August 1, 2013
By the time we arrived back at the lower waterfall, a few people had arrived. No matter: it’s a big pool with more than enough room for a lot of people. We met a large family, half Fijian, half English, and the English half was visiting the Fijian half and getting the grand tour of Taveuni. Wow, two great places for relatives to visit each other!
The water in the pool was initially quite cool but felt great once we were in. Rich and I swam by the base of the falls and watched as a young Fijian man climbed the rocks and dove in. Soon, he was showing the kids how to climb up and do the jump. It was fairly high, and the objective was to run a few feet to gather forward momentum, then leap off an outer rock to land well into the pool below.
The young teen girls did the jump successfully, and I figured if they could do it, I could do it. After getting some coaching, I ran to the edge and leapt off. As I fell, I realized this was higher than I thought, realizing it mostly because I had so much time to think about it before hitting the water.
I slammed into the water, got some water up my nose and actually hurt my ear some as it was probably too fast a descent without clearing. I guess I should have done as the girls did and held my nose. This was definitely the highest jump I’ve ever done. I surfaced and felt a bit stunned, but I was also glad I’d done it. Never again do I have to wish I had the nerve to try something like this; I can happily sit and watch others now.
We swam more around the base of the fall, just reveling in the cool water and beautiful scenery. But we couldn’t stay forever. We exchanged numbers with the nice family before heading off to change and go find our driver chief. –Cyndi
