Levuka, Ovalau

The sail from Makogai to Ovalau Island last Monday was better than we expected - blue sky and sunshine. The southeast trades were light (8-10 Knots) and the sea almost flat. We tacked fives times to avoid the curving reef protecting the east coast of Ovalau and turned on the motor just outside the main Na Tubari pass. Despite the width of the deep channel, I went up the ratlines while Chris steered us towards the church where we had planned to anchor.

Cession Stone

 The common anchorage is off the Church of the Sacred Heart but it is downwind of the tuna cannery and the diesel electric plant. With the gagging smell of fish processing in our nostrils we almost pointed a reciprocal course through the pass. It seemed a shame to miss visiting the nation's first capital, so we decided to give it a second chance and motored over to the south side of Queen's Wharf, upwind of the fish factory. We dropped the hook in 44 feet after avoiding several coral heads between the wharf and beach. The anchor set instantly and we have not moved for 5 days despite stronger SE trades.

"Gonna Spin U!" - Kava is a BIG part of life here.

Kava pounding machine and operator

There is a tiny rocky beach close to the Cession Monument and an old pier which must have been destroyed by the last cyclone. We use the beach for our dinghy landings and it is not far to walk along Beach Street to the main shops and businesses. When the tide is low, we must carry little Annie a long way over rocks and debris to park her on a grassy bank alongside a couple of local long boats. Lately, a couple of local lads who live across the road have been running to help us and take great delight in carrying her and pushing us off towards Ladybug. Yesterday they offered us a fresh coconut to drink and it was the sweetest juice I have ever tasted!

Rugby match in front of the Marist Convent School

Town hall. 

Levuka is a fine town with many 19th century buildings from its colonial past. Originally founded as a whaling settlement in 1830, it became the main trading centre for Europeans in Fiji. A cotton boom in the 1860's brought many more settlers and resulted in the opening of over 50 hotels and taverns along the waterfront. Convicts and debtors fleeing from Australia added to the crowds and it was said that a ship could find the pass through the reef by following the empty gin bottles flowing out at ebb tide!

Ruins of the Masonic temple. This movement dates to the 1870's here.

In 1874, Fiji was annexed by Great Britain and a municipal council formed to bring about order. Levuka became Fiji's first capital and remained so until the lack of space for expansion forced a move to Suva in 1882. It was a collection centre for copra until 1957 when a new mill opened in Suva. A Japanese cold storage facility opened in 1964, followed by a cannery in 1975, thus reviving it's economy. "The Fiji Handbook" by David Stanley has more details.

Taiwanese trawlers lie off the dock, waiting to come alongside to unload their catch of tuna.

We have enjoyed our rambles up the winding lanes on the forested hillsides, greeted by enthusiastic "Bula, bula!" from almost everyone we meet en route. The Fijians are the friendliest people we have encountered during our travels. One lady invited us to come for kava on Friday night but we opted for tea instead as we like to return to our floating home before it gets too dark.

Pre-dawn

Pre-dawn is perhaps my favorite time of day in the tropics. I like the soft light and the cool breezes, and the quiet.

Today I sit on the cabin roof, watching towering cumulus clouds dump rain on the nearby islands. Ladybug is anchored south of Levuka, away from the noise and smell of the main town. Behind me, the road into town is alive with people walking in from the outer villages. Some are heading for the cannery and can-making plant, which together employ about a quarter of the local population. A team of young rugby players passes in military file and, pacing the low tide shore, two men gather shellfish.

The cliffs behind Levuka seem to catch the rain and our attempt to climb to 'the peak' yesterday was thwarted by a prolonged downpour. But here in the anchorage, mild wavelets bounce around our little dinghy and the offshore rain seems to pass us by. Perhaps today we will make the ascent. More likely is a hike to the south along the gentle coast road to see the 'Devil's Thumb' - a volcanic plug that rears sharply over one of the southern villages.

History of the Leper Colony on Makogai

We spent a few days wandering through the skeletal remains of the leprosarium buildings on Makogai Island, Fiji, but had no access to research material. Our questions remained unanswered until we reached Ovalau yesterday and connected to the Internet. I used information from the following articles for a brief overview:

1/ The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary - MAKOGAI 100 YEARS – AN OASIS OF COURAGE AND HOPE IN FIJI

2/ A Short History of Leprosy Control in Fiji - Ms. Mere Vakawaletabua and Dr. Iobi Batio, 2008

Leprosy may have existed on Fiji prior to European and Asian arrivals. There were graves whose stones were said to be contagious and stories of attempts to cure lepers by suspending them in the smoke over a fire made from Sinu gaga, a poisonous tree. Lepers were clubbed to death and in one horrific case, burnt for entertainment by a chief on Kia Island.

Treating a patient at Makogai

When Fiji became a British colony, clubbing was banned. With an increasing awareness of the contagious nature of leprosy, the Leper Ordinance Act of 1899 was passed to prohibit lepers from handling food, medicines and tobacco, using public transport, bathing in communal pools and lodging in public houses. Non-Fijians caught disobeying the act were sent to Walu Bay on Vanua Levu and Fijians were banned to the outskirts of their villages.

As the number of infected cases grew, the Walu Bay facility was closed and in 1906, the patients were moved to Beqa Island.The island's limited size and it's proximity to Suva which generated fear among travelers, drove the the government to select Makogai as the site for a new facility in 1908. However, it proved difficult to recruit health workers to send to Makogai and an appeal was made to the Catholic church to send caring nuns.

In September 1911, four sisters from "The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary", two from France and two Fijian, arrived with Dr. Hall, the Bishop in charge, to prepare for the arrival of the lepers on Makogai. The first twenty lepers landed in November, 1911.

A few pictures follow from when the colony on Makogai was active.

Overview of leprosarium village site from road to the staff village.

Overview of main patient village. 

Interior of woman's ward.

Makogai was an ideal island with lots of level ground for building and fertile land for growing crops and raising cattle. Separate villages were built for the Fijians, Indians and other Pacific Islanders, and the staff. There were two churches, a Catholic and Wesleyan, a mosque, and probably a Hindu temple as well. The patients lived in dorms, with Women segregated from men. Indentured Indian workers were brought to the island to do much of the farming.

Chris looks over the remains of a building that may have been a laundry/sterilization facility

The villages appear to each have had several water sources - wells and cisterns. This well is about 4 meters wide and capped in concrete.

The locks still look functional in these doors leading into a dormitory in what was probably the Indian patient's village.

We were struck by the quality of civil engineering throughout the settlements. The road could easily have been restored to use, being well built and drained by dozens of still functioning culverts.

The physically able were encouraged to work in the fields, assist in building, cooking, sewing and other daily chores.  Physical activities and recreation were promoted including inter-village sports and arts and crafts. Children attended school and there were girl guides and boy scouts. There was even an open air movie theater. These varied activities were introduced to help overcome the sense of hopelessness that can occur when people are exiled from their homes and families. All in all it was a very positive community. The sisters attended to the physical as well as the spiritual needs of their patients.

Movie theater projection building today

Buildings near the old wharf

Buildings in the main village. Some of these can be seen in the village overview photo shown above, which was taken from the right side of this picture and up the hill.

One gets a brief but illuminating look into this world from a newspaper article written by Frank Exon, who went to Makogai in the 1930's to establish a wireless (radio communications) station:

"Whatever one did, whenever one went, there seemed to be always a watchful sister handy with a disinfectant bottle of iodine or bowl of disinfectant. It would be difficult to over-praise these sisters. Whatever their duties - and they are many and varied - they are always serene, practical, and capable. Between them they run the electric lighting plant, the refrigerators for foodstuffs and the necessary serums, the moving picture equipment, and now the wireless plant...Although they work from daylight till dark they apparently never grumble."

Makogai became a very successful leprosarium and soon patients were arriving from all over the Pacific - countries such as the Solomons, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Cook Islands, Samoa, and Tonga. By 1947, there were 675 lepers on Makogai. At the beginning, the only treatment offered was Chaulmoogra Oil, used to dress wounds or as an intra-dermal injection. It was not a cure, but treated the symptoms. In 1948, dapsone, a sulpha drug and a cure for leprosy, was discovered and patients were finally effectively treated and released.

The following photos were taken in the graveyard, which  is large, stretching for several acres up the hillside past a wall marking the boundary of the main village. It houses more than 1000 graves, most unidentified.

One of the founding French sisters - she ran the facility for 34 years from its inception.

Grave of Maria Filomena - a Fijian sister who worked from the colony's inception and lived there as a patient and worker for 30 years after she contracted the leprosy.

Early graves were marked by stone piles and some by upended bottles.

This bottle dates its bottle grave to around 1918.

Concrete appears to have come into use around 1940 and these mostly unidentified graves pack the lower hillside.

One of the last graves from 1969, the year in which the colony was disbanded.

According to the statistics register kept at Makogai, 4,185 patients landed there, 2,343 returned to full health, 1,241 died and were buried there, 518 were repatriated, and 83 transferred to the P. J. Twomey hospital in Suva when the Makogai leprosarium was closed in 1969.

While a visit to the ruins of the leprosarium is sobering, it is hard to remain somber when you meet the current inhabitants of the island. These children are carrying coconuts back to their homes.

Makogai Photos 2

We went snorkeling several times on a nearby coral head where a giant clam lived along with a great diversity of small fish and hard and soft corals.

Tank-raised giant clam up close

A real giant clam - more than three feet across

An unfortunate clam that did not make it is eaten by other reef denizens

Unoccupied clam shell on nearby coral head

Possibly anemones or maybe some sort of soft coral

Trevally

Several clams were placed in the sand near the research station.

Leaf and reflection

The coral head was home to thousands of fish

There were a dozen of these larger yellow fish - about 15 cms long

These blue fish live in large groups always around a protective coral formation like this one.

Makogai Photos - Part 1

The following are from our visit to Makogai where we explored the ruins of a former. There is now a research station here where they raise giant clams and turtles.

Chris looks through a window at the remains of what could  be a washing/sterilizing facility

This was a small mosque. The entrance is decorated in Islamic green with carved decorations. 

House on the beach at the doctor/administrator's settlement - about 7 kms from the leprosarium

Fish trap

Hawksbill turtles in the tank at the Dept of Fisheries station

Giant clams

Giant clam up close

We saw one alive this big later when snorkeling nearby

Makogai

We made a quick but rolly passage from Koro to Makogai yesterday. We had winds from 10-20 knots from the east, which put the wind almost on our stern. Once clear of the lee of Koro, a lively 2 meter swell kept us in a perpetual roll. However a slight shift in wind to the ESE stiffened things up and we had only a few soakings when odd wave combinations slammed into the hull abreast the cockpit and a few liters of water found there way into the cockpit (and all over where I was sitting of course). We flew only the jib, slightly furled for the most part, and still averaged better than 5 knots.

The entry into the narrow northeast pass was hair-raising due to cloudy conditions and rough seas. We used way points from the "Soggy Paws" cruising notes and our Google Earth charts, but despite this, Rani says we passed a boat length from green water. She was up the spreaders while I hand-steered us through on a beam reach under half-reefed main, waves crashing on the coral on either side. Heart in your throat stuff and it would have been much more difficult with only one person. I suppose I would have put the motor on had I been alone and possibly sailed around the island to the easier western pass. Anyway - we made it through into the relatively calm waters of the lagoon, passed between the main island and a smaller one to the north, and dropped the hook in a lovely quiet harbour off a research station where they raise giant clams and (currently) rescue turtles.

We went ashore and met a caretaker to whom we presented our Kava offering for the chief (his uncle). We then had a brief tour of the station where baby giant clams (about the size of bent over beer bottle caps) were growing by the hundreds in large concrete saltwater tanks. In another tank a half dozen larger clams with their beautiful coloured 'mouths' were being raised until old enough to put out on the nearby reef or in other places in Fiji where they would be protected from hunters.

The station and nearby houses are built on the remains of a vast leper colony. Until quite recently, this was the home of more than 4000 lepers. There are dozens of concrete and wood frame buildings still standing and hundreds more can be seen draped in vines and crumbling back into the jungle. We walked until we came to a wall marking a graveyard. The first few graves were marked and named - those of priests and nuns who worked here, but hundreds more were simply piles of stones, some marked with concrete crosses, some decorated with old bottles turned upside down and buried all along the top of the grave. The graves extended up a hill side covering many acres. There is a terribly sad feeling here and as we walked back to the dinghy, the laughter of children returning from school seemed out of place.

Today we plan to visit the village on the other side of the island and snorkel to visit some giant clams in their natural habitat.

Koro Island

On Koro island, we have spent the last two days wandering around a real estate development called Koro Seaview Estates. Nice walks, friendly Fijian workers, and an interesting manager named Joe - German by birth and ex-Hawaiian.

Chris looks at one of the several dozen properties that have already been developed in Koro Seaview Estates. The light on the path to this house seems a little incongruous in its jungle setting.

A sculpture guards the entrance to Joe's Indonesian style compound

Joe transported a 300 year old Joglo house from Java, Indonesia and has built a compound around this with several smaller houses - bath buildings, an outdoor shower,  and stone-lined walkways. The property abounds in fantastic carvings, sculptures, wooden screens, and a desk belonging to Joe's Great Grandfather, the famous Count Felix von Luckner (link is to a Masonic account of the Count's fascinating life). The property is set on a rise, overlooking the coral lined bay, with landscaped gardens cascading down the hillside - a real labour of love! This facebook page has a few good pictures, but does not really do justice to the property.

Many of the structures on Joe's property make use of carved doors or facades.

Impressive entry gate

A sleeping shelter

The main dwelling is a reconstructed home from Java. The posts to Rani's left are the center of the house from which the structure was rebuilt. The house was transported in pieces packed in 3 containers.

We met two couples who are vacationing here while buying properties. One American couple had bought a lot and were planning to build a small house spanning a creek that runs through their land prior to building the main house. An Australian couple were in the middle of making an offer on a 1 bedroom property up high on the hill, with lovely gardens and a million dollar view out over the bay.

Jenni picks a pumpkin for us to take back to Ladybug. Melons and squash grow well in Fiji where many veggies common in North America have problems with local bugs

We also met a Canadian/British duo (Jenni and Robert) who live part-time on a boat in Nelson, NZ and also own a wonderful property here, half-way up the hill from the dock. About 10 years ago they built three thatched Bure-style dwellings joined by walkways and decks. They have planted more than 30 species of fruit tree on their acre of land as well as prolific veggie gardens. The structures are built entirely of local hardwoods including a kitchen constructed from a rich red mahogany. We enjoyed spending the morning visiting with them, swapping stories about our experiences in the South Pacific and helping them out with some computer issues.

Robert stands on one of the many balconies that tie together their spectacular three-bure property.

Tomorrow we sail for Makogai. The winds are getting stronger and swinging into the east so we expect a boistrous and rolly down-wind run.