Shark thrills on Barefoot Kuata, Fiji
Our adventure in Fiji continues :). After 16 great days at Barefoot Manta, we moved to her sister resort Barefoot Kuata for another 10 days, jumping on the Yasawa Flyer for the two hour ferry transfer down the Yasawa island group. The Yasawa’s are really the crown in the jewel of Fiji, offering travelers that true island experience of turquoise water, beautiful corals and sandy white beaches. Of course, this all comes at a price, which starts with the F$180 (US$90) transfer cost of the Yasawa Flyer per person one way.
Resorts in the Yasawa’s are not cheap by any traveller standards. A dorm bed can cost anything from US$30 – US$60/night excluding the compulsory ‘meal plan’ or ‘resort fee’ charged by over 90% of accommodation in the Yasawa’s, which ranges from $99 – $ 120/person per night in our experience. This means that even backpackers on a limited budget can’t escape paying at least $80/night for a dorm bed and meals at most resorts – usually more. Barefoot Kuata offers probably the best location of a 6 bed dormitory anywhere in the world – literally right on the beach :). I shot the above photo of visiting sax player Joe entertaining fellow backpackers outside their safari tent dorm on the beach a few days before we left Kuata.
Our accommodation was also a canvas safari tent, but was somewhat more plush, with a private bathroom and hot shower attached to the rear of the tent. It was almost surreal to sit on a plush couch in a safari tent looking out over the sea to the neighboring island. Kuata differs from manta in that it has three swimming pools in a large entertainment area, mainly to cater for the daily groups of day visitors the resort attracts. They mostly come to either dive or snorkel with the sharks which call the seas around the island home.
During our stay at Kuata we went on two shark snorkeling trips, which were simply an amazing experience. On both occasions we snorkeled with a metre of several white tip reef sharks, one of which was probably around 1.5m long. These sharks are generally not aggressive towards humans and we only met one traveller in Fiji who had been nipped on the hand by a white tip, but that was during a hand-feeding shark trip at another resort. It was exciting swimming so close to the sharks and watching them glide gracefully through the water gave one a new found respect for these beautiful creatures.
The reef where the shark snorkeling is conducted is about a 20min boat ride away from the resort itself, in the middle of the ocean. The water there is probably around 30m deep, with a fair-sized reef structure rising up from the depths. So it was quite an achievement for Akhona to jump off the side of the boat into such deep water, and swim amongst the fairly scary-looking sharks. But she did it without any problems 🙂
Shortly after getting off the boat which dropped us on the island we had noticed a group of juvenile black tip reef sharks swimming around in very shallow water adjacent to the beach. These baby sharks are around 30 – 50cm long, and have a more aggressive look to them than the round-nosed white tips. We decided to sit in the 1m deep water one morning and try and film the sharks swimming around us. At first they were quite scared of us, and swam away as soon as we approached them. But after about 30 mins they seemed to get used to us, and I managed to get some cool stills and video of them. Check out the cool video’s at the bottom of this post…
The island also has a fairly demanding trail up to the summit of the small peak which dominates its entire one side. We hiked up to the summit to see the sunrise, starting at 05h30 one morning. Not being the fittest of people, it was quite a challenge, but we made it in time to witness the sun rising over the neighboring island and striking the resort itself in hues of pink and orange. It’s at moments like that when you almost have to pinch yourself and ask: “Am I really on an island in Fiji?”
Much of the rest of our stay on Kuata involved either eating from a range of meal offerings including a curry buffet, a lovo buffet and three course meals on the other nights. As you can imagine, by the time we left the Yasawa’s we had both gained a few kg’s from all the food we consumed. We did also try and relax in the hammocks overlooking the sea on occasion 🙂
Of course there was the inevitable Kava ceremony, where the entire staff engage with guests in a traditional ceremony which involves sipping small bowls of lip-numbing kava, a traditional drink made from the kava root. There is always lots of singing and dancing once the effects of the kava set in, and it was no different on Kuata…
Ten days sure flies by, and before we knew it the time had come for us to jump on the ferry again and make our way back to Nadi, after which we move on to the Coral Coast for a few weeks. We are so blessed to have spent a month in the Yasawa’s…the main reason for visiting the island group is definitely the snorkeling,and the virtually empty beaches, which are such a contrast to Philippines and Thailand.
