effort). As the sun went down, it made the surrounding clouds beautiful colours and made for some very pretty photographs.

Once the sun had set, everyone was called around the pool area, for a Fijian ceremony, as Fridays at Octopus resort are Fijian Fridays. The Fijians did some singing and dancing for us, before getting everyone up and dancing around the pool. I didn’t have a partner at first, and then one for Fijian ladies grabbed me. We all danced around the pool in a circle, holding hands across our backs. I’m not sure why, but my partner kept dragging me around the inside of the circle, overtaking everyone – I was sure I was going to end up in the water! We then did a kind of conga line around the pool, before being told we could go for dinner.

For dinner, we were seated in tables according to who we were stood near in the line. I ended up with the Scottish man, James, I had met on the boat in the morning, as well as an Australian couple and a Kiwi couple. It was nice Fijian food which was served down the middle of our table. We sat around and had a chat after dinner, before everyone gradually filtered to bed, so I ended up doing the same.

Waking up in the morning, I had had the best sleep in Fiji so far! The beds were comfortable, the room was cool and it was quiet in the dorm. I did wake up relatively early, but I didn’t really mind that so much, I’m used to being awake early anyway. I got up once I was awake and went out to get breakfast.

Breakfast was buffet style, but it was a very nice buffet. There were cereals, fruit, pancakes, hot foods, freshly cooked eggs, juices, hot drinks etc. it was all very tasty, it was a shame I couldn’t eat that much.

After breakfast, I chilled out for a little while, waiting for the sun to come out. I wandered around the resort before finding myself a sunbed and sitting in the peace and quiet. I lay in the sun for a little bit, before heading into the sea for another snorkel.

I swam a bit further out than the previous day and saw some bigger fish. As I was floating in the same place, at one point, trying to photograph a fish, one of the fearless, stripy blue ones nibbled on my leg; I turned around quickly and there was a whole group of them bobbing around my legs. I carried on swimming out, exploring the coral, but then I noticed condensation in my GoPro case and realised there was a crack in it, so instead of risking it, I went back to the beach.

Back on the beach, I lay on my back to dry off my front, before rolling over to dry off my back. The same thing happened as the previous day and I fell asleep – the sunbeds were just too comfy! The next thing I knew, I was waking up and it was lunchtime! I moved to the dining area and ordered a pizza from the specials board for my lunch.

For a few days I had been in pain, especially when eating, so I asked the manager if she could get me some medical advice from somewhere. She got in touch with her doctor on the main island, who said that it sounds like I have oesophagitis – an inflammation of my oesophagus – so she gave me some anti-inflammatory tablets to hopefully make it go down.

For the rest of the afternoon, I spent my time sunbathing, swimming in the sea and then dodging the sun completely at some points and sitting in the shade, as I felt like my body was going to burst into flames! It was a nice way to spend the afternoon though, as I didn’t have to think about anything and I could just chill out, doing what I wanted.

I went for an early-ish shower, so that I could try and enjoy the sunset again. However, when I came back out, it had clouded right over and the sun was no longer visible, which was a shame. I chilled out instead and waited for dinner. A few of the new people in the dorm, were people that I had previously met on other islands, which made it a bit easier, but also meant that I was the only girl with a whole group of boys because girls just don’t seem to travel alone in Fiji – probably because it’s mostly full of couples.

Dinner was BBQ buffet: there was pumpkin soup for starter, a selection of salads, hot sides and meats for the main and a selection of different desserts. I tried most of the mains, but for dessert I had vanilla ice cream which was very nice – the nicest I’ve had in a long time!

After dinner on a Saturday night, it’s party night. We all gathered in the bar area and participated in a number of different games. The first game we played was called ‘flip flop flippers’ where you had to flip your flip flops off your feet into a bucket for a free shot. Next, we played limbo, which I won – kind of. I was in the top five, I think, but they gave up on lowering the bar further, so I won a shot but I gave it away because I didn’t want to anger my oesophagus. Then we played a game where you had to be in pairs and one person had to lift another up depending on what the man said. For example, if he said horse, it was a piggy back, a king was one sit on the others knee etc… The last game I participated in was the tug of war, but my team was out in the first round, which I was fine with!

Once the games were over, we sat in the bar area for a while longer and chatted. While we were sat there, it began pouring down with rain but luckily we were sat under the shelter, so we could watch from a distance. As the night progressed, the boys thought it would be a good idea to get in the swimming pool, so that was my queue to go to bed, after I had laughed at them for a bit, as they tried to do the ‘Dirty Dancing’ lift but failed miserably.

I had another great night’s sleep, despite having to set an alarm for 3.30am to take my tablet. When it was morning, I really didn’t want to get up, but I knew I had to pack and eat breakfast before checking out. Breakfast was a breakfast buffet again which was just as tasty.

After breakfast I lay on the beach for a little while. It was raining lightly but it doesn’t feel the same when you’re on the beach – it isn’t as annoying. I sat there for a little while before going to the room to finish packing and checking out.

In the office, I caught up with Amanda, the manager, who advised me to keep taking the tablets for another three days and if it hasn’t completely gone, then to consult a doctor on the main island. She gave me her number and the doctor’s number, so I could contact either of them if I needed to.

After I had checked out, I chilled out in the shade for a while, waiting for my transfer to the boat, so that I could head to the next island on my visit – I was just glad I could carry on and I didn’t have to go back to the main island.

Octopus Bay is by far my favourite island visit so far and I was pleased with my choice to stay there for two nights – I would have easily stayed there longer if I didn’t want to island hop so much. The weather stayed nice for the majority of the time, which helped, but even when it rained, the place was still beautiful. I just loved that I could chill out and have no one telling me what to do – it was great and I would love to return one day!

To travel is to live, Katie x