Vanua Levu and Navadra (The Sacred Islands, Mamanuca Group, Fiji)

[Kyle]In the morning, we bid farewell to Lalamanzi and continued south through the Mamanucas to Navadra Island. Navadra is a popular beauty spot in the middle of the group that makes for a logical stop for those going through. Tour boats come in on day trips to disgorge snorkelers, who are then served picnic lunches on the beach. One of the Survivor series was apparently filmed here, so now it has made the brochures as a must-see destination. There are so many Survivors that we can’t keep track of all of them. I’d think by now, there are Survivor sets everywhere. If you go out on the street, you can probably see them filming another one now.

Two uninhabited islands align to make a reasonably sheltered anchorage (Navadra and Vanua Levu Islands). To the North and South are two other islands (Eori to North, and Kadomo to the south) - the four islands together are important to Fijian culture and myth and are collectively know as the Sacred Islands).

It is very picturesque here. The main feature is a long, sandy beach leading to a big gumdrop-shaped rock which together act as the exclamation point at the west end of the island. The beach is completely surrounded by great fields of coral, that makes even landing a dinghy impossible at low tide.

Even swimming ashore, it was hard to find a route through. We walked the beach and poked around in some of the shallow caves in the interior. I even managed to find a fairly treacherous route halfway up the gumdrop to a ledge where I could sit and enjoy the view for a few minutes before retracing my scratchy, thorny route back down.

Lots of fish and interesting drop offs/walls to explore (and there is a sea cucumber in there too)