October 27, 2013
Since it’s a slightly upwind trip from Savusavu to Koro, this island is less visited than others and thus we hadn’t heard much about it. Someone did tell us the snorkeling here is amazing and gave us tips on how to find the key area; so for us it became a must-visit. We knew there was some sort of resort there with moorings for visiting yachts and would attempt to call them on the radio when we arrived.
We had a lovely motorsail 30 miles south to Koro, during which time we caught—and lost—two mahi mahi. With a fridge packed with food and with a resort visit ahead I didn’t mind, but it’s always a disappointment for the person (Rich) actually doing the fishing.
Soon, we were approaching this surprisingly large island, then headed down between the protective reef and the island’s west shore to an anchorage called Dere Bay. We could see four moorings, two of which had boats on them. We tried to call the Dere Bay Resort on channel 16, and another cruiser (not in the anchorage but sailing by the island) came up saying, “They won’t answer you!” So, we tried the phone and had success: it seemed we could take any available mooring. We went and picked one up.
At this point Rich decided, in the interests of sharing information, to report back to the person who’d called us and tell her we’d telephoned and gotten a mooring. Rich promptly got an earful about how the place was closed when they visited here, we probably called the wrong resort (we hadn’t) and should instead track down the owners in Suva, they’d had a terrible time, and there’s no good snorkeling. She seemed to expect, on hearing her opinion, that we’d pick up and leave and was sounding a bit put out that we weren’t doing so. Rich had to work to untangle himself from that conversation! (I’m adding this story in as a reminder to be careful who you listen to—if someone’s being argumentative and negative they likely as not to be full of crap.)
Now, we sat and took in the scenery. Koro was greener and hillier than I expected, with a couple of very small resorts along the narrow beach of the bay, neither of which seemed to have any activity. A handful of little houses were scattered on the hillside, mostly hidden by trees. Another impression had more to do with the time of year than the place, and that was the feeling of the heat and stillness of a late summer afternoon, a line of thunderheads visible in the distance. In fact it was only spring, but summer was coming.
(You can click to enlarge and scroll through any of the following photo galleries.)
We dinghied over to the long skinny pier that stuck out into the bay and tied up near the end. It was a long but very pretty walk over the clear green water dotted with black rocks below the shallow surface. One striking thing was the number of swallows darting all round us while big black butterflies flitted about.
When we got to the resort we noticed it was very small and somewhat rustic, with only a few bures (aka cabins), none of which looked occupied. Not seeing anyone around, we walked over to the open-air dining room and found three people eating lunch there. We asked where the reception area was and they just laughed. Uh, OK, was there anyone we could talk to about making a dinner reservation?
We ended up chatting with them and got the scoop: it seems this resort was part of an operation that sells small houses to foreigners with a dream of owning a little place in Fiji. Each house was set up to be self-sufficient with its own solar panels and water tanks. And the homeowners then had the option of having their meals in this dining room.
The resort’s bures existed mostly to house potential customers, and the dining area existed to feed the homeowners as there wasn’t much in the way of markets nearby. The meal offering changed daily but the food was always good. They told us about the lady who runs things; so we went to meet her and asked if we could come in for dinner. Yes, it would be $30 Fiji a person. Sounded good.
Before going back to the boat we decided to go meet the people on one of the boats here. They were a really nice young couple who confirmed that we had the correct information about the snorkeling spot and with slack tide coming up we could go this afternoon. They also said we should come in this evening for happy hour at the resort because everyone shows up for that. They then advised us to switch moorings as ours was not as good as the outer one.
And so we switched moorings and got ready to go snorkeling. The spot wasn’t that easy to find, about a mile out with a nearby landmark–a rock with a stick on it–that we had to hunt for. Even with pretty good directions, it took some doing to find that marker; then we had to search for the area itself. We finally managed to find the spot, anchored the dinghy and jumped in.
The snorkeling was better than good, a more appropriate word would be astonishing. It wasn’t that it was the most exquisite snorkeling area we’d ever seen (although it was beautiful), but it was vast, an enormous bombie with a profusion of fish, corals and deep chasms. We were very excited to spot a giant humpead wrasse, the first we’ve seen. The more we explored, the more we found, something new around every corner.
We decided to come back the next day and do more exploring here; then headed off to look for another bombie we’d spotted on the way out here. We found it and while it wasn’t as impressive as far as its coral and rock formations, it had an amazing number of butterfly fish. Wow! Tomorrow we’d return to both these places as well as to another area that had been recommended, and this time we’d bring the Go Pro.
We headed back to the boat to shower and hang out until happy hour. As we were heading in I remembered there’d been a time change and now we were late! But no, we were fine; no one here was really paying attention to the time change and other people hadn’t come in yet. Very laid back and casual, this place! Some people even brought their own drinks! We sat down and met a handful of other people who have places here, either vacation or year round.
We all sat together for dinner, which today was a beef curry on rice followed by a piece of chocolate cake. In all, the food was OK, but for $30 it would have been nice to have a vegetable, and the fluorescent lighting washed out any feeling of tropical romance from the setting. Still, while the meal wasn’t worth what we’d paid, the experience was. We enjoyed meeting these people and hearing about this life. It sounded nice, but I’d noticed something about this west-facing bay: it’s exposed to the sun all the way to sunset with no mountains to block it. This meant great sunset views, but this far north at this time of the year, it also meant hotter afternoons and evenings. By the time we arrived back to the boat, drenched in bug repellent and some sweat, we needed another round of showers.
At this point I had mixed feelings about the place. It was nice, but there was something strange about it. It reminded me a bit of the TV show, Lost, in that nothing seemed to really belong here. I could imagine the hodgepodge of people here had been thrown together, not quite knowing where they were, how they got here, or how to leave.
In reality these people had worked to be here and make homes and seemed happy with the place. In fact the two other boats in the anchorage belonged to cruisers who came here and liked it so much they, too, invested in homes. I can’t put my finger on why it seemed a little off here, but it was strong enough that after our earlier visit ashore, I wanted to snorkel right away and if it wasn’t special, leave the next day. Of course, it turned out to be special enough we’d decided stay a few days. –Cyndi
