MORE MELBRAVO

During my stay at Melbravo resort I also went to the SAWA-I-LAU DOME SHAPED CAVES.With a guide I swam though an underwater passage into an adjoining limestone cave.He went through first then shone his tourch and I had to go underwater and look for the light of his tourch and follow him.
I was petrified but after a few attempts I plucked up the courage to swim through the underwater passage. When I got through to the larger cave it was exciting. Especially because the other people in my group who had gone through before me cheered and applauded me as I resurfaced into the cave. I was just as nervous swimming back out and my legs were shaking for ages afterwards.
Ro, Laiti and Jo used to get everyone up dancing on an evening after dinner. They taught us the "Bula" dance. Everyone who landed on the island soon got to grips with the moves and it was good fun.



Ro who cleaned the rooms and washed our clothes at Melbravo wrote 'We Love you' in flowers on my bed one day and it was lovely to open the 'Bure' door and smell the flowers arranged on my bed.


There was a young man called Jo who used to climb the coconut trees in an afternoon and we would all sit around in the grassy area eating coconuts and chatting.

Lots of the tourists on the island had a go at climbing the coconut trees. But none made it look as effortless as Jo managed to do.

One day when there were a lot of us at the resort they told us at breakfast that we would all be taken on a special picknic. It was a magical day. We walked along the beach and over the rocks for about an hour, until we reached a lovely golden sandy penninsula. They immediately set up a volley ball net for us, and we spent ages playing volleyball.
Masey who cooked at Melbravo, dug up crabs for the guys to use as bait for fishing. Then some locals went out into the sea to catch fish for us. Others made a fire and others built a table from branches and leaves.
I went for a walk along the beach with Masey to pick some lemons from the nearby trees to put on the fish.
The food was delicious. Afterwards we just lazed about on the beach and went snorkelling.It was a perfect day!.
Not so perfect was the day I decided to take a fishing trip!.All the other people on the boat caught fish and I did not managed to catch one!!!!!!


The trip was supposed to be an hour, but Malley the boatman felt so sorry for me he stayed out another hour calling out "come on shevornie!! "but it did not matter how many times he called I did not get one fish!!! But hey ho I did have fun.

Some nights groups of us would climb the hill past the bannana trees to see the sunset over the islands. It was nice just sitting up there chatting and watching all the locals moving from island to island in their small boats below. We also had a bonfire on the baech one night and just sat around chatting and singing songs.I did manage to relax so much on Nacula island.




On my last night they did a Kava party to say goodbye and it was a stronger mixture than usual, but once again I just felt sleepy and my tongue went numb. They ask you if you want "high tide or Low tide" so that they can determine how full to fill the coconut cup with Kava for you to drink. I had too many high tides!!

I was very sad when my time at Melbravo came to an end because they made me feel so welcome. Lati,Ro and Malley the boatman gave me a big send off and stood on the beach for ages waving me off. I hope that that I can return one day to Melbravo resort to relax amongst the coconut trees!