Cane Cutting in Momi

I am not sure why Chris volunteered to cut sugarcane at 0730, probably a mix of curiosity and gratitude to our kind hosts, but he hardly slept last night and woke me up at 0600 this morning! Last night I baked a peach upside down cake to take to our host family together with some yogurt and yanqona. Thankfully it was high tide when we rowed to our landing beach and no wind, as it is quite far and there is a reef guarding the beach.

What the well dressed cane cutter is wearing today

The farm dog heard us long before we tramped up the hill and Fulwati popped her head from the garden hedge and pointed at the hill where the cane field was being harvested. We unloaded the cake and other items and asked her to keep the backpack until our return. She gave Chris a long sleeved shirt belonging to her husband so he would not get scratched and sunburned out there and we were off! We heard the men shouting and laughing as we approached the field. To our surprise there were three men and a boy slashing at the cane and they had a pile cut already. Chris confirmed that Subas Chand was amongst them and parting the rustling cane stalks at the road's edge, tramped over to begin his labour. One of the men shouted to a young girl at a house nearby to tell grandma that "aunty" was here but she answered that dadi (grandma)  was sleeping. I had no intention to disturb anyone that early and told them I was going for a walk to get some exercise.

This machete is quite heavy. Subas later gave Chris a lighter one, more suitable for beginners.

Some of the cane is quite tall and straight, but many canes were bent and harder to clean and stack.

The young boy gave over his machete and a glove to Chris and walked over to ride the raft-like sled pulled by two oxen to the bottom of the hill. Small loads of cane are taken to a railcar parked on a piece of track in the field in this manner.

On Saturdays the three older men who cut these fields have the help of a young man. Here he is skidding a load of cane to the bottom of the hill for loading on the rail car.

Cutters at work. These bullocks are just  grazing.

Subas demonstrated the cutting and cleaning of the cane to Chris and I took a few photos for our album from my roadside stance. I watched Chris swipe at a few canes and then hiked up to explore the valley. It was very hot already and it was not even 8 a.m. yet!

View out over Momi Bay. Ladybug to the left and a pilot boat that guides large ships through the Navula Pass. In the distance is an unfinished resort - apparently a sinkhole for government money.

In one valley I saw a little Mosque. There is a small Muslim community here.

By the time I returned after my two hour walk, Chris was cleaned up and schmoozing with Subas and Fulwati at their house. I took a walk up to the cane field with him to see the amount of cane that they had cut. The rail car was full and we found out that it probably weighed about two and half tonnes. Four men can harvest this much in less than four hours. Subas pays a local farmer F$4.50/tonne to pull the rail car by tractor to the small gauge railway a kilometer away. The car is left on a siding where it gets picked by a daily sugar cane train and taken to the Lautoka sugar mill. The rail car has a farm number on it and this is how the mill knows whom to pay. The farmer gets paid F$75-$80 per tonne of cane on today's market. A few years ago, the price was only F$45/tonne and the cost to produce amounted to almost F$20/tonne plus labour.

Rail car loaded with about 2.5 tonnes of cane - a morning's work for 4 men to cut and stack.

Close-up of cut and stacked cane

The day's load of cane awaits the train

Back at the farm, Subas had another bag of goodies ready for us - cassava roots and more oranges. Lunch was also ready - a table laden with curried fish, beans, dal, boiled eggs, rotis, rice and a delicious tomato chutney. Almost everything was fresh from their garden and very flavourful.

Fulwati explains how to de-seed tamarind

After lunch we set off to see the World War II gun batteries on the hill. You have to pay $5.00 per person to walk around the compound which affords a great view of the valley below,  the passes into the lagoon, and the islands in the vicinity. It was hot and we felt very dehydrated when we finally returned to Ladybug at 3pm. We both jumped over for a refreshing swim. It was a very full day!

Two of these guns guarded the nearby passes from Japanese advances. US, New Zealand, British, and Fiji troops were stationed here.

Momi gun battery

Welcome to Momi

We sailed from Likuri Harbour with a blustery tail wind and a strong full moon ebb tide carrying us out of the pass. Lord - what a swell as we cleared the entrance - long heaving hills of water. With a partial jib, we rolled our way down the coast for a dozen miles, turning abruptly to enter the Nabula Pass on a roaring beam reach. Our destination of Momi Bay was as tranquil as a pond in comparison and we were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful our surroundings were after we dropped the hook in about 20 feet.

The bullocks are used for transporting sugar cane on sleds. I guess they don't mind a passenger either.

 Rani was desperate to get off the boat and go for a walk, so we put the dinghy in the water and she rowed us into a headwind a half mile to the nearest beach. We tied the dinghy under a tamarind tree and Rani showed me what a delightful, if tart, snack fresh tamarind pods make. Immediately behind the beach a rough road runs toward the village of Momi in one direction and off into sugar cane plantations in the other. A narrow gauge railway that carries the cane from the local Indian small-holdings to the mill in Lautoka also runs alongside this road.

Subas Chand brings his bullocks back to the house from the well.

The scenery here is dry and hilly, reminding us a little of Mexico or even Catalina Island in California

We had not gone far when we were met by a man sitting on a wooden sled pulled by two oxen. A little later we met his cousin driving another team of oxen to a well where he watered them. Rani tried out her Hindi with him and was able to have a good chat in a mix of Hindi and English. Subas Chand invited us to his house for tea where we met his wife, Fulwati (which means 'flower of light'). We talked about their lives on their farm while Fulwati prepared a sweet Indian chai tea.

Subas Chand, Rani, and Fulwati

This couple has lived here all their lives, farming the leased land that Subas's father farmed before him. They have 9 acres, on which they grow just about all their food - beans, corn, cucumbers, melons, herbs and spices, and many varieties of fruit trees. They also have a few acres under sugar cane. Their children are grown and live in the city and the two of them farm all this land with their two bullocks to haul the cane to the railway and to plow the soil. They were most generous to us, giving Rani a bag of mangoes and later another of oranges and inviting us to have lunch with them tomorrow. Subas will be harvesting sugar cane in the morning and I asked if I could help him. I will meet him tomorrow at 7:30 for instruction on how to cut cane. Wish me luck!  

Bullocks are used by all the farmers here. There were half a dozen in this lower field.

This is the cane field I will do my best to help out in tomorrow

Robinson Crusoe Fire Dancing

Approaching the Coral Coast 

We made a last minute decision to leave Kadavu two days ago and sailed directly for the Coral Coast of Viti Levu. While we regretted leaving the Astrolabe reef a day or two before strictly necessary, we had a very favourable ENE wind and better conditions than we would see for many days. The overnight sail was a primarily downwind with a 1-2 meter swell once we cleared the Astrolabe reef. We were just able to sail on a broad reach for most of the trip, resorting to a poled-out jib, wing and wing, when the wind swung into the east in the early hours.


We arrived around 7 am and stood off to let the sun rise higher to give us some visibility while transiting the pass. However, a river flows into this bay and the waters were impenetrable with brown run-off, so we could see little even around 9 am. We stayed in mid-channel and in water that only shallowed up to under 30 meters as we approached the island.

Chief of ceremonies for the lovo and entertainment.

Bula! We met the leader of welcoming committee for the tourist boats arriving at the resort.

We entered the pass at Likuri Harbour and anchored off Likuri Island and the Robinson Crusoe Resort. We called the resort on the VHF and booked our attendance at the lovo and dancing later that night. The food was very good and plentiful - although predictably heavy on the meat side. 

The evening began with a kava ceremony in which we were invited to partake.

They then opened the lovo (oven exposing coals. A few men walked around on the coals.

The dancing was a combination of Polynesian and Melanesian - with recorded music and dance moves similar to what we had seen in Tahiti and fire dancing that they borrowed from the Samoans (with permission of a Samoan chief). There were few people staying at the resort, but around dusk another 100+ tourists arrived by boat from other resorts on the mainland.

There were a half dozen women dancers and about twice as many men

Some dances told a story - this is a lover's dance put on for honeymooning tourists.

This fellow reminded Rani of the Tahitian dancers we saw last year

The women danced in a more subdued, elegant manner than the men for the most part.

They know that tourists love fire. Here a dancer blows fire from his mouth.

They twirl lit batons 

And form human pyramids. These guys are in great shape!

There was little light, so all these scenes are mainly lit by the whirling torches. Our little point and shoot was barely up to the job.

Great patterns.

The performances were of high quality for the most part with only a few slips by the fire and machete jugglers. Highly recommended if you are in the area.

Kadavu Below Sea Level

We have had two good snorkels in the area of Naigoro Pass. Click on any picture for a slide show.

Large puffer fish - about 45 cms

Coral cascade

Soft corals

I think these are a type of worm that looks like a feather

We motored Ladybug to a sand shelf inside the pass yesterday and anchored in 10 feet of sand falling back off the shelf into 40 feet. The holding was marginal in a sand and coral debris bottom, so I dived and set a second Danforth style anchor in line with the main one to ensure we would not drag off the shelf. We then rowed our dinghy out toward the pass over a field of coral about 2 feet below us at lowish tide. We anchored in a big patch of emerald water over sand a few hundred meters from the pass and swam the rest of the way, entering the pass from the side, well inside the actual entrance. The current was flooding, but was very light for most of the swim. Only in a few places did we have to struggle to stay in place. Of course these were where the best soft corals were to be seen (soft corals seem to love good current).

Rani pointed out the orange brain coral.

Hawksbill turtle

And another shot. Note the hooked nose and overlapping shell plates.

The rowing dinghy works well when trying to get close to the pass across a large shallow coral field.

Rani enjoys the crystal clear water. Vatulutu island is in the background.

Visibility was excellent and highlights included two good sightings of Hawksbill turtles, dozens of large parrot fish, and even a giant wrasse - a bit under a meter long.

These little bottom fish were all over the sand near Vatalutu island. They look a bit like tiny crocodiles.

Hard coral panorama

Nice formations on the edge of the drop-off.

Butterfly fish duo

 The swell began to roll in as the tide rose, so we returned to our snug anchorage off Matasawalevu village, where holding is excellent in mud about 8-12 feet below the keel.

Sea serpent

Detail - note the small head relative to a land snake.

This snake launched itself towards me passing only a few inches from my mask on the way to the surface.

Large cabbage like coral

After our hike at Vatalutu island we snorkeled the reef off this island. Visibility was not as good as in the pass, but we had some good sightings of sea snakes and smaller fish, including some very colourful wrasses.

Bird wrasse

Colourful wrasse - Rani's best fish shot to date, I think.

Mushroom coral

More cabbage-like leafy coral with worms reaching from its center.

I love the different textures and colours in such a small area

Crown of thorns starfish. This eats corals, leaving the skeleton bleached white.