Saturday – morning up the mountain, afternoon on the sandbar

This morning was our first early start at the resort, the alarm going off at 7am sharp!  We had a quick breakfast and met our guide Simon.  We left the resort at 7:30am sharp, as it was crucial to get the majority of the walk done before the heat got too stifling.

We walked out the back of the resort, and started our first climb up a steep, muddy hill.  It was a hard climb, and when we got to the top of the hill we both realised that the heat and humidity would be the real challenge on this hike.  The views from the top however were amazing, we could see clearly back down to the resort on the shores of the blue lagoon.

It was amazing to see how clearly you could make out the reefs from up here as well – you can just make them out in the above photo.

This was not the summit though, but the first hurdle of many…we carried on climbing to a higher hill where the views kept on improving the higher we climbed.  This time we could see north to the top of the island, or as the local villagers put it – “we could see down north and up south” from where we stood!

When we finally arrived at the highest point on Nacula Island, the journey had all been worth it, the views of the entire coast of the island were visible and stunning!

We could even see the outlying islands, the closest of which was Honeymoon Island, owned by the local Nacula Village.  To land on it you need to gain permission from the village Chief.

Our descent was less than graceful, as we had a rather steep dirty path dropping down into Nacula Village.  After a few falls (thankfully not us) and very muddy legs we all arrived at the local school, where we had a short rest.

After a chat to some lovely school children we walked back to our resort along the beach.

The morning exertion had knocked our strength, and as Ben has the flu we decided to have a nap on the beach the rest of the morning.

After lunch we joined the organised boat trip to the sandbar, that sits at the southern end of the island.  Unfortunately the trip was poorly timed as the tide was coming in, so the best we could do was wade out into the sea along the sandbar.  Back on the beach we enjoyed a cold beer from the esky (apologies for the splodge of water on the camera).